NBC Plans Four-Hour Airborne Thriller

Richard Dean Anderson, the former star of “MacGyver,” has the lead role as an airline pilot in “Pandora’s Clock,” a TV movie that NBC is planning for next season.

The pilot must figure out how to save his planeload of passengers after someone on board contracts a deadly virus and no airport is willing to let the plane touch down on its runways.

Also in the cast are Jane Leeves of “Frasier” and Daphne Zuniga of “Melrose Place.”