NBC Announces "Heist" Premiere March 22nd  3/20/06

NBC'S 'HEIST' TO PREMIERE AND 'LAW & ORDER' MOVES TO NEW TIMESLOT, WED., MARCH 22;  "Heist" Delivers the Goods Beginning at 10-11 PM ET/PT; EMMY Award-Winning "Law & Order" Moves to 9-10 PM ET/PT

BURBANK - March 20, 2006 - It's back-to-back action with the premiere of NBC's highly-anticipated new drama "Heist" on Wed., Mar. 22 at 10-11 p.m. ET/PT, following an all-new episode of the Emmy Award-winning "Law & Order" debuting in its new time slot 9-10 p.m. ET/PT.

"Heist," from acclaimed director Doug Liman ("Mr & Mrs. Smith") and Emmy Award-nominated writers Mark and Robb Cullen (FX's "Lucky"), is a fast-paced, serialized drama that follows a team of expert career criminals as they attempt to pull off one of the biggest heists in history. Dougray Scott ("Dark Water"), Steve Harris ("The Practice"), Seymour Cassel ("The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"), Marika Dominczyk ("North Shore") and David Walton ("Stateside") star as the burglars hell-bent on pulling off the impossible - to simultaneously rob three of the most renowned jewelry stores on Beverly Hills' famed Rodeo Drive during Academy Awards week. Michele Hicks ("The Shield"), Reno Wilson ("Blind Justice") and Billy Gardell ("Yes, Dear") star as the LAPD detectives who will stop at nothing to shut them down.

In the premiere episode (Wed., Mar. 22 at 10-11 p.m. ET/PT), master thief Mickey O'Neil (Scott) and his crew (Harris, Dominczyk, Walton and Cassel) plan to rob a bank in order to build capital for their elaborate heist. Meanwhile, Amy Sykes (Hicks), lead detective for LAPD's Robbery/ Homicide division, and her task force (Gardell and Wilson) launch an all-holds-barred investigation to find who is behind the robbery -and what larger plans they might have in store.

Currently in its 16th season, "Law & Order" moves to its new time slot 9-10 p.m. ET/PT with a politically charged fictional case that questions the reason our country is at war. In "America, Inc.," Detectives Fontana (Dennis Farina) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) suspect vengeance is the motive behind the slaying of a private military contractor. The investigation soon leads the detectives to fellow commando, Kevin Boatman (guest star Pablo Schrieber), and the younger brother of a man who was murdered by Iraqi insurgents while under the victim's questionable command. But as A.D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) fights to keep a frightening video of the Iraqi execution out of court, he confronts unexpected political intrigue when more details are revealed about a recently captured terrorist. Annie Parisse, S. Epatha Merkerson and Fred Dalton Thompson also star.

"Heist," produced by Hypnotic, NBC Universal Television Studio and Sony Pictures Television, is directed by Liman.

"Law & Order" is produced by Wolf Films in association with NBC Universal Television Studi

Source: NBC Press Release