Matthew Rhys will star in HBO’s long-gestating “Perry Mason” limited series.
Rhys, who last year wrapped up his starring role in FX’s “The Americans,” replaces Robert Downey Jr., who departed the project as an actor earlier this year, though he is remaining on board as an executive producer.
Rhys will star as Perry Mason “at a time in his life when he is living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator. Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and is suffering the effects of a broken marriage.”
The logline for the series, per HBO is: 1932, Los Angeles. 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, this limited series follows the origins of American Fiction’s most legendary criminal defense lawyer, Perry Mason.