Astronaut Wives Club: The Notebook’s Nick Cassavetes to Direct ABC Series Premiere

Deadline is reporting that The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes has signed on to direct the series premiere of Astronaut Wives Club, a period drama recently picked up to series by ABC. The series, which has thus far cast JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Reba, Once Upon a Time), is based on the Lily Koppel novel of the same name and tells the story of a group of women bonded by the profession of their husbands. They soon find that they need each other to lean on when the international space race heats up and their husbands are thrown in the middle of scientific and political revolution.

The series order for Astronaut Wives Club was the third drama pickup in recent months for ABC, which has already greenlit an untitled soap from David O. Russell and Secrets & Lies, an American adaptation of an upcoming Australian crime drama. Astronaut Wives Club will be joining the likes of Rookie Blue, Motive, and Mistresses on ABC’s summer schedule, as all networks have been looking to beef up their scripted presence during the warmest months of the year. As the announcement of summer premiere dates is at least a month away, there’s no indication where Astronaut Wives Club will air or if the show will be paired with Mistresses, which aired with The Bachelorette this past summer before airing the final few episodes of its season by itself.

This will be the first television directing job for Cassavetes, whose film credits include Yellow, Alpha Dog, My Sister’s Keeper, John Q, and upcoming The Other Woman. Interestingly enough, Cassavetes also has an acting credit in 1999 Charlize Theron/Johnny Depp thriller The Astronaut’s Wife.

The 10-episode first season of Astronaut Wives Club is set to premiere sometime this summer on ABC.

Will you be watching Astronaut Wives Club? Do you think the show will be able to find an audience in the summer? What type of dramas should ABC be pursuing for the 2014-2015 season?