Sky Atlantic has released a new trailer and announced the June premiere date for ‘Perry Mason‘ Season 1 starring Matthew Rhys in the title role, alongside a stunning cast.
Based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner, the new, reimagined series sees Rhys play the defence attorney/private investigator in 1932 Los Angeles. Whilst most of the country is recovering from the Great Depression, things in LA are booming, as the Olympics arrive and talking pictures start to take off.
Living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator, Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. But when a child kidnapping goes very wrong, the case of the decade lands at Mason’s doorstep, and he relentlessly pursues the truth revealing a fractured city and just maybe, a pathway to redemption for himself.
Alongside Rhys, the series also stars:
Tatiana Maslany (‘Orphan Black’) as Sister Alice, the leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, preaching three sermons a day 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.
John Lithgow (‘Dexter’, ‘The Crown’) plays Elias Birchard “E.B.” Jonathan, a personal attorney at the nadir of his career and a semi-regular employer of private investigator, Perry Mason. A mentor and a father figure to Mason, E.B. is handed the kind of case he hasn’t seen in years: a high-profile parallel investigation to the LAPD involving a case of child kidnapping.
Chris Chalk (‘Gotham’, ‘The Newsroom’) plays Paul Drake, a beat cop with a knack for detective work, Paul is an outlier, with the added challenge of having to navigate an extremely race-conscious city and a downright oppressive police department. He must weigh the responsibilities of being a husband and father against his desire to seek justice in a controversial and politically loaded case.
Shea Whigham (‘Agent Carter’, ‘Boardwalk Empire’) plays Pete Strickland. Pete is hired by Mason as an extra set of eyes on his various investigations (some less than savory). Strickland has a brotherly rapport with Mason and a cheerfully rakish demeanor that wins friends and influences damsels.
Juliet Rylance (‘McMafia’, ‘The Knick’) plays Della Street, E.B. Jonathan’s legal secretary. Street has the brains, know-how, creativity and drive to be a CEO at any modern-day corporation. But this is 1931…
Guest stars for the series include Nate Corddry (‘For All Mankind’, ‘Mindhunter’), Veronica Falcon (‘Perpetual Grace, LTD’), Jefferson Mays (‘Westworld’, ‘I Am the Night’), Gayle Rankin (‘GLOW’), Lili Taylor (‘Chambers’, ‘Hemlock Grove’), Andrew Howard (‘Watchmen’, ‘The Outpost’), Stephen Root (‘The Man in the High Castle’, ‘Barry’), and Robert Patrick (‘Scorpion’, ‘True Blood’… and of course, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’).
HBO veteran Tim Van Patten, whose directing credits include the ‘Game of Thrones’ pilot along with episodes of ‘The Sopranos’, ‘Boardwalk Empire’, ‘The Wire’, ‘The Pacific’, ‘Rome’ and ‘Deadwood’ directs and executive-produce the series. Rolin Jones (‘Life in Pieces’, ‘Boardwalk Empire’, ‘Weeds’) and Ron Fitzgerald (‘Weeds’, ‘Westworld’) act as showrunners. Fitzgerald has also executive-produced ‘Westworld’, while Jones served as an executive producer ‘Boardwalk Empire’. The drama comes from Robert Downey Jr’s Team Downey, with Jones and Fitzgerald exec producing alongside Amanda Burrell, Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Joe Horacek.
‘Perry Mason‘ premieres Monday 22nd June 2020 (time TBC) on Sky Atlantic in the UK. The series airs June 21, 2020, at 9pm on HBO in the USA.
