Killer Joe

When it was revealed that Cary Joji Fukunaga would more than likely return to direct only a couple of episodes of the next season of True Detective instead of each instalment as he did this year, fans of the critically acclaimed HBO series were left feeling very disappointed.

However, it’s clearly far too early to start worrying because it seems that writer and creator Nic Pizzolatto is still lining up some very impressive directorial talent for the mysterious second season.

The Playlist recently caught up with Killer Joe and The Exorcist director William Friedkin, and when talk turned to his thoughts on television and the fact that the site had named him as one of their favourite choices for season two of True Detective, his response came as a pretty huge surprise!

“I am considering it.” Friedkin revealed. “I like this writer [Nic Pizzolatto] very much. I’ve met him, and he’s the real deal as far as I’m concerned. Now, all the new seasons are different so I’m not committed—this new season has nothing to do with the last one. Except for him and his sensibility, which I think is extraordinary.” So, that potentially puts him in the running to at least direct one episode of the second season!

When pushed for details, he added: “I’m… I can’t say much more at this time. But I’m a fan of his writing, even though this will not be a continuation of what was done before with [Matthew] McConaughey [with whom obviously Friedkin has a relationship after ‘Killer Joe’] and Woody Harrelson. So what you can say is I’m a huge fan of his writing, I’ve met with him, I like him, I like the direction he’s taking with this.”

So, it’s obviously still early days, but with Pizzolatto currently hard at work on the second season, the fact that he’s already meeting with directors as good as Friedkin means that the decision to utilise a number of filmmakers for the next run of episodes should work out much better than many expected.

Looking back at his previous projects, Friedkin is clearly an ideal choice for the dark world of True Detective, and seeing what he could bring to the series should be fascinating.