HBO and Team Downey have found their Perry Mason, with Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans) signing on to portray the character in a new limited series.
Perry Mason was originally set up by Robert Downey Jr. and Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective) as a starring vehicle for the actor, only for Downey’s feature film commitments and the third season of True Detective to get in the way. Here’s Downey’s tweet announcing the casting of Rhys:
"Now it seems to me the place to start is at the beginning."
Perry Mason
“And it seems to me the beginning of any great project is casting my new best friend Matthew Rhys.”
Robert Downey Jr.
Executive Producer pic.twitter.com/jZl6Mm0GGx— Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) January 14, 2019
The limited series is being written and executive produced by showrunners Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald and takes place in Los Angeles in 1932. As per Deadline, the series’ description reads:
While the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression, this city is booming! Oil! Olympic Games! Talking Pictures! Evangelical Fervor! And a child kidnapping gone very, very wrong! Based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner, the limited series follows the origins of American Fiction’s most legendary criminal defense lawyer, Perry Mason. When the case of the decade breaks down his door, Mason’s relentless pursuit of the truth reveals a fractured city and just maybe, a pathway to redemption for himself.
