A few years back, the trades made an exciting announcement: Mexican filmmaker Issa Lopez and Barry Jenkins had teamed up for a new take on HBO’s top-shelf franchise, “True Detective,” a series that had been dormant for a few years because its creator Nic Pizzolatto had essentially hit a wall with HBO, creative differences and whatnot.
Nic Pizzolatto eventually parted ways with HBO; they kept the brand and were eager to revive it. The assumption at the time was Lopez and Jenkins had collaborated and come up with a pitch that enticed HBO, and Lopez, the acclaimed writer/director of “Tigers Are Not Afraid,” would execute it.
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But in a new story from Entertainment Weekly, who interviewed Lopez, her upcoming “True Detective: Night Country” actually originated as an original murder mystery project she had been developing, she had been in open creative discussions with the cable channel, and it was HBO, seemingly very eager to revive the series who said, “what if was ‘True Detective’?
While much of the story is paraphrased, it does layout the inception for the project.

But, that’s because when she envisioned the project originally, it had nothing to do with the show. López says she initially pitched an idea for a project called Night Country, which she describes as “a murder mystery in the ice,” and it was HBO who suggested it could be True Detective instead — an idea she says never even crossed her mind. Once the two parties agreed, “Night Country” became “True Detective: Night Country,” and López had the unenviable task of “recalling what connected so powerfully with so many people around the world, but at the same time, doing it in your own voice and making it your own.”

It’s an interesting idea, too, because studios often get framed as the bad guys in most stories (and yes, there are dozens of stories to back this up). Maybe I’m intuiting too much, but HBO has an excellent reputation as a creative partner, and this one sounds like another example of a positive collaborative idea.
Regardless, Lopez said she tried to break free of the series while simultaneously embracing everything that she loved about it.
“Maybe the one way to capture the true spirit of this is to do the absolute opposite,” Lopez told EW. “That this is so not that, that it ends up staring straight at it, and in the end, it does feel like the same show.”
Kali Reis, who stars alongside Jodie Foster in the series, put it differently but echoed the same sentiment: “In contrast to the first season being so hot and steaming, two guys, this is freezing cold and two female leads,” she said, alluding to Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in the hot, sweaty swamps of the Louisiana bayou setting of season one. “But there’s so much more to it — it’s very deep. It’s the tip of the iceberg, I guess you’d say.”
“True Detective: Night Country” debuts on HBO and HBO Max on January 14. We’ll also have our own interview with Lopez soon, and that’ll be something to look forward to.