Man this looks good. It’s the trailer for HBO’s “True Detective,” written, executive produced and created by University of Arkansas MFA alum Nic Pizzolatto.
Nola.com has a nice multi-part interview with Pizzolatto about “True Detective.” Here he talks about getting into TV:
My first novel was published in the summer of 2010. I’d always had plans from the first time I’d talked to an agent from Hollywood, I was going to ask how you break into this business, and particularly cable-TV writing, because in television the writer stays in control, which is what the concept of show runner is. It’s one of the reasons why the kind of serious adult drama you used to see in the films in the ’70s and even ’80s, and especially the independent movement of the mid-’90s, those sorts of artists I think are migrating toward TV slowly but surely. For the last 10 years, I think American television has beaten out American movies in terms of overall intelligence and depth. So it was a form I was really interested in. I asked him, “How do you do that?” He said, “Well, you’ve got to write some scripts. Have you ever written scripts before?” I said, “No.”
But I’ve read thousands of plays, and plays taught me a great deal as a writer about writing novels. And I was finding in some of the stuff I’d been experimenting with that I enjoyed the restrictions of drama. I mean, I’ll always write fiction. I’ll always write novels. I’m kind of on this now, but when they kick me out, I’ll go write novels. “Thank you for the house,” and I’ll go write novels.