Actor Adam Beach, shown in May, will star in The Stranger. (Stuart Ramson/Associated Press)

Manitoba-born actor Adam Beach is to play an FBI agent seeking a witness involved in a top-secret investigation in a film being shot in Vancouver this week.

He stars opposite wrestling star Steve Austin in The Stranger, directed by Rob Lieberman, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Austin plays a man on the run in the action film. Canadian actress Erica Cerra of Battlestar Galactica is to play a psychiatrist.

The Stranger is being produced by Nasser Entertainment Group and Caliber Media.

Beach, who had a continuing role as a detective in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit this season, also has accepted a recurring role in HBO's polygamy series Big Love.

Beach is a Saulteaux who grew up on the Dog Creek Native Reserve and in Winnipeg, where he began his career as an actor.

He has had roles in films such as Flags of Our Fathers and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and also has begun to move into production work.