While the first season of "True Detective" was guided entirely by director Cary Fukunaga, the second season (which he hasn’t seen, by the way), dropped the practice of having one director at the helm and instead went through a roster of filmmakers, with the most notable perhaps being Justin Lin ("Fast Five," "Star Trek Beyond") and John Crowley ("Boy A," "Brooklyn"). Others were rumored, including William Friedkin and Andrew Dominik, but those directors didn’t end up taking the gig. Now another director explains fairly bluntly why he declined working on the series.
"The heat is in TV," David Cronenberg said at the Reykjavik International Film Festival where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award (via Indiewire). "Last year I was approached to direct the first episode of the second season of ‘True Detective,’ I considered it but I thought that the script was bad, so I didn’t do it. In TV, the director is just a traffic cop, but on the other hand, it is work and there’s a lot of it.”
Damn. So, if I’m doing the math, Lin eventually picked up Cronenberg’s leftovers. And it’s hard to fault the Canadian director for choosing not to do the series, even if his assessment of the first episode is a big harsh (it was more muddled than outright awful, and it was a problem that plagued the season as a whole).
Thoughts? Smart move by Cronenberg, or would you have liked to see him take on the pulpy material? Let us know below.
Cronenberg has made some bad films recently, as many of you are quick to point out, but that doesn\’t mean he\’s wrong about TD2. Lots of its dialogue was laughable, and there were way too many characters to successfully develop in 8 hours.
Kaius, Plalist writers are not film journalists. they are film bloggers. HUUUUGE difference. anyone can create a blog. not everyone can get hired by an accredited newspaper or verified news outlet and write film criticism and journalism. hope that helps some. seems a lot of people commenting here are unaware of this distinction.
This is odd. The Playlist puts up an article telling us how David Cronenberg turned down TD2 because he "thought the script was bad". Then the writer of this "article" says wait, actually the first episode was more muddled than outright awful. David Cronenberg is not talking about the first episode, he\’s talking about the script. Why not be a real film journalist and actually show us you\’ve also read the script? No? Instead you\’d prefer to use this false comparison to drum up some clicks and comments. Okay Playlist, thank you for trying.
My wish: That Cronenberg directs an eight episode series based on Charles Burns\’ "Black Hole".
Hmm, I made it through 6 hours of TD series 2, but only 20 minutes of Maps to the Stars. That thing was flipping unwatchable.
Isn\’t this the guy who did Maps to the Stars?
The article reads like it\’s a surprise to learn other directors turned it down. But seriously, did anyone really think Justin Lin was anyone\’s first choice?
He was right insofar that some episodes are really lackluster. And the whole season is nowhere near season 1.
Then again he directed Maps to the stars… Which was squandered potential.
Note: would Hollywood would make a really definitive great movie about our modern obsession to fame (so far SpingBreak and Bling Ring were really meh)
I like both, I guess it is all in the interpretation of the reader.
i thought it was common consensus that season 2 of True Detective was bad. how did it all of a sudden become "muddled?" it wasn\’t muddled, it was a bad first draft of an Ellroy rip off. yeah, i said it. Pizzolatto can\’t write a sentence not originally composed by someone else.
Clever man. But then we\’ve always known that. Wish he\’d write a series himself
I probably liked it more than most but it felt like they just went into production with the first draft. Very messy and, as you say, muddled. Don\’t blame Cronenberg, although I thought the first episode in particular did have a bit of his feel.
Big Harsh is a good description for the second season.
He\’s certainly not wrong. Second season was just garbage.