Well, it turns out that we went through the trouble of remembering the existence of the 2011 Matthew McConaughey movie The Lincoln Lawyer for nothing, because CBS has unexpectedly canceled its plans to develop a new series based on the movie and the series of Michael Connelly novels it was based on. This comes despite the involvement of legendary legal drama creator David E. Kelly and what Deadline refers to as a “massive series production commitment.” For those not in the biz, that means CBS had agreed to either make at least one season of The Lincoln Lawyer or write a big check to the producers. Evidently, with everything going on in the world, the latter option was surprisingly the better move for CBS.
There’s also a huge timing factor here, with Deadline saying that the pilot for The Lincoln Lawyer was in the “final stages of pre-production” on March 13, with the cast assembled and a “complex deal” set for star Logan Marshall-Green that took “weeks of negotiations.” That date is important, though, because that’s when CBS shut down production on all of its active pilots, meaning The Lincoln Lawyer was left unfinished when the entertainment industry hit pause on virtually everything. If it had been further along, it seems somewhat safe to assume that this wouldn’t be happening, especially since Deadline notes that other shows with series commitments like this one are just moving forward into whatever production they can do now so they’ll be ready later.
It sounds like the show will most likely be shopped around to other outlets, since everybody’s all hyped on The Lincoln Lawyer now, but any results from discussions like that probably won’t be seen for a while—seeing as how, you know, everything is still shut down. But still, for those who need a refresher, The Lincoln Lawyer is about an idealistic attorney (in the books he’s the half-brother of one Harry Bosch, if you can believe that!) who runs a law practice from the trunk of a big old American car. We don’t remember what model it was, but we’ll look it up if we ever have to think about this again.