CBS To Air Simpson Miniseries In November
Lawsuits By Simpson Did Not Stop 'Uncensored Story'
With a script by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Norman Mailer, CBS will air a four-hour miniseries on Nov. 12 and 15, which focuses on the roles played by Simpson's "Dream Team" lawyers.
The film, "American Tragedy," is based on the best-selling book of the same name, by Lawrence Schiller.
Schiller will also direct the miniseries. The project will star Ving Rhames, who won a Golden Globe award for his portrayal of boxing promoter Don King, as chief defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (pictured, left).
In the roles of the other defense lawyers, Christopher Plummer will play F. Lee Bailey, Ron Silver will be Robert Shapiro and Bruno Kirby will appear as Barry Scheck.
Simpson will be played by Raymond Forchin but a CBS spokeswoman said that he will be seldom seen in the movie and depicted only in profile, from behind or in shadows.
The former football star was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman on Oct. 3, 1995, after a sensational trial broadcast on national television that lasted more than a year.
Arguing that his privacy was being violated by the decision to air the miniseries, Simpson went to court to stop it. But a Los Angeles judge said that Simpson failed to prove he would be harmed by the mini-series, in part because he made no effort to stop the book it was based on. The book was published in 1996.
Simpson sued his former friend and personal lawyer Robert Kardashian and Schiller over the miniseries.
Like the book, based in part on interviews with Kardashian, the miniseries recounts the trial and gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Simpson's defense team and its conflicting personalities.
The TV movie is billed as "the uncensored story" of how Simpson's defense team won his acquittal from jurors, despite what prosecutors said was overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
A civil court jury later found Simpson liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages.
Mailer and Schiller have collaboratored with Schiller before, doing the research for Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction work "The Executioner's Song."
