Nic Pizzolatto
Nic Pizzolatto
Nicholas Austin "Nic" Pizzolattois an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for creating the HBO crime drama series True Detective...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth18 October 1975
CityNew Orleans, LA
CountryUnited States of America
I made 'True Detective' like it was going to be the only thing I ever made for television. So put in everything and the kitchen sink. Everything.
begin endless invent last second shows stories third year
I enjoy a third act, and I like stories with ending. A lot of my frustration with serialized storytelling is a lot of shows don't have a third act. They have an endless second act, and then they find out it's their last year and often have to hustle to invent a third act, but they were never necessarily organically meaning to begin with.
careful die human stories theme
If there was one overarching theme to 'True Detective,' I would say it was that, as human beings, we are nothing but the stories we live and die by - so you'd better be careful what stories you tell yourself.
close deserved heroes point recognize
For the finale, I thought the audience deserved to get a close point of view on the monster, and to recognize him the way you recognize the heroes of 'True Detective.'
academia admitted good liked
I liked teaching, but the bureaucracy of academia and the petty intrigue... It wasn't a good fit. Once I admitted that myself, that I didn't like academia, I was ready to try TV.
absolute against conspiracy found horror human incredibly less ultimate
I read 'The Conspiracy Against the Human Race' and found it incredibly powerful writing. For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writer's ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.
allowing certain learner mostly oversight providing scripts writers
If you are a certain kind of hands-on learner and have been in a writers room and know how scripts get made, and you know what pre-production is, then mostly it's making sure the actors get what they need, and you are providing creative oversight while allowing room for everyone else to own the material, too.
might next version
In the summer of 2010, I was working on a version of 'True Detective' that I was thinking might be my next novel, and it was told in these two first-person voices; Cohle and Hart's voices.
summer thinking two
In the summer of 2010, I was working on a version of True Detective that I was thinking might be my next novel, and it was told in these two first-person voices; Cohle and Harts voices.
powerful philosophy writing
I read The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and found it incredibly powerful writing. For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writers ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.
summer writing ideas
In the summer of 2010, I had decided to get into film and TV writing, so I wrote scripts for six different ideas I had developed, and the pilot for True Detective was one of them.
teaching writing class
At DePauw, I was teaching writing and fiction. The things I wanted to teach, more than anything else, were form and theory of the novel, of narrative. I liked those classes.
writing thinking detectives
If I write scripts that nobody likes, I don't think we'll be doing 'True Detective.'
character demand want
For me as a storyteller, I want to follow the characters and the story through what they organically demand.