Laurence Fishburne: the new star of CSI
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
CSI: South Central
Laurence Fishburne has been confirmed to replace actor William Petersen as the lead in the American CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
The celebrated actor best known for his role as Morpheus in the Matrix movies will first appear on screen in series 9, which is due to air in October in the US. Channel 5, which holds the British terrestrial rights, and Living, which holds the multi-channel rights, will air the new series next year in the UK. Fishburne’s character is currently being developed and doesn’t even have a name, known only as “The Professor”. However, we know that he’s a pathologist turned college lecturer whose job is to find out why people turn violent. Disturbingly, he finds he shares many of the biological traits of the aggressive criminals and murderers he investigates. The Professor has some other skeletons in his medicine cabinet, having been was sacked from his previous job as a pathologist for reasons unknown. He will join the Las Vegas Crime lab as a level 1 crime scene investigator after assisting with a murder case.
Fishburne was quite a catch for CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, who said he topped their “dream list”.
“The quality that we were looking for was deep intelligence, and Mr. Fishburne, you look at his work, he’s always brought that sensibility to the work that he’s done,” said Shankar.
Whilst Fishburne’s acting was by no means new to the producers, her had never seen an episode of the veteran crime drama before the audition.
“I felt a little stupid and embarrassed that I hadn’t watched the show prior to having a meeting with them,” admitted the actor during a news conference on Monday.
“But I’m happy to say that the episodes that they sent me to look at were really engaging and really wonderful, and kind of dark and moody like a lot of the work that I’ve actually been involved in.”
Petersen, who will no longer appear on screen in series 9 will remain executive producer of the show.
