Real-life buddies Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are joining the HBO team for a new cop drama called True Detective.  HBO has given the green light for an eight-episode order after the fledgling series was shopped around to different networks earlier this month.

Written by Nic Pizzolatto (The Killing), the first season of True Detective will center on a pair of detectives, Martin Hart (Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (McConaughey), who end up crossing paths on a 17- year hunt for a serial killer deep within Louisiana. The series will feature a split narrative jumping between when the case first opens back in 1995, and the present when the two detectives are testifying in court after the case is reopened. Following an anthology vein similar to FX’s cult-thriller American Horror Story, subsequent seasons of the series may feature a new cast and different storylines.

Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre) is attached to direct all eight installments of the series, with management company Anonymous Content linked to produce. The company's Richard Brown, Steve Golin and Brad Dorros will also executive produce along with writer Pizzolatto - and as part of the pickup deal for True Detective, HBO also signed a development deal with Pizzolatto for other undisclosed projects.  No official word yet on when production will begin or when True Detective will premiere.

McConaughey and Harrelson have worked together before on the 1999 Ron Howard comedy EDtv, as well as on the 2008 comedy (if you can call it that) Surfer, Dude. True Detective will mark McConaughey's first television role as a series regular, after a brief cameo on Sex and the City and recently the HBO comedy Eastbound & Down. For Harrelson, this will bring the star back to his small- screen roots after his breakout role of dumb yet lovable bartender Woody Boyd on Cheers - a role he also reprized on an episode of spin-off, Frasier.

Harrelson also had dealings with HBO earlier this year on a Sarah Palin TV-movie, Game Change, starring Julianne Moore as Palin. Harrelson co-starred as Republican strategist Steve Schmidt along with Ed Harris and Sarah Paulson.

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Check back for more on True Detective when it comes up.

Source: THR