Tim Roth is enjoying a little bit of career uplift of late. It’s not like he completely went away, but it’s nice to see him landing big roles in high profile gigs like The Incredible Hulk (where the Hulk kicked him into a tree!), last year’s Funny Games redo, and Francis Ford Coppola’s barely seen, yet still high profile Youth Without Youth. He’s a busy, busy guy. And now he’s been successfully courted by manga-haired* producer Brian Grazer to star on a new FOX television show called Lie to Me. Will guitar virtuoso Jonny Lang’s classic song be tapped for the intro music? It’s almost too exciting to speculate.
Variety reports that “Roth will play Dr. Cal Lightman, a scientist who pioneered the field of deception detection. The doc is a human lie detector, skilled at reading the human face, body and voice to uncover the truth in criminal and private investigations. The fact that the character can apply the same skills to his personal life complicates his relationships. The science in the show is genuine, based on the work of Dr. Paul Ekman.”
Sounds Sherlock Holmes-ish, which is fine by me. And Cal Lightman? What a great, prog rock-sounding name. Roth is an exciting actor (check out his excellent performance in Gridlock’d, if you haven’t), and it’ll be interesting to see him pull off something like this on a weekly basis. Even though FOX is known to be more than a little cancel happy, they’ve had a lot of success with House – and that has a great British actor as its lead. They’ve also had a lot of success with Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, which has a lead that has a last name that sounds British. Foxworthy. Heck, it almost sounds regal. And then the sadness sets in. But, after doing that weird math, maybe the show has a shot at going a few rounds.
* Brian Grazer description lifted from Dave Davis.