Lucy Lawless and Dylan Neal Star in "Vampire Bats" on CBS October 30th  10/26/05

LUCY LAWLESS AND DYLAN NEAL STAR IN "VAMPIRE BATS," A NEW TELEVISION MOVIE TO BE BROADCAST SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30 ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

Lawless and Neal to Reprise Their "Locusts" Roles

Brett Butler and Timothy Bottoms Star With an Appearance By "The Late Late Show's" Craig Ferguson

Lucy Lawless ("Zena: Warrior Princess," "Tarzan") and Dylan Neal ("Dawson's Creek") reprise their roles as Dr. Maddy Rierdon and Dan Dryer from the CBS Television Movie "Locusts" in VAMPIRE BATS, a new television movie to be broadcast as the "CBS Sunday Movie," 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 she must find a way to stop them before they are completely out of control. Brett Butler ("Grace Under Fire") and Timothy Bottoms ("DC 9/11: Time of Crisis") star with an appearance by Craig Ferguson, host of CBS's "The Late Late Show."

A former USDA voracious insect specialist who is now a college professor, Rierdon, in search of a simpler life, has moved to Louisiana with her husband, Dryer, 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 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.

Lucy Lawless is best-known to television audiences as Xena on the series, "Xena: Warrior Princess." Her other television credits include series "Tarzan," "For the Love of Mike" and "Funny Business," as well as guest appearances on "Two and a Half Men" on the Network, "The Bernie Mac Show," "The X-Files" and "Battlestar Galactica." In addition to "Locusts," her television movie credits include "Hercules and the Amazon Women" and "Typhon's People." Her feature film credits include "Eurotrip," "Spider-Man," "The Rainbow Warrior" and "Boogeyman."

Dylan Neal's television series credits include "Hyperion Bay," "Pacific Palisades" and the Network's "The Bold and the Beautiful." He has also guest starred in the series "CSI: Miami" and "JAG," on the Network, "Dawson's Creek," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Kevin Hill." In addition to "Locusts," his television movie credits include "Chupacabra: Dark Seas," "Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers" and "The President's Man" on the Network. His feature film credits include "40 Days and 40 Nights," "Landspeed" and "I'll Never Get to Heaven."

Best known for her stand-up comedy, Brett Butler also starred in and was executive producer of the popular series "Grace Under Fire." She was a writer on the series "Dolly," in which she also made several guest appearances, hosted Comedy Central's "Short Attention Span Theater" and was the winner of "The Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee." Her television credits include "Last Comic Standing 2," "The Drew Carey Show," "Ellen," "The Larry Sanders Show," the Emmy Award-nominated "Comic Relief IV," "Heroes of Comedy: Women on Top," "Comedy Central Presents: The N.Y. Friars Club Roast of Rob Reiner," "What Makes You Laugh" and "The Comedy Hall of Fame." Her feature film credits include "Mrs. Harris" and the upcoming animated feature "Firedog."

Timothy Bottoms was a regular in the series "That's My Bush!" and "Land of the Lost." His other television credits include "NCIS," on the Network, "That '70s Show," "Gideon's Crossing," "The Twilight Zone," and "The Hitchhiker." His television movie credits include "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis," "Ike: Countdown to D-Day," "Island Sons," "Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun," "Escape," "A Shining Season," "The Story of David," "Look Homeward, Angel," and the mini-series "East of Eden" and "Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers." His feature film credits include the Academy Award-winning films "The Paper Chase" and "The Last Picture Show," and "The Girl Next Door," "Elephant," "The Man in the Iron Mask," "Absolute Force," "Texasville," "In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro," "Rollercoaster," "The White Dawn," "Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing" and "Johnny Got His Gun."

Craig Ferguson took over as host of CBS's THE LATE LATE SHOW on Jan. 3, 2005 and also serves as one of the show's writers. His television credits include his role as Nigel Wick, Drew Carey's boss, on the "Drew Carey Show," "Maybe This Time" and the BBC television show "The Ferguson Theory." He was most recently seen in the feature film "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." He wrote and starred in the feature films "The Big Tease" and "Saving Grace" and also wrote, directed and starred in the feature film "I'll Be There."

VAMPIRE BATS was 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 ("Martha Behind Bars," "Traffic,") directed the movie from a script by Doug Prochilo ("Locusts").

RATING: To Be Announced

Source: CBS Press Release