According to Deadline, Emmy Award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) has been tapped for a leading role in HBO’s forthcoming drama miniseries Perry Mason. Maslany is set to portray the role of the leader of the Radiant Assembly of God named Sister Alice. She joins Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans), who will be playing the title character.
Sister Alice’s official character description reads: “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.”
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Based on Erle Stanley Gardner’s series of novels, the new Perry Mason will be 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.
The limited series will be directed and executive produced by Tim Van Patten, who is one of HBO‘s longtime collaborators. He has worked on many popular HBO series such as Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Deadwood.
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The adaptation is co-written by Rolin Jones and Ron Fritzgerald, who are also set to the series’ showrunners. Robert Downey Jr. (Avengers: Endgame) and Susan Downey has developed the project and will both executive produced through their Team Downey Banner. Jones, Fritzgerald, and Rhy are also executive producers along with Team Downey’s Amanda Burrell, and Joe Horaceck.
The adventures of Perry Mason have been adapted a number of times in various mediums. The Perry Mason character has been the subject of radio plays, films, television movies and perhaps most notably a television series for CBS called Perry Mason that ran from 1957 to 1966.
