Laurence Fishburne plays the pivotal role of Jack Crawford, the agent-in-charge at the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI, who is tasked with tracking down a certain flesh-eating serial killer – a role played by Dennis Farina in Manhunter, Scott Glenn in The Silence of the Lambs and Harvey Keitel in Red Dragon. 

Fishburne headlines the cast of NBC’s upcoming contemporary take on Hannibal, with characters from Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon novel.

Fishburne’s Crawford is described as a “tough cop who seems to have been born to hunt serial killers and lacking the type of empathy that informs the lives of both Will and Hannibal and knows he needs Will to be his bird-dog. His greatest mission is to stop sociopaths before they kill more — even if that means sacrificing Will’s psyche in the process.“

Sounds like a juicy role for Mr Fishburne, on his return to TV after exiting CSI.

The project, written and exec-produced by Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller and slated to debut in April, centers on the relationship between FBI agent Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy) and his mentor Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen).

An extended preview has been released by NBC, and is embedded below. NBC could certainly use a hit new series… maybe this’ll be it???