In his first television starring role since Welcome Back, Kotter, John Travolta has been cast as defense attorney Robert Shapiro in the upcoming FX miniseries American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. Travolta will also serve as a producer of the 10-part series.
As Robert Shapiro, John Travolta portrays a man who was a key member of O.J. Simpson’s “Dream Team” during the murder trial that captivated the nation. Travolta joins a cast including David Schwimmer as O.J. Simpson’s confidant and attorney Robert Kardashian, Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. Simpson, and Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark. The miniseries is based on the book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson by Jeffrey Toobin, and is a look at the O.J. Simpson murder trial from the perspective of the lawyers.
Ryan Murphy will direct the first episode of the miniseries, which is the first installment of an anthology franchise created by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski that looks at true-crime stories, and which is billed as a companion miniseries to American Horror Story. AHS creators Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy are co-executive producing American Crime Story with Alexander and Karaszewski, as well as Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Dante Di Loreto. Production on ACS begins this spring.
