Lucy Lawless and Dylan Neal Star in TV Movie "Vampire Bats"  8/17/05

LUCY LAWLESS AND DYLAN NEAL STAR IN "VAMPIRE BATS," A NEW TELEVISION MOVIE THAT HAS BEGUN PRODUCTION IN NEW ORLEANS FOR BROADCAST SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30 ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

Lawless and Neal to Reprise Their "Locusts" Roles

Brett Butler, Timothy Bottoms and "The Late Late Show's" Craig Ferguson Also Star

Lucy Lawless ("Zena: Warrior Princess," "Tarzan") and Dylan Neal ("Dawson's Creek") reprise their roles as Dr. Maddy Rierdon and Dan Dryer from the highly-rated CBS Television Movie "Locusts" in VAMPIRE BATS, a new television movie that has begun production in New Orleans for broadcast Sunday, Oct. 30 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. In this suspense thriller, Rierdon discovers that a deadly species of vampire bats are responsible for a series of bizarre murders and now she must find a way to stop them before they are completely out of control. Brett Butler ("Grace Under Fire"), Timothy Bottoms ("DC 9/11: Time of Crisis") and Craig Ferguson, host of CBS's "The Late Late Show," also star.

A former USDA voracious insect specialist who is now a college professor, Rierdon (Lawless), in search of a simpler life, has moved to Louisiana with her husband, Dryer (Neal), and their two daughters. But her life becomes more complicated when one of her students is found dead with his body covered in mysterious puncture marks and completely depleted of blood.

When two of Rierdon's students are implicated in the boy's death, she immediately gets caught up in the investigation and discovers that the student was killed by a swarm of bats. When other attacks occur and more people are found dead in a similar fashion, evidence leads Rierdon to discover that these are not ordinary bats, but aggressive vampire bats that have mutated due to a tainted water supply. Though she tries to discourage them, several of her students volunteer to help in the investigation, which could all put them in grave danger. But Rierdon knows that she doesn't have a choice and must find a way to halt the bats' deadly progress.

Brett Butler stars as Rierdon's strong willed sister-in-law, Shelly; Bottoms portrays the town's mayor, Hank Poelker; and Ferguson has a cameo as a fisherman.

CBS's broadcast of "Locusts" in April 2004 was seen by 12.68 million viewers, more than one million more viewers than the CBS SUNDAY MOVIE's season average. In adults 18-49, "Locusts" delivered a 3.8/09 rating, +27% above the Sunday movie average and a 4.9/10 in adults 25-54, a +29% increase versus the season average.

VAMPIRE BATS is being produced by Von Zerneck/Sertner Films, in association with Sony Pictures Television. Frank Von Zerneck ("Locusts," "Reversible Errors"), Robert M. Sertner ("Locusts," "Category 6: Day of Destruction") and Jill Tanner ("Locusts," "They Shoot Divas, Don't They?") are the executive producers. Eric Bross ("Traffic," "Cover Me") directs from a script by Doug Prochilo ("Locusts").