8/05/2014

Perfect Casting: Elisabeth Moss Sought for 'True Detective' Season 2 as Plot Details Emerge


Perfect casting alert! Anyone who saw Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss in the moody, foreboding cop drama Top of the Lake knows she can handle some heavy and grim material. She was nominated (and probably should have won) for an Emmy for her work on the acclaimed miniseries, and now Moss could be venturing into similar territory as part of HBO's second season of True Detective. Like I said; perfect friggin' casting.

The Wrap reports Moss is being sought for the female lead, one of three lead characters in the show's follow-up season, although writer/creator Nic Pizzolatto has said there will be for major ones in total. Colin Farrell is close to inking a deal to play one of them, while Taylor Kitsch is the frontrunner for the younger male lead. Last night Vince Vaughn's name emerged and he's set to play the show's primary antagonist, although it's stressed this doesn't make him the storyline's ultimate villain.

Also, some major plot details have finally been spilled and they do seem to reflect the Chinatown-esque story Pizzolatto hinted at before. The story will "follow the death of Ben Caspar, the corrupt city manager of a fictional California city who's found brutally murdered amid a potentially groundbreaking transportation deal that would forever change freeway gridlock in the state. Three law enforcement officers from different cities and branches of the government are tasked with finding out who did it. They soon discover their investigation has much broader and darker implications than they initially thought....Caspar's 52-year-old corpse is found on a lonely stretch of Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur — satanic symbols etched on his chest. It turns out he had a penchant for rough sex and may have been involved in the occult."

If everything comes together Vaughn would be playing "Frank Semyon, a former thug-turned-businessman who's working with a local mayor and his political cohorts to spearhead the construction of a high-speed railway system"; Farrell is "Ray Velcoro, who has been damaged by years of turmoil in both his personal and professional lives"; Moss would be "Ani Bezzerides, a tough, no-nonsense Monterey sheriff whose troubled upbringing has driven her to gambling and alcohol"; and Kitch is circling the role of "Paul Woodrugh, a handsome, 28-year-old military veteran who has seen his own share of violence and destruction." It's also said that Michelle Forbes, one of my favorite actresses who appeared in the first season of The Killing and was a main villain on True Blood, is up for a role possibly as the wife of Vaughn or Farrell's characters. Check out her out in the movie Kalifornia, which has a tone similar to True Detective in a lot of ways.

There's still some question which directors will helming episodes as Cary Fukunaga won't be returning. This season will see multiple directors get their shot, and apparently Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly) has been approached, but he may be too busy working on Blonde with Jessica Chastain.