Are washed-up fighters the new vampires? FX is developing a pilot called Lights Out, about a professional boxer attempting one final run at glory, and The Office's Melora Hardin has just been cast as the female lead.

The show focuses on Patrick "Lights Out" Leary (Holt McCallany), a retired pro boxer who's struggling to find his identity after his fighting days are over. Hardin will play his wife, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and mother of their three daughters. If you thought The Wrestler was bleak, Lights Out sounds like it could be equally devastating:

[Leary's desire to support his family] leads him to take a job as a legbreaker, collecting on unpaid gambling debts. He is diagnosed with pugilistic dementia (a neurological disorder that affects boxers who receive multiple blows to the head), so he decides he'll need to make another big payday to support himself and his family before his brain turns to jelly.

Two other roles have also been cast in this pilot: Kevin Conway will play Leary's father and former trainer, while Elias Koteas will play his childhood friend and business manager.

Of note is that this won't keep Hardin from returning as Jan in future episodes of The Office: she's apparently expected to guest star in "one or more episodes" next year.

Do you think you'd watch Lights Out, or does it just sound too depressing? And are you excited to see Hardin in a more dramatic role after her time as Jan?

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