After a chaotic second season, HBO's "True Detective" is returning, and this time, the show will feature a violent crime in Northwest Arkansas, according to a Variety report.
Nic Pizzolatto, the show's creator and a graduate of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, has said little about his latest protagonist, Wayn Hayes, an Arkansas State Police detective who will be played by Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, the magazine reported.
But if the detective is anything like Pizzolatto’s former protagonists, he promises to be of the brooding variety, blurring the line between solving crime and perpetrating it.
“I’m tremendously thrilled to be working with artists at the level of Mahershala and Jeremy [Saulnier],” Pizzolatto said in a statement cited by Variety. “I hope the material can do justice to their talents, and we’re all very excited to tell this story.”
Arkansas State Police spokesman Liz Chapman said "True Detective" isn’t the first to turn to the agency for inspiration. Mud, written and directed by Arkansas native Jeff Nichols in 2012, featured real officers and patrol cars.
Chapman said that film got it right, but one like American Made, featuring Tom Cruise and scheduled for a September release, is unwatchable. Chapman noted that the Arkansas State Police officers in the trailer have the wrong belt and patch.
“It’s like nurses watching 'Grey’s Anatomy',” she said. “I just can’t do it.”
To use real uniforms and patrol cars, film crews would need to request permission from the department. To Chapman's knowledge, no one from "True Detective" has done so.