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Laurence Fishburne to Play Alex Haley in Roots Remake

8th Annual Television Academy Honors - Arrivals
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.

Fishburne to Play Alex Haley in Roots Remake