Good Wife gets Korean remake

The original US version of The Good Wife

Emmy-winning drama The Good Wife will be the first scripted US television series to be remade in South Korea, after CBS Studios International licensed the format to TVN.

The local version of the legal drama will be produced by director Jung-Hyo Lee (I Need Romance, Heartless City) and written by Sang-Woon Han. The show will centre on the complicated relationships of people in the South Korean legal system amid scandal and corruption.

The Good Wife Korea will replace drama Dear My Friends in TVN’s schedule when it premieres on July 8.

“For the Korean version of US drama The Good Wife, we focused on the casting and were successful in casting Korea’s biggest actress, Jeon Do-Yeon – who has won many awards in her career, including best actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival – in the lead role, marking her return to TV after 11 years,” Jinwoo Hwang, general manager and head of formats at TVN parent CJ Entertainment and Media, told C21.

In February, US network CBS confirmed The Good Wife would end after its current seventh season. The original series hails from CBS TV Studios and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions. Scott, Brooke Kennedy, David W Zucker, Craig Turk and Leonard Dick are executive producers, along with writers and producers Robert and Michelle King.