
EXCLUSIVE: Former Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany is set for a lead role opposite Matthew Rhys in Perry Mason, HBO limited series from Team Downey.
Written and executive produced by Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald, who also will showrun, the reimagined Perry Mason is set in 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 (Rhys). 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.
Maslany will play Sister Alice, a rare sight – the leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, preaching three sermons a day (21 a week!) to a hungry congregation and a radio audience that spans the country. Entertainer, politician, God’s conduit to the City of Angels, Sister Alice wields great power when she speaks, and plans to use it in ways only she can know.
Robert and Susan Downey, who developed the project, executive produce along with Team Downey’s Amanda Burrell, and Joe Horacek. Rhys produces. Tim Van Patten directs and executive produces.
Perry Mason brings together two recent lead actor in a drama series winners — Rhys won in 2018 for The Americans; Maslany won in 2016 for Orphan Black.
Maslany also earned two Critics’ Choice awards and Golden Globe and SAG award nominations for her portrayal of various clones on the BBC America seres. She is currently making her Broadway debut in Ivo van Hove’s Network alongside Bryan Cranston and Tony Goldwyn.
On the film side, Maslany was recently seen in Destroyer alongside Nicole Kidman and will next be seen in a starring role opposite Jay Duplass in the upcoming film Pink Wall, directed by Tom Cullen.
Maslany is repped by ICM Partners and The Characters Talent Agency.
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