Will Kristin shoot J.R. again and end up floating in the Ewing pool? Will Pam dream that Bobby was murdered by her crazy, jealous half-sister, only to find him stepping out of her shower the next morning, again? Will Sue Ellen still be a drunken mess? Will J.R. still be a tomcattin’ snake? Will Lucy again have an uber-icky affair with the man who turns out to be her uncle?!

All questions we’ll soon have answered, as TNT has given the thumbs up to a pilot for an updated version of the 1978-91 classic TV drama Dallas. No casting info yet – more on that in a sec – but the show is being created by Cynthia Cidre, who wrote the screenplay for the movie The Mambo Kings and created the all-too-short-lived Jimmy Smits/Nestor Carbonell CBS drama Cane. According to the official press release from TNT, Cidre’s do-over sounds like it’ll be generally faithful to the original, as the story “focuses on the offspring of bitter rivals and brothers J.R. and Bobby Ewing, who clash over the future of the Ewing dynasty while the fate of Southfork itself weighs in the balance.”

Now, back to casting … again, no word yet about who’s on TNT’s list, but here are my suggestions for the new J.R. Ewing and his younger brother/rival Bobby:

J.R.: Gary Cole. Okay, partly, I think Gary Cole should be cast in almost everything, because he’s so awesome. In particular, I think he’d be especially good as J.R. He’s great as a good guy, and I think that’s probably the way most people see him, but he’s played his fair share of more villainous characters (evil Wayne on Desperate Housewives, real-life convicted family killer Jeffrey MacDonald in the made-for-TV movie classic Fatal Vision and, of course, the terminally lame Lumbergh in Office Space, for example). And though he’s got a fine head of hair (seriously, check out that photo), and it might seem like a shame to cover it with a big ol’ Stetson, I think he can handle it. Particularly if his brother is played by …

Ron Livingston. Yep, the Office Space dudes, Lumbergh and Peter Gibbons, together again, this time as oil baron Texas brothers. Aside from the cool factor of the Office Space reunion, I think Livingston would be a good little bro to Cole’s J.R., and it would be nice to see him finally land in a series that has a shot at sticking around for a while if the pilot works.

Or perhaps you all have other ideas about who should don the tall hats as the new J.R. and Bobby? Or suggestions about who should be the new Sue Ellen, Pam, Lucy, Miss Ellie, Jock, Ray, etc.? Let’s hear ’em if you do …