HBO is looking to expand its relationship with one of its proven hit-makers by teaming him up with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Nic Pizzolatto and Robert Downey Jr. are in talks for a drama project, with the “True Detective” creator attached to write and the “Iron Man” actor attached to star, sources tell Variety.


HBO and reps for both Pizzolatto and Downey Jr. declined to comment.


Plot details are scarce, but insiders say the project is based on Downey Jr.’s “Perry Mason” reboot, which he had been developing as a feature film at Warner Bros. for several years. Pizzolatto, Downey Jr., and his producing partner and wife, Susan Downey, of Team Downey will serve as exec producers.

Sources indicate the project will be a series, rather than a TV film, and that the project has been gestating at HBO since as early as May.

This project would mark Downey Jr.’s first starring role on television, aside from his “Ally McBeal” stint in the early 2000’s, before he re-surged to became a box-office superstar.

Downey Jr. has wanted to do some sort of “Perry Mason” project for some time, having originally set it up at Warner Bros. as a film back in 2011. The film never found its footing and after his other lawyer-driven pic “The Judge” had mixed results at the box office, the studio and Team Downey thought that television was a better platform for it. “Perry Mason,” starring Raymond Burr, ran on CBS from 1957 to 1966.

With a third season of “True Detective” still in flux, this potential series keeps Pizzolatto in the HBO fold with a new high-profile project, given his recent overall deal with the premium cabler, which lasts through 2018.

For Downey Jr., the project not only marks his big foray into TV on the screen, but also as a TV producer. The “Iron Man” star put a drama into development with Showtime in 2014, though it never come to fruition.

Both Downey Jr. and Pizzolatto are repped by CAA. Pizzolatto is also repped by Anonymous Content.

HBO is developing a drama series to star Robert Downey Jr. and be written by True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto. The project eyes short-run installments in the vein of True Detective, whose seasons have consisted of 8 episodes each. The drama is eyed as an ongoing series, with new seasons’ timing contingent on Downey’s availability and the auspices settling on an idea for a new story arc.

The project, first reported by Variety, is believed to stem from the Perry Mason feature reboot Team Downey (Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan) set up at Warner Bros. five years ago. This has been a passion project for Downey Jr.. He was attached to star in the movie, which was to be based on an original story by him and David Gambino that was to retain the Noir setting of 1930s Los Angeles from author Erle Stanley Gardner’s source material.

The character of Perry Mason, an unorthodox investigator/defense attorney, was created by Gardner in the early 1930s. Mason has been featured in over 80 novels and short stories, a radio series and six feature films in the 1930s, a comic strip in the early 1950s, an Emmy-winning TV series starring Raymond Burr that ran from 1957 to 1966, the short-lived New Perry Mason TV show from 1973-74, and some 20 made-for-television films that aired during the 1980s and 90s.

The series project falls under Pizzolatto’s overall deal at HBO, which also covers a potential third installment of True Detective, which continues to be in limbo.

This would mark Iron Man star Downey’s biggest TV series commitment since his role on Fox’s Ally McBeal.