‘The Good Wife’ Spinoff: Paul Guilfoyle & Bernadette Peters Cast, Brooke Kennedy Set To Direct
The upcoming The Good Wife followup series has cast CSI veteran Paul Guilfoyle and Tony-winning actress Bernadette Peters as recurring. Additionally, the series’ executive producer Brooke Kennedy has been tapped to direct the opening episode.
Kennedy is a long-time collaborator of The Good Wife creators/executive producers Robert and Michelle King and served as an executive producer/director on both of their series for CBS, The Good Wife and the recent BrainDead. The Kings then recruited her as an executive producer on The Good Wife spinoff for CBS All Access, CBS’ VOD and live streaming service. This is the fourth series on which veteran TV producer Kennedy will direct — she made her debut behind the camera on Third Watch — and her first time directing the key pilot/premiere episode that sets the look and tone of a series. Despite the current push in the industry to open up the directing field to female directors, drama pilots have remained dominated by male directors, so Kennedy’s assignment helps put a crack in that glass ceiling.
The Good Wife spinoff series will pick up one year after the events of The Good Wife series finale on CBS. An enormous financial scam has destroyed the reputation of a young lawyer, Maia (Rose Leslie), while simultaneously wiping out her mentor Diane Lockhart’s (Christine Baranski) savings. Forced out of Lockhart & Lee, they join Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) at one of Chicago’s pre-eminent law firms.
Guilfoyle will play Henry, Maia’s (Leslie) father, a wildly successful financial advisor who is phenomenally wealthy and universally loved. Peters will play Lenore, Maia’s (Rose Leslie) mother, Lenore, who came from a tough working-class background and is a natively brilliant financial whiz. Lenore expanded Henry’s fortune through their family’s private investment firm that is the envy of the financial world. Henry, Lenore and Maia are the unofficial First Family of Chicago.
Robert and Michelle King co-wrote the premiere episode with Phil Alden Robinson, who will executive produce the premiere episode. The Kings executive produce the series with Ridley Scott, David Zucker, Liz Glotzer, Brooke Kennedy and Alison Cross for CBS Television Studios in association with Scott Free Productions and King Size Productions. The series will be distributed worldwide by CBS Studios International.
The new The Good Wife series will debut in February 2017 on CBS before moving exclusively to CBS All Access.
Related stories
'Star Trek: Discovery': Bryan Fuller Steps Down As Showrunner
'The Good Wife' Spinoff Adds Delroy Lindo To Cast
CBS All Access Taps Danny Feldheim As VP Original Content
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
