Downey Jr has been working in this for some time; I hope he pulls it off. The original Gardner books did not go into great detail about Mason's looks. He was described as tall with wavy hair and flint eyed and that's it. Raymond Burr was tall but not the other two so there is no look that is necessarily required. Since HBO is involved it should be a quality production. Mason is timeless, but I'd like to see stories set in the 30s when the first novels were written. The earliest novels featured a much more hard boiled Mason who wasn't above bending a few rules/laws to help his client.
To me, it's absolutely bizarre that of all the roles he could play, Robert Downey chooses to revive a 65-year-old TV character based on an old series of novels. It's nutty -- even more so that he wants to do it as a weekly HBO TV show. They've already done Perry Mason as a 1930s film and 1950s-1960s TV show hundreds and hundreds of times (plus the 1980s TV movies), and several actors have played the role already (including Monte Markham in the 1970s TV version). Downey is making $40M-$50M as the star of all kinds of Marvel movies; does he really think a courtroom drama is going to challenge his skills? I'm baffled.
His skills will be more challenged with Perry Mason than a dozen of Marvel films. Come on. Those are all CGI driven.
I think it's quite commendable that Downey Jr. is doing something a little unexpected - and on television, too. He's been playing Iron Man for almost ten years now so he probably wants to find different roles he can play as he gets older.
Jimmy Stewart started moving to TV at the end of his career in his 60s, I think just to have regular hours and be able to not work far from his home. I don't think a megastar like Robert Downey is in the same category. Peck never starred in a TV series, as far as I know, but he did do occasional variety and talk show show appearances (which a lot of stars would do for promotional purposes). I'm surprised Downey doesn't try to do more serious films and maybe play against type: be a villain, a cad, street criminal... there's a thousand things he could do. He did develop and produce a 2014 film, The Judge, where he played an attorney defending Robert Duvall, and I think Downey was stung by the film's lack of commercial success -- it was clearly made to get critical attention and maybe some awards action. I just thing going for Perry Mason is kind of a tired, "been there/done that" kind of thing. The only thing that might be nuttier would be to be a game show host or a be on Dancing with the Stars or something.
I actually think that Mark Ruffalo would be an obvious choice to re-boot Columbo in twenty years. As for Downey wanting to have a steady schedule, close to home where he can see his kids grow up and be a father with regular hours makes a lot of sense. He can afford to set movies aside for a while. I'm sure many actors/actresses would love to have the freedom of choice he now has.
Mark could transform from The Hulk to Columbo -whichever character is best suited to solve the crime at the given time.
What was the name of that movie where he (RDJ) played a lawyer.... and, I think, his dad was Robert Duvall?
