She played Lana Lang for eight years on The CW's "Smallville," but now she may have a new role that fans can adore her in.

Kristin Kreuk has been cast as Catherine in The CW pilot of "Beauty and the Beast," an update of the popular 1980s CBS series that starred Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. Catherine is the "beauty" in the title, who (at least based on the original series) was a homicide detective with the New York Police Department.

In that version of the show, Catherine befriends Vincent, a military veteran and product of military experimentation. They meet in the most unlikely of circumstances, however: Vincent kills the murderer of Catherine's mother.

The project is still in the pilot phase, and there's no word who will fill the Vincent role. This new outing will include some old faces behind the scenes, however. Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas are both back as producers, and series creator Ron Koslow is in at executive producer, according to Entertainment Weekly. They will be joined by new producers Bill Haber, Jennifer Levin and Sherri Cooper.

The original CBS series was considered a cult favorite, but lasted only three seasons, going off the air in 1990. The original show suffered in the ratings from the beginning, but really started to lose even core fans when Hamilton's character was killed off at the beginning of the third season.

Kreuk left "Smallville" in 2009, and since then has appeared in "Chuck" on NBC as well as the 2010 "Ben Hur" miniseries. Before that, she played Laurel Yeung in the CBC series "Edgemont."

The CW is getting some competition on the project. ABC has ordered its own pilot based on the actual fairytale "Beauty and the Beast," something that may be paired up with "Once Upon a Time."

The CW will make decisions on what shows will be picked up for series (and what won't) later this spring.