Once planned as a film starring Robert Downey Jr., a new, younger take on legal whizz Perry Mason has long since found a home at HBO, where Matthew Rhys is busy shooting scenes as the character. The cast for the series is growing, with Shea Whigham, Chris Chalk, Nate Corddry, Veronica Falcón, Jefferson Mays, Gayle Rankin and Lily Taylor all leaping aboard.
While the character of Perry Mason is most usually known to audiences through the Raymond Burr-starring TV series, he actually first appeared in Erle Stanley Gardner’s books, the first of which was published in 1933. The author went on to write 82 novels and many short stories, which revolved around Mason, secretary Della Street, private eye Paul Drake and the team’s legal nemesis, Hamilton Burger.
This take on Mason is set in 1930s Los Angeles. While the rest of the country suffers through the Great Depression, this city is booming, but is haunted by a child kidnapping gone very, very wrong. 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.
John Lithgow and Tatiana Maslany are also aboard the show, which Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald are running alongside producer/director Tim Van Patten. HBO has yet to announce when it might arrive on screens, but we'd expect it next year.