Brow Beat

Robert Downey Jr. and Nic Pizzolatto Are Collaborating on a Perry Mason Show for HBO

Robert Downey Jr. at the European premiere of Captain America: Civil War.

Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Robert Downey Jr. and True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto are setting up a new show about Erle Stanley Gardner’s iconic defense lawyer Perry Mason at HBO, Variety reports. It’s the project’s second incarnation for the Iron Man star: Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey originally set up a Perry Mason feature at Warner Bros. back in 2011 through their production company Team Downey. Marc Guggenheim was hired to write the feature version, but Nic Pizzolatto will handle writing duties this time around. Pizzolatto, who created and wrote both seasons of True Detective, is under contract at HBO through 2018.

The show, like the feature, is set in the 1930s, returning Mason to his roots: The character first appeared in Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Velvet Claws in 1933. If the show is made, Downey Jr. will be the 10th actor to play Mason: Warren William, Ricardo Cortez, and Donald Woods played him in features for Warner Bros. in the 1930s; Bartlett Robinson, Santos Ortega, Donald Briggs, and John Larkin played him on a long-running radio show; and Monte Markham and Raymond Burr played him on television.

Burr’s incarnation of the character ran on CBS for nine seasons between 1957 and 1966. (It was canceled after the network moved it to Sunday nights in a failed attempt to take out NBC’s Bonanza.) It was produced by groundbreaking female producer (and brilliant actress) Gail Patrick, who, in 1958, offered some advice Pizzolatto and Downey Jr. might keep in mind:

Funny thing about writers—a lot of them think they’ll improve on Erle. Most of them find they can’t even duplicate him.