CBS has unveiled a host a TV movies and mini-series set to air over the 2005–2006 season, including a film that stars new Desperate Housewives castmember Alfre Woodard (Betty Applewhite).

The Water Is Wide is one of three 'Hallmark Hall of Fame' presentations, according to a CBS press release at The Futon Critic. According to the synopsis at the Hallmark website, the movie is set in 1960s South Carolina and focuses on a schoolteacher named Pat Conroy who sets out to help an impoverished community and to bring education and self-respect to its children. But he soon meets resistance from the administration in the form of Woodard's Ruth Brown. She is the only other teacher at the school and becomes an adversary of Conroy.

CBS also announced a number of other new productions, including a mini-series on the life of Pope John Paul II. Other TV movies include Mayday, which will focus on an airliner hit by a US missile and the ensuing chaos, and Martha: Behind Bars, a which will look at the events that led to the downfall and subsequent reemergence of Martha Stewart.

For Woodward, The Water is Wide is one of a number of projects the actress worked on before landing her Desperate Housewives roles. She was also set to be a regular on the NBC series Inconceivable, which is set to premiere in the fall. Woodard was to be a regular in this comedy which takes place in a fertility clinic, but she will now only appear in the pilot. It was co-created by Desperate Housewives consulting producer Oliver Goldstick.

You can read the original press release over at The Futon Critic. More details on The Water Is Wide can be read at the Hallmark website.

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