Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story is chugging along at FX and we’re already seeing the cast come together to bring the O.J. Simpson trial to life. The first two names announced for the series are Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. Simpson and Murphy regular Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark. From The Hollywood Reporter:
American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson — the first season of the anthology from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk — is based on Jeffrey Toobin’s best-selling book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson.
The 10-episode first season examines the O.J. Simpson trial as told from the perspective of the lawyers, and is poised to explore the chaotic behind-the-scenes dealings and maneuvering on both sides of the court. More significantly, it will display 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.
I can’t wait for Judge Lance Ito to bust out in song mid-trial. And I’m sure there will also be plenty of tasteful recreations of the Simpson/Brown murder scene for us to talk about. This is a side project of American Horror Story after all.
Gooding Jr. is pretty good casting if you consider everything that happened for O.J. Simpson before the murder trial. He was an athlete, commercial spokesman, and he had a comical supporting role in The Naked Gun series. He was a pretty lovable dude, a lot like Cuba Gooding Jr. before Snow Dogs.
I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more about the show once it goes into production, but we at least know who will be playing the man at the center of the story.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter / Variety)
