'L&O' creator angry over cancellation

'L&O' creator angry over cancellation

By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun

BEVERLY HILLS -- Dick Wolf doesn't like getting cancelled.

The Law & Order creator told critics yesterday that he was "incredibly upset, disappointed, dismayed, any other adjectives that you could care to add," when NBC pulled the plug this spring on his third Law & Order spinoff, Law & Order: Trial By Jury.

The courtroom drama, starring Bebe Neuwirth and, briefly, the late, great Jerry Orbach, became the first Law & Order series ever cancelled.

"How could I see it coming?" he responded after the session, rattling off statistics that showed the series pulling solid numbers in the all important 18-to-48-year-old demo just weeks before it was yanked. "How do you cancel a show that does a 6 (ratings share)?"

By giving Wolf another series -- fast. Out of the ashes of Trial By Jury will rise a new Dick Wolf series -- pitched just last Friday -- set in the world of assistant district attorneys. Always resourceful, Wolf said that series will be shot on the still standing Trial By Jury sets. He's looking to cast "five or six of the best looking, most talented actors under 30 in the country," in the new series.

NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly told critics Sunday that "it's highly unlikely" the new series will have Law & Order in the title.

Wolf refused to rule out the possibility.

After all, as Wolf is happy to point out, the three L&O series generated one billion dollars of ad revenue last year for NBC. Would you tell this guy he can't pick titles?

Wolf also announced yesterday plans to conquer the world. He has a deal to produce a localized, French language version of Law & Order: Criminal Intent for France in 2006. "To my knowledge," said Wolf, "there's never been another format sale of a drama to a European broadcaster."

Dubbed versions of the three Law & Order series already run in 180 markets around the world. As Wolf says, "clearly, there is a tremendous appetite for the brand."

While the French legal system is far different from the American model, Wolf says the new series "won't be in conflict with the Napoleonic code." He hopes to eventually expand the brand worldwide in many different languages.

Meanwhile, he is busy shoring up his three remaining L&Os. He has brought in new producers and writers on the 16-year-old original to help reach his stated goal of keeping it on the air longer than Gunsmoke (TV's current record holder for dramas at 20 seasons).

Annie Parisse, the new ADA on L&O, is part of that makeover. She joined Wolf on yesterday's panel along with Mariska Hargitay (L&O:SVU) and Vincent D'Onofrio (L&O:CI).

A beefy D'Onofrio was almost unrecognizable at yesterday's session. The actor may have bulked up to play the title role in Five Minutes, Mr. Welles, an upcoming film about the legendary director.

His split schedule next season (he's sharing the lead in L&O:CI with former L&O star Chris Noth) will allow D'Onofrio to devote more time to films (he just shot The Breakup with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston) and family. D'Onofrio is also jazzed about studying his scripts a full "10 days before we shoot it. As an actor, especially a film actor, that's an incredible thing for me."

Hargitay, nominated for her second-straight Emmy, is pumped about Season 7 on SVU. One storyline has her character thinking about a baby. Is she pregnant in real life? -- she was asked.

"Oh, just read the local rags," she said.