Sex & The City actor Jason Lewis is to star as a jet-setting playboy detective in a new TV show.

The screen hunk will play the lead role in Rio!, in which he travels to Brazil to probe a crime - but then ends up staying because he falls in love with the city, according to a US report.

The new show, dubbed a cross between Miami Vice and Magnum, is expected to begin filming next month in Rio de Janiero.

It was created by Scott Steindorff, an executive producer of Las Vegas and HBO’s Empire Falls, the New York Post reports.