LOS ANGELES, Jan 16 — Matthew Rhys, the star of the FX show, The Americans, which ended in 2018, will play Perry Mason in the forthcoming HBO miniseries, US entertainment media reports. Robert Downey Jr was previously lined up for the title role. 

In 2016, the premium TV channel HBO launched a project to develop a miniseries based on the fictional lawyer and detective, Perry Mason, with Robert Downey Jr in the title role and with Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective) writing.

Three years down the line, the project is still in the works, but with a new actor — Matthew Rhys — taking over the lead role and with new screenwriters, Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald (Boardwalk Empire, Friday Night Lights).

The former The Americans star has been picked to play private detective Perry Mason in his early days, living paycheck to paycheck.

The show is set in 1932 in Los Angeles, after the Great Depression.

When the case of the century lands on his desk, Perry Mason embarks on a relentless hunt for the truth, a hunt which also offers him a pathway to personal redemption as he struggles to come to terms with his wartime experiences and the effects of a broken marriage.

The fictional star of the detective novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason first came to US TV in a series that ran for nine seasons, from 1957 to 1966, on CBS, starring Raymond Burr in the title role.

Although Robert Downey Jr will no longer star in the new show, the actor will stay on as executive producer, alongside Matthew Rhys, who will also serve as a producer.  — AFP-Relaxnews