PREMIERE

NATHAN FILLION AND STANA KATIC STAR NEW MIDSEASON SERIES "CASTLE," PREMIERING MARCH 9 ON THE ABC TELEVISION NETWORK

Authors James Patterson and Stephen J. Cannell Guest Star

Premiere Directed by Rob Bowman ("The X-Files")

"Flowers for Your Grave" -- In the premiere episode of ABC's new midseason series, "Castle," a wildly famous mystery novelist, Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion, "Desperate Housewives"), who is bored with his own success, learns that a real-world copycat killer has started staging murders from scenes depicted in his novels. Castle is questioned by NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic, "The Spirit"), a bright and aggressive detective who keeps her investigations under a tight rein. Though they instantly clash, sparks of another sort also begin to fly, leading both to danger and a hint of romance as Castle steps in to help find the killer. "Castle" premieres MONDAY, MARCH 9 (10:02-11:00 p.m. ET) on the ABC Television Network. Authors James Patterson and Stephen J. Cannell guest star as themselves in a poker game. (This program will repeat Sat., 3/14 from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET)

"Castle" stars Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle, Stana Katic as NYPD Detective Kate Beckett, Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers, Molly Quinn as Alexis Castle, Ruben Santiago-Hudson as NYPD Captain Roy Montgomery, Tamala Jones as Medical Examiner Lanie Parish, Jon Huertas as NYPD Detective Javier Esposito and Seamus Dever as NYPD Detective Kevin Ryan.

Guest cast: James Patterson as himself, Stephen J. Cannell as himself, Monet Mazur as Gina Cowel, Keir Dullea as Jonathan Tisdale and Dan Castellaneta as Judge Markway.

"Flowers for Your Grave" was written by Andrew Marlowe and directed by Rob Bowman.

Andrew Marlowe serves as executive producer/writer, along with executive producers Armyan Bernstein, Barry Schindel, Rob Bowman and Laurie Zaks. The series is from ABC Studios.

"Castle" is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1 channel surround sound and Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning. This program carries a TV-PG,D,L,V parental guideline.

Episodes of "Castle" are available on ABC.com the day after airing on the network for users to watch online.