Hallmark Channel Reaffirms Series Order To ‘Cedar Cove’ Starring Andie MacDowell

Hallmark Channel today announced that it has given green light to its first primetime series Cedar Cove starring Andie MacDowell. Stargate veteran Carl Binder will serve as showrunner on the series, which will film in Vancouver. Cedar Cove is based on Debbie Macomber’s novels and stars MacDowell as Judge Olivia Lockhart whose Cedar Cove Municipal Court is the professional milieu and social microcosm of issues the judge will face in her own day-to-day life with family and friends.  Dylan Neal plays Jack Griffith, the new editor of the Cedar Cove Chronicle, and budding love interest for Judge Lockhart. Hallmark made two-hour pilot orders to Cedar Cover and When Calls the Heart in March. Then in May, when it tapped MacDowell for Cedar Cove, it announced that the project has been given a series order for a debut in early 2013. At the time, MacDowell was tied to ABC Family’s Jane By Design, which has since been cancelled. Cedar Cove‘s two-hour pilot, directed by Michael Scott and written by Bruce Graham, will air on Jan 19, followed by the series launch in early spring.