Watch out, Perry Mason is coming back to the public lexicon!
To be honest, I haven’t had much exposure to Perry Mason beyond my father’s offhanded comments about him always cracking the big case just in time. But the character is cherished both as an iconic hero of literary and television history, so the news does certainly warrant a good deal of interest. Robert Downey, Jr., the celluloid osprey, and his production company Team Downey, are developing a new film to feature the character of Perry Mason. RDJ himself is expected to star as the always-gets-his-man lawyer.
Perry Mason was a defense attorney solving crimes in 1930s Los Angeles. Working alongside Mason are his secretary Della Street and a private investigator named Paul Drake. Mason’s courtroom rival was prosecutor Hamilton Burger. Mason was created by series novelist Eric Stanley Gardner and immortalized by Raymond Burr in the CBS legal drama that ran from 1957 – 1966.
This is the only existing quotation on the Perry Mason TV series IMDb quotes page (parentheticals transcribed exactly):
Della Street (a simple question): What do you know about art?
Paul Drake (astonished): Me? I don’t even know what I like!
Bam. You’ve been Masoned.
The project is currently seeking a screenwriter to develop a story that Downey and executive producer David Gambino have written.
Source: Variety
