HBO is rebooting the legal drama about a fictional Los Angeles lawyer named Perry Mason for a limited run. The new but still-untitled TV series will take points from the 1960s show that starred the Emmy-winning actor Raymond Burr as the smart defense attorney.
The Perry Mason project has been in the works for quite some time. Actor and "Avengers" star Robert Downey, Jr. was attached as producer and star when HBO officially announced in 2016 that it would be bringing the show back on television.
But Downey recently confirmed on Twitter that he would no longer be taking on the role. However, he'll remain the show's executive producer with "The Americans" actor Matthew Rhys taking over as Perry Mason.
According to Deadline, the new Perry Mason series will be set in 1932 Los Angeles. It will be an origin story where Mason still works as a struggling and hard-up private investigator who needs to deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the war. Mason will get his big case break from a kidnapping that has gone wrong. But he will still have to prove himself as an intelligent officer of the law.
The HBO version will be a lot different from the old "Perry Mason" series, though. In the 1960s version, Mason was portrayed as a distinguished lawyer whose main clients were people charged with murder. Each episode of this legal drama followed a formula and the highlight, which happened during the second half of the series, featured Mason sparring with his nemesis, District Attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman), in court.
Rolin Jones ("Boardwalk Empire") and Ron Fitzgerald ("Friday Night Lights") will write the Perry Mason version on HBO. A director has not yet been attached to the project. To date, the cable network has also not yet announced the other cast members who will join Rhys in the series. Production is expected to start in the middle of the year. The Perry Mason reboot will likely be launched on HBO in 2020.
The Perry Mason character is based on the crime novels that Erle Stanley Gardner wrote and published from 1933 to 1973. Dubbed the master of American mystery and fiction, Gardner, who was a former lawyer, released 85 books featuring the iconic character.
His books were later adapted as radio programs and movies in the 1950s. CBS eventually turned his stories into a legal drama, which would become the first one-hour TV show in America. Video copies of the old "Perry Mason" shows are available on DVD format.
