Cuba Gooding Jr. Cast as O.J. Simpson Opposite Sarah Paulson in “American Crime Story”

Cuba Gooding Jr. is your O.J. Simpson. The Oscar winner will play the jailed footballer in FX's "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson." "American Horror Story's" Sarah Paulson will play prosecutor Marcia Clark.

The first season of the anthology series will look at the Simpson trial from the perspectives of the lawyers involved.

Production on the new series from Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski and Dante Di Loreto is expected to begin early in 2015. Murphy will direct with a script from Alexander and Karaszewski. The project is based on Jeffrey Toobin's book "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson."

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Gooding took home the Oscar for "Jerry Maguire" in 1996. His TV credits include "Hill Street Blues," "MacGyver" and "Big Time in Hollywood, Fl."

Paulson has appeared in every season of "American Horror Story." This season, "Freak Show," she's playing conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler. Her other TV credits include "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Game Change."

It's unclear whether this casting means Paulson will not return for the already announced fifth season of "AHS." Her "AHS" costar Emma Roberts was recently announced as a lead in Murphy's other new series, "Scream Queens." She'll costar opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in that Fox series.

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