'True Detective' season 3 renewal news: New season still far off; Nic Pizzolatto to work with Robert Downey Jr. for new project

"True Detective" creator Nic Pizzolatto has a brand new project with HBO. It is not the third season of his famous anthology, but it will be a TV drama.

Pizzolatto is teaming up with Robert Downey Jr. for a new HBO series which will be the "Iron Man" star's big and long-awaited return to the small screen.

According to reports, the former will write the script while the latter will star and produce the show. The project is reportedly a "Perry Mason" reboot.

For the uninitiated, "Perry Mason" is an Emmy-winning legal drama that began in 1957. It aired for nine seasons, ending its run in 1966, but it ultimately started the trend for the same format in television.

The show was based on the popular books by Erle Stanley Gardner. According to Variety, Downey has always dreamed of portraying the criminal defense lawyer based in Los Angeles who was popularized by the late Raymond Burr.

As for "True Detective" season 3, HBO has yet to give an update, although its network programming president Casey Bloys already said at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour last month that the series is "not dead."

With a big project coming up for Pizzolatto, it appears that "True Detective" season 3 will have to wait. However, it is important to note that Bloys has expressed HBO's willingness to hire a new writer and have Pizzolatto supervise instead.

Pizzolatto inked a contract with HBO that will last up to 2018, and his purported project with Downey, which is still in the early stages, is expected to keep him busy.

For now, Vanity Fair reports that the closest fans can get to "True Detective" season 3 is a cameo of Rustin Cohle — a character from the first season of the drama played by Matthew McConaughey — in the Downey project. The media outlet opined that it could work out, considering the tone of the show.