Laurence Fishburne.
Photo: Amanda Edwards/WireImages
Laurence Fishburne will play author Alex Haley in A&E Networks’ upcoming Roots remake, Variety reports. ABC’s original Roots mini-series was based on Haley’s novel about the life of his ancestors; the new version will air simultaneously on A&E, Lifetime, and the History Channel and will reportedly include story lines from the book as well as “carefully researched, new scholarship†of the slave trade. (Haley’s claim that everything in his narrative was based on historical fact has been widely disputed.) If Fishburne’s casting means the remake dives into the controversy over Haley’s scholarship, expect that to be the 97th-saddest thing to happen on Roots.