U.S. actor Laurence Fishburne is in talks for a leading role on the TV forensics hit CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, according to industry trade paper Hollywood Reporter.

The award-winning star of stage and screen is reportedly a front-runner to play a new character replacing William Petersen, who has portrayed the show's lead investigator since its debut in fall 2000.

The character is said to be a doctor or scientist new to the Las Vegas crime scene investigation unit who demonstrates the "genetic profile of a serial killer," but has not acted on any homicidal impulses, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Fishburne, who won Tony, Drama Desk and other theatre world awards for the August Wilson play Two Trains Running, is currently appearing on Broadway in Thurgood (for which he also received a Tony nomination earlier this year). His run ends later this month.

Aside from his appearances on stage, Fishburne's prolific film and TV credits are wide-ranging, including his teenage turn in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, guest appearances on the children's TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse, intense dramas like The Color Purple and Mystic River, his Morpheus character in the Matrix sci-fi franchise, action titles like Mission: Impossible III and Assault on Precinct 13 as well as his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It?

Producers announced in July that Petersen would leave during the upcoming season, though the actor would continue to participate in the CSI through guest appearances and as an executive producer of the show.

Fishburne is among the high-profile names producers were said to be chasing as a replacement, along with actors such as John Malkovich and Kurt Russell.