After winning huge acclaim and a large viewership with a first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, HBO are close to finalize the second run of Nic Pizzolatto‘s crime anthology series "True Detective." We know that the setting is moving to California, we know that Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch and Vince Vaughn are circling roles, we know that director Cary Fukunaga likely wasn’t returning for the second go-round, and that multiple helmers would be taking his place.
We had our own say on who should step in for Fukunaga, and William Friedkin told us he’d had discussions with HBO, while Andrew Dominik was also rumored (but had a conflict via his "Blonde" project). However, it looks like a decision’s been made, and it’s one that’s going to cause a lot of fuss. Deadline reveals that Justin Lin, the man who directed the last four "Fast & Furious" movies, from "Tokyo Drift" to last year’s "Fast & Furious 6," is in talks to helm "at least" the first two episodes of the new run of the show.
Lin’s talented (he’s one of the best action directors currently working), and has done some great work on TV, having helmed the famous ‘paintball’ episode of "Community," but this isn’t going to please fans of the show, who were probably looking for a more soulful and auteurish choice. Then again, perhaps Lin will end up showing a new side to his skills here, but with viewers already wary of the new casting choices, there’ll probably be some backlash to the pick, especially with Lin presumably setting the look and tone of the show by helming the first couple of episodes (expect smaller names for the subsequent ones).
We also wonder what this means for his supposed next movie gig,
directing the fifth film in the "Bourne" franchise. The film was
recently pushed back to the summer of 2016, and with "True Detective"
set to air its second season next summer, there’s just enough time for
Lin to do both, but it would mean going virtually back to back on the
projects. Still, we’ll certainly reserve judgement until we see what he
comes up with next summer.
Furthermore, Variety adds that while Elisabeth Moss was thought to have the show’s female lead sewn up, she’s got some competition in the shape of Rachel McAdams. The latter is undoubtedly the bigger get, given that Moss is mostly a TV actress, but given the strength of her performance in "Top Of The Lake," we’d be more than happy with either.