In what will surely be the most sought after new property on television, True Detective is being shopped to various cable networks. The eight-part series already has Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson attached to star, which should help quite a bit.
True Detective is being described as a complicated narrative that will tell the story from multiple perspectives and utilizing multiple time frames. The story will follow two detectives, Rust Cohle (McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Harrelson), whose lives intertwine during a seventeen year search for a serial killer in Louisiana. The story will follow the events of a bizarre murder in 1995, which will be told both using scenes from that time and the current day testimony from the detectives in 2012.
The current idea is to utilize the 8-episode first season to resolve the mystery at hand, and have it be a stand alone story. Each of the subsequent seasons would use a similar structure, but follow all new characters and a different mystery.
The first season will be written by Nic Pizzolatto, best known as the author of the collection Between Here and the Yellow Sea and the novel Galveston, as well as writing credits on AMC’s The Killing. Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre, Sin Nombre) is set to direct all 8 episodes. In addition to having already signed on a writer, director and stars, True Detective is being pitched with two fully written episodes.
This is the first TV collaboration for the real life best friends McConaughey and Harrelson, who have starred in two features together, EdTV and Surfer, Dude. For McConaughey, this series would be the first regular TV series gig. Harrelson, on the other hand, got his big break on the classic TV show Cheers.
