We’ve got another U.S.-to-Korea remake in the pipeline: MBC is producing a new legal comedy called Goddess of the Court, an adaptation of Drop Dead Diva, which aired on Lifetime in the U.S. from 2009 to 2014. I didn’t catch the original show, but the premise sounds like it would fit right into dramaland.
Drop Dead Diva is a body-swap comedy about a vapid fashion model who dies in a car crash and whose soul somehow inhabits an overweight lawyer who also died while protecting her boss. The heroine will struggle to adjust to her new life, and along the way learn some valuable lessons on self-esteem and personal acceptance. What I want to know is how much law is going to be involved in this, ‘cause a fashion model pretending to be a lawyer? I’m already nervous, but at the same time, slightly looking forward to all the comic potential to be mined from this concept.
I find it funny that out of the two genres at play in Goddess of the Court, body-swapping and legal comedy, it’s the latter that is more uncommon in dramaland, at least from what I remember. What with all the legal thrillers recently, I could use a lighter take on the legal drama, and a fish-out-of-water heroine sounds like the perfect fit for a comedy set in the courtroom. Although there might be a lot of second-hand embarrassment involved since, y’know, a model doesn’t sound all that well-suited for arguing legal cases in front of a judge and jury.
There’s no director involved yet, but the writer attached to the project is Yoo Hee-kyung, of JTBC’s Falling for Innocence. Sony, the production company behind the original series, will be jointly producing Goddess of the Court with Korean production house Trees With Deep Roots, as well as act as the remake’s distributor. The legal comedy is scheduled to air in January of next year in MBC’s Wednesday-Thursday slot, after Hospital Ship and I’m Not a Robot end their runs.