HBO’s ‘Perry Mason’ With Matthew Rhys Picked Up to Series
UPDATED (3/22/2019):
Perry Mason is officially being picked up at HBO after it was revealed March 22 that director Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire) has signed on to the project.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Van Patten boards the limited series as director and executive producer. After years of being in development — first as a film and then later as a series — Perry Mason will finally happen. The show will star Matthew Rhys in the titular role.
ORIGINAL STORY (1/14/2019):
Recent Emmy winner and former The Americans star Matthew Rhys is diving into his next TV project — this time for HBO.
The actor is reportedly set to play the title role in the premium channel’s limited series Perry Mason from Team Downey. According to Deadline, the project — a reboot of the beloved ’50s series — will follow the origin story of the fictional investigator and defense attorney.
At the moment, no director is attached but once there is, production on the project will begin. Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald will serve as writers, executive producers, and showrunners, helping to bring the reimagined series, set in 1932 Los Angeles, to life.
The series is said to kick off in the years following the Great Depression, in which L.A. is thriving — until a child kidnapping “gone very, very wrong” occurs.
Perry Mason is based on the characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner and follows the fictitious criminal defense lawyer’s pursuit for justice. When Mason (Rhys) is faced with “the case of the decade” he’ll discover a broken city and a road to redemption along the way.
Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey
Rhys plays Perry Mason at a point in his life where he’s a private investigator living from paycheck-to-paycheck. Suffering from the wartime memories of France, he’s dealing with the fallout of a broken marriage.
The actor is set to produce the project, which had initially been set up at HBO in 2016 with Nic Pizzolatto attached to write with Robert Downey Jr. set to star in the lead role. After Pizzolatto returned to True Detective‘s third season and Downey had to back-out due to film commitments, Jones and Fitzgerald stepped in to write and the search began for Mason.
With Rhys on board, a director is the final step in getting things started. Robert and Susan Downey, along with Amanda Burrell and Joe Horaceck, serve as executive producers with their company Team Downey, which has been behind films such as Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Perry Mason, TBD, HBO
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