Oscar-nominated actor Tom Conti stars in the new legal drama "The Wright Verdicts."
Which is still sort of a surprise to both Conti and Dick Wolf, the show's creator and executive producer."We'd heard continuously that Tom Conti was not interested in doing any television," Wolf said.
"I've never wanted to work on television," Conti agreed.
Still, when "Verdicts" debuts tonight at 8 on Ch. 5, there Conti is, playing a super-smart lawyer in the tradition of Perry Mason. And it all came about because of a couple of lies told to Conti and Wolf.
Wolf said that when casting for the show first began, his casting department included Conti's name on their list.
"I say, `He's not going to do television. That's ridiculous,' " Wolf said.
But, more or less for the heck of it, he sent the script for the show's pilot to Conti in England. After waiting almost a month, Wolf was told by Conti's agent that the actor loved it and that the producer should fly to London for a meeting.
"And at that point, I thought, `Fly to London? He's not going to do it. Why do I want to get on a plane and fly to London?' " Wolf said.
At which point Conti interjected with the other side of the story.
"It's funny, because, they told me, `He wants to fly to London,' " Conti said. "I said, `Tell him not to fly to London. It's ridiculous. I really am not all that interested.' "
Still, his agent insisted that Wolf really wanted to cross the Atlantic for a meeting.
"So they played us off one against the other, and out of sort of politeness I said, `Well, yes, let him fly to London. Fine. We'll have supper,' " Conti said. "And then we met and fell in love and got married."
So Conti is starring as Charles Wright, a flamboyant, uppercrust New York lawyer originally from Britain who deals with various high-profile murder cases.
"There has always been one of these shows sort of in the Ameri
can consciousness," Wolf said. "And I thought that the time was very ripe for doing a show that featured a very, very smart lawyer . . . smarter than Perry Mason and much smarter than Matlock."
"Well, the first thing I want to say is - who's Matlock?" the very British Conti interjected.
The show does indeed have much in common with both of those programs, with a bit of "Murder, She Wrote" thrown in for good measure. And by far the best thing about "The Wright Verdicts" is Conti himself - his charm does a lot to carry the show along.
CBS has ordered seven episodes of the series for a spring tryout, and Wolf, of course, hopes the show returns in the fall. Conti sounds a little less certain that he's banking on a longterm future for "Verdicts."
"The episodic nature of television is kind of terrifying," he said. "In fact, I'm sure if this continues then I'll become more and more like Raymond Burr, in that they'll be pushing me around in some episodes, having lost the use of my legs."
Still, he said he doesn't regret signing on with Wolf.
"I thought it would be immensely good fund to work with him," Conti said. "And he was a kind of animal that I hadn't really met before working in television. And it would seem that what he's providing is a canvass which will not require the same picture every week. He gave me reason to believe that it wouldn't always go down the straight and narrow path of a murder and a defense and acquittal."
As a matter of fact, Charles Wright won't always be sitting on the same side of the courtroom. In some episodes he's the defense attorney, while in others he's appointed as a the prosecutor.
"So we're going to have Mr. Conti both defending and prosecuting, which, I think, is going to be very interesting for the audience," Wolf said.