Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In a symbolic move, on the day Chuck, whose pilot McG directed, is ending its 5-season run on NBC, McG has closed a deal to direct his first pilot since Chuck, Fox’s Guilty. The legal drama, from Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, centers on a brilliant, morally questionable defense attorney who, after being falsely convicted of fraud and stripped of his legal license, uses his unorthodox methods to solve the cases he’s been banned from handling and to exact revenge on the men who set him up. The project, written by Guggenheim who is a former lawyer, hails from Warner Bros. TV where Berlanti and McG’s companies are based. As part of McG’s deal, his Woderland Sound and Vision banner will join Berlanti Prods. and WBTV as a production entity on the show. In addition to directing the pilot, McG will executive produce the pilot and the potential series alongside Berlanti, Guggenheim and Wonderland’s Peter Johnson. Berlanti Prods.’ Melissa Kellner Berman co-executive produces.

Guilty, which will be filmed in New York, reunites WME-repped McG with Fox where he directed his only other previous pilot besides Chuck, Fastlane, which also went to series. It also reunites him with Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly who, in the same capacity at NBC, developed Chuck and picked it up to series before his abrupt departure from the network. On the feature side, McG’s next feature, This Means War, opens on Valentine’s Day.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.