No Law
By: John Kiesewetter
November 23, 2001
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Now we know why executive producer Dick Wolf instantly dropped plans after Sept. 11 for a big spring sweeps cross-over stunt involving his three NBC dramas, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Vincent D'Onofrio, star of Criminal Intent (9 p.m. Sunday, Channels 5, 22), told TV critics in a teleconference that the miniseries plot was to be about (Osama) bin Laden releasing bioterrorism in New York City.
The actor has no interest in the project, if resurrected by Mr. Wolf or NBC.
If they wanted to do that again, it would be fine but they can do it without me. Right now, I don't feel like doing a miniseries, he said by phone from his East Village residence in Manhattan, not that far away from the World Trade Center site.
Mr. D'Onofrio, whose 40 film credits include Full Metal Jacket, Men in Black and JFK, has lost his appetite for violent programs.
I can't watch extreme, violent things right now. It's not something I want to see. My nervous system has not calmed down yet, he says.
It's a very trying time in New York. Several people in my neighborhood died (Sept. 11), he said in the interview after the Nov. 12 New York plane crash. It's catastrophe after catastrophe here, and it's very uneasy . . . I hope it all ends soon.
He says he's much more interested in storytelling than movie and TV shows with explosions. And doing the weekly one-hour drama series is probably the hardest I've ever worked in my life.
All 13 Criminal Intent episodes were filmed last spring in New York. He doesn't expect the show to dwell on the terrorist attacks when production resumes in January.
It's very important that we don't forget what happened (Sept. 11). But in the entertainment world, there is so much risk in handing something without taste, he says.
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