Justin Lin Talks True Detective in New Interview
By Matt Pierce
In an exclusive interview with Deadline, director Justin Lin opens up about his career, including what it was that attracted him to the upcoming season of True Detective. Like most other interviews with cast and crew that have been released so far, Lin talks about how exciting it was to join on with the show, but plot details are nowhere to be found.
Lin comes to talk about True Detective when explaining why it was he finally decided to leave the immensely successful Fast & Furious Franchise:
"I couldn’t justify my growth as a filmmaker. I needed more, creatively, and am fortunate that I was able to move on to True Detective, with these scripts by Nic Pizzolatto that read like novels…"
This actually reads a lot like the statements Vince Vaughn (and Matthew McConaughey last season) have given about what it was that really drew them to the show. The maturity and strength of Pizzolatto’s writing and the first season’s immense success and dramatic integrity seem to really be making waves in the industry.
This raises an interesting possibility about the nature of the show moving forward. It’s become something of a trope when discussing True Detective to talk about how it has served as a springboard for talented actors that have languished too long with mediocre work back into more serious roles.
Now that the show has moved to the more traditional use of multiple directors per season, perhaps we will see that the same holds true for the directing talent as well.
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Justin Lin has proven himself to be a technically competent director with the Fast movies, which, for all their cheesy writing & acting are usually impressively staged from a directorial standpoint. He’s also proven that he knows how to direct intensely on a smaller scale with his critically successful debut film Better Luck Tomorrow.
Perhaps, like Vaughn and McConaughey, True Detective will serve as a reminder to critics that Lin is capable of handling more thought-provoking material.