The Knick creators take over HBO's Perry Mason reboot

As reported by Variety, Jack Amiel and Michael Begler—creators of Cinemax’s olde-timey doctor drama The Knick with Clive Owen and André Holland—have signed a new three-year deal with HBO that, for whatever reason, involves them taking over HBO’s Perry Mason reboot from previous showrunners Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones. Perry Mason, starring Matthew Rhys as a younger version of the famous defense attorney character created in the ‘30s, was HBO’s most-watched drama in years when it premiered over last summer, and it landed multiple award nominations. HBO was presumably pretty happy with it, so it’s anyone’s guess why this behind-the-scenes change is happening, but The Knick was similarly acclaimed, so maybe HBO just wants to get in the Amiel and Begler business. (And/or Fitzgerald and Jones have something else in the oven and they don’t have time to keep showrunning.)

Speaking of The Knick, series director Steven Soderbergh said back in September that Holland and Barry Jenkins were working on a revival of the series (written by Amiel and Begler) that he would not be directly involved in at all. With Amiel and Begler moving over to HBO to work with Perry Mason and his collection of stylish fedoras (or trilbies or whatever, please don’t correct us), it seems unlikely that they would be involved in any future Knicks.