Walton Goggins has been cast in the lead role of the CBS comedy pilot “The Unicorn,” Variety has learned.
Goggins will play a recent widower and devoted father to two adolescent girls. The character is described as a big-hearted open-book of a guy, but without his wife, he’s finding himself at sea. When his friends persuade him to start dating again, he discovers to his shock that he’s kind of a hot commodity, if only he knew what the hell he was doing.
The project was originally a multi-cam comedy but will now be a single-cam.
This marks the second year in a row that Goggins will star in a CBS pilot. Last year, he was one of the leads in the network’s planned adaptation of the James Ellroy novel “LA Confidential.” That pilot was said to be well-received but ultimately considered too dark for the broadcaster. There was hope that it would land at streaming platform CBS All Access, but was ultimately passed over there as well.
Goggins will star in and executive produce the upcoming second season of “Deep State,” a Fox series that airs on Epix in the U.S. His other TV roles include the HBO comedy “Vice Principals” and the FX dramas “Justified” and “The Shield.” He is also known for his roles in features such as “The Hateful Eight” and “Predators.”
He is repped by ICM and Darris Hatch Management & Production.
Bill Martin and Mike Schiff serve as writers and executive producers on “The Unicorn.” Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor of Kapital Entertainment will executive produce along with Wendi Trilling and Peyton Reed. CBS Television Studios will produce.