HANKS A MILLION
by Don Kaplan

TOM Hanks' 19-year-old son, Colin Hanks, has landed his first TV job - co-starring on "Roswell," next season's teen thriller/romance on The WB.

Amazingly, Hanks was cast in "Roswell" without the producers knowing who he - or who
his father - was, according to insiders.

"He didn't even have a head-shot," said a friend, referring to the traditional 8x10 photos aspiring actors hand out to producers.

Colin was cast last December as one of seven teenagers and one adult who will be regulars
on the new series.

It was not revealed until yesterday that young Hanks would be in the cast.

Colin is Hanks' son from his first marriage to actress-producer Samantha Lewes.

Hanks has four children in all - including a daughter with Lewes and two sons with his
second wife, actress Rita Wilson.

"Roswell" is about the adventures of a group of teen aliens - and their high school friends - who are descended from the survivors of the spacecraft that popular legend says crashed in the desert near Roswell, NM in 1947.

The show is based on a series of young-adult books called "Roswell High," written by Melinda Metz.

In the pilot episode, which is set in the 1990s, a young waitress at the local diner gets shot and is magically healed on the spot by an alien named Max Evans (played by Jason Behr from "Dawson's Creek"). Evans and the waitress (Shiri Appleby) are classmates at Roswell High.

Her "rescue" alerts the authorities to the aliens' presence and the chase is on.

It is not known yet if Hanks will play an alien or one of the human teens. The show's lone adult star is William Sadler ("The Shawshank Redemption") who plays the sheriff.

Like his father, Colin started in local theater, but has helped out doing "grunt" work on the set of the Tom Hanks' movie "Apollo 13." Colin also appeared very briefly as a page in his father's film "That Thing You Do."

Shooting on the WB series is set to begin later this spring.

"Roswell" was picked up by The WB two weeks ago, just two days before the network announced its fall schedule.

The pilot - shot last January - had originally been produced for Fox.

The WB ordered 22 episodes of the show. The usual first order is 13 episodes, indicating the high hopes the network has in "Roswell."