FOX Believes in 'Lie to Me' for Midseason

By Daniel Fienberg, Zap2It.com | September 23, 2008

Tim Roth

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Tim Roth and Kelli Williams star

FOX has given a 13-episode midseason series commitment to "Lie to Me."

From Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television, "Lie to Me" features Tim Roth, making his American television series starring debut, and "The Practice" veteran Kelli Williams.

Roth plays Dr. Cal Lightman, a "deception expert." Forget polygraphs (but not entirely, the network behind "Moment of Truth" hopes), Lightman is more accurate (which isn't actually such a big achievement). The character heads up The Lightman Group, a private agency contracted by the FBI, local police, law firms, corporations and private individuals.

Lightman's partner Dr. Gillian Foster, a psychologist, will be played by Williams. The Lightman Group team also includes characters played by Brendan Hines and Monica Raymund.

The project was inspired by real-life behavioral scientist Paul Ekman.

Samuel Baum wrote the pilot and will continue on as executive producer along with Brian Grazer, David Nevins and Steve Maeda. The pilot was directed by Robert Schwentke.