FX has found their Johnnie Cochran.
Award winning actor Courtney B. Vance, whose long list of television credits include The Closer, Revenge, FlashForward and State Of Affairs, is set to play the well known defense lawyer in American Crime Story, FX’s newest series from Ryan Murphy.
American Crime Story is an anthology series which will focus on a new “true crime” story each season. The first season (subtitled The People Vs. O.J. Simpson) will explore the O.J. Simpson trial told from the perspective of the lawyers and how a combination of prosecution confidence, defense wiliness, and the LAPD’s history with the city’s African-American community gave a jury what it needed: reasonable doubt.
Courtney B. Vance is the latest actor to board the debut season of the anthology series. He joins a cast which also includes John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, Cuba Gooding Jr as O.J. Simpson, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, and Sarah Paulson as Deputy DA Marcia Clark.
Vance is, of course, no stranger when it comes to legal roles. He famously played the series regular role of Assistant District Attorney Ronald Carver on the first five seasons of NBC’s Law & Order spin-off Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which was initially toplined by Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe.
American Crime Story was created by Ryan Murphy and is set up at FX Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. The plot for the first season is based on a book by CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, with Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski penning the scripts. The executive producers are Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Brad Falchuk, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski and Dante Di Loreto.
