Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Oscar winner Linda Hunt ( The Year of Living Dangerously, The Practice) has joined the cast of NCIS: Los Angeles.

According to the article, she will be playing

an efficient and hard-nosed former film industry technician who now oversees the “backroom” support staff — the folks tasked with providing everything from micro surveillance cameras to cars for the team.

From this description, I would guess that gadgets will play a greater role in place of forensics. I would imagine they will went to differentiate LA from the original show.