It’s a “True Detective” reunion! Matthew McConaughey will reunite with “True Detective” creator Nic Pizzolatto for a film based on the iconic Mike Hammer private investigator character.
McConaughey is in talks to star in a feature film at Skydance that is based on the book series by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, with Pizzolatto having written the screenplay, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.
Skydance acquired the rights to the many books by Spillane and Collins with the plans to develop and produce the book series into a feature. Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger will produce the film along with Guymon Casady, Benjamin Forkner, and Ken F. Levin.
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Author Max Allan Collins will executive produce with Jane Spillane serving as co-producer. Carin Sage will oversee the project for Skydance.
It’s unclear which book, if any, the Mike Hammer film will specifically be based on, but the character dates way back to 1947 and has been brought to the screen numerous times, perhaps most famously in Robert Aldrich’s “Kiss Me Deadly” in 1955, in which Ralph Meeker starred as Hammer. Mike Hammer is a step above — i.e. more violent and brutal — than some of the other hard-boiled detectives of his era like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. It sounds like ideal material for the “True Detective” creator.
McConaughey teamed with Pizzolatto in the first season of 2014’s “True Detective” series for HBO. Starring alongside Woody Harrelson, McConaughey portrayed a former detective named Rust Cohle who reflects with his old partner played by Harrison on an old case involving a serial killer. McConaughey was nominated for an Emmy for his work in the series as one of the roles that was at the peak of his “McConaissance” revival.
Pizzolatto, a novelist himself, is in development with Skydance on several other projects and is in post-production on a drama he’s also directing called “Easy’s Waltz” starring Al Pacino and Vince Vaughn. At one point he was attached to adapt “Blade” for Marvel.
Deadline first reported the news.
