Aaron Lazar is replacing Steven Pasquale as Reverend Paul Luke Thomas on Fox’s upcoming Kim Cattrall-led Southern drama, “Filthy Rich,” in the second recasting for that co-star role.
The part was played by David Denman on the pilot of the series, a family drama from “Ma” filmmaker Tate Taylor “in which wealth, power and religion collide – with outrageously soapy results.” The show is slated to debut at midseason on the broadcast network.
A Fox spokesperson confirmed Lazar’s casting to TheWrap, saying Pasquale left the project a week before the start of production Friday in New Orleans, citing personal reasons, not creative ones.
Here’s the logline for “Filthy Rich”: When the patriarch of a mega-rich Southern family, famed for creating a wildly successful Christian television network, dies in a plane crash, his wife and family are stunned to learn that he fathered three illegitimate children, all of whom are written into his will, threatening their family name and fortune. With monumental twists and turns, “Filthy Rich” presents a world in which everyone has an ulterior motive – and no one is going down without a fight.
“Filthy Rich” stars Cattrall as Margaret Monreaux, Gerald McRaney as Eugene Monreaux, Aubrey Dollar as Rose Monreaux, Corey Cott as Eric Monreaux, Benjamin Aguilar as Antonio Rivera, Mark L. Young as Jason Conley, Melia Kreiling as Ginger Sweet, Steve Harris as Franklin Lee, Lazar as Reverend Paul Luke Thomas and Olivia Macklin as Becky Monreaux.
Taylor, Brian Grazer, Francie Calfo and John Norris executive produce the one-hour drama series. Cattrall is a producer. The pilot was written and directed by Taylor.
“Filthy Rich” is a co-production between Fox Entertainment, Imagine Television and Fox’s former sister studio, 20th Century Fox Television. Anna Culp and Jillian Kugler will serve as the project’s point executives for Imagine Television.
Deadline first reported Lazar’s casting.