True Detective Dream Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Even though we’ve had several rumors concerning the main cast for True Detective’s second season, besides William Friedkin, we haven’t heard much on the director front. It can be hotly debated which directors are most well-suited to what True Detective means, perhaps even more so than which actors would fit best. Alfonso Cuarón is another director with a distinct vision and sense of style that s all his own, and it’s one that True Detective would be better for having.

Cuarón is currently most notable for 2013’s Gravity, a striking space drama that brought Sandra Bullock back into the front lines. Gravity is a beautiful movie, but perhaps not the best example of what Cuarón is fully capable of. Cuarón excels with smaller films, such as his celebrated Y Tu Mamá También, but it’s to Children of Men where we currently turn our attention.

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Children of Men isn’t a small movie, but it feels like one in hindsight. It’s a tense, claustrophobic film led by Clive Owen. The dystopian backdrop is captured brilliantly, and the ambiguous ending is both thrilling and endlessly frustrating. Although it’s based on a novel, Children of Men stands as Cuaron’s strongest work in the English language. It’s a fine example of what Cuaron could achieve with something like True Detective, which frequently feels dystopian in its themes and tone.

Alfonso Cuarón is one director that could take what season one director and now producer Cary Fukunaga has done and make it his own without alienating the fans. Not that this would work the best in this instance, but imagine what the style of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban could do in True Detective. Another name for that film is the best Harry Potter film of all time. It’s also worth noting that Cuaron produced Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Laybrinth, another of our Dream Directors.

Are you familiar with Cuarón’s work? If so, how do you think he would handle True Detective?

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