Nellie Andreeva

Cuba Gooding Jr. is back on the casting market just in time for pilot season. Exactly a year after Fox picked up legal drama Guilty to pilot, the network has officially passed on the project. Guilty was a strong contenter for a series pickup last season, with star Gooding Jr. testing very high. After missing the cut in May, Fox kept Guilty in consideration, and the studio behind it, Warner Bros. TV, in June extended the options on actors Gooding Jr., Jay Harrington, Eva Amurri Martino and Julian Morris. In an unusual twist, Fox eyed Guilty not for midseason but fall 2013. Guilty, from WBTV, Berlanti Prods. and Wonderland Sound and Vision, centered on a brilliant, morally questionable defense attorney (Gooding Jr.) who, after being falsely convicted of fraud and stripped of his legal license, uses his unorthodox methods to solve the cases he’s been prohibited from handling and to ultimately exact revenge on the man who set him up. Guilty was written by Marc Guggenheim and directed by McG, who executive produced it with Greg Berlanti and Peter Johnson.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.