American audiences will get to relive the O.J. Simpson murder trial through a new television series that is set to premiere on FX in 2015.
Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. will play the NFL icon who fell from grace after being accused and tried in 1995 on charges that he murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was exonerated of those charges but is currently in prison on a separate 2007 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping.
According to USA Today, the FX show is called American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and will “view the events through the eyes of the lawyers involved in the trial.”
In addition to Gooding, viewers will see another recognizable face in Sarah Paulson—the actress who played Mary Epps, the slave master’s wife who tortured Patsey (played by Lupita Nyong’o) in 12 Years a Slave. Paulson will play prosecutor Marcia Clark.
According to the Huffington Post, Ryan Murphy, the series’ television producer, described how he’d been looking for a story with high stakes for a variety of audiences. “The O.J. case was as tragic as it was fascinating—it seemed like everyone had a stake in the outcome,” Murphy said. “It was really the beginning of the modern tabloid.”
The show will also chronicle the Los Angeles Police Department’s relationship with the African-American community.
Read more at USA Today and the Huffington Post.