EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CAROL MENDELSOHN TELLS THE STORY OF HOW QUENTIN TARANTINO CAME TO DIRECT THE SEASON FINALE OF "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION"

Quentin Tarantino directing the Season Five finale of CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION was a long time coming, but meant to be. Since CSI premiered five seasons ago, William Petersen, the producers and various cast members would run into Tarantino at awards shows where he told them he was a huge fan of the series. According to Executive Producer Carol Mendelsohn, they always thought "Wouldn't it be great if he directed an episode?"

Louis Milito, one of the series' producers, made the first steps by contacting Tarantino's representatives. Last summer, Petersen personally called Tarantino to invite him to direct an episode. Although he was interested in doing so, he was busy at the time promoting his movie "Kill Bill" around the world.

According to Mendelsohn, things really came together when the show was filming some scenes in Las Vegas this past January. Tarantino, who was in Vegas for the weekend, decided to spend some time with the show�s crew. At one point, he was in the food court at Luxor where he casually met Larry Mitchell, a former criminalist with the L.A. Sheriff�s Department and one of the series� technical advisors, who didn�t know who Tarantino was. In the course of their conversation, Larry explained that he worked on the show and Tarantino told him he was a big fan. Hearing this, Mitchell invited Tarantino to come out to the set one day for a tour (still unaware that he was talking to a major film director whom the series producers had been wooing for several months). Mitchell, now famously, told Tarantino, �Come by the set and I�ll hook you up.�

The conversation between the two was on a Sunday. On Monday, the producers heard from Tarantino that he was on board to direct. "I guess it was in the stars," commented Mendelsohn. "It's funny how things work out."

"Grave Danger," the two-hour season finale of CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, will be broadcast Thursday, May 19 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. In the episode, the CSIs are in a desperate race against time to save a member of their team who has been kidnapped and buried alive. Quentin Tarantino (�Pulp Fiction,� �Kill Bill�) directed the episode written by Executive Producers Anthony E. Zuiker, Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, from a story by Tarantino.