Robert Downey Jr can pretty much do anything he wants film-wise these days, even without a high tech suit of armour to help. But one thing he apparently cannot do is convince Jack Nicholson to co-star with him in new drama-comedy The Judge. Fortunately for RDJ, Robert Duvall is willing to step in.

The Change-Up’s David Dobkin is directing this one, working from a script by Nick Schenk, David Seidler and Bill Dubuque. The Judge finds Downey Jr as a successful lawyer (bet he’s slick and quip-happy too) who returns to his small-town home for his mother’s funeral.

There he discovers that his dad (Duvall), the town’s judge, is the top suspect in her murder. As he sets out to discover the truth of the matter, our hero digs into his past and reconnects with the family he walked away from years before.

Yes, it sounds like it could all end in hugging and learning, but the potential for Downey Jr’s winning snark and Duvall at his grumpy best makes this one more attractive. Duvall was last seen in Jack Reacher and will next crop up in indie pic A Night In Old Mexico. Downey Jr will be seen in something called Iron Man 3, which you might already have heard of, and which lands on April 25.