Nic Pizzolatto

Lore & Background

Pizzolatto wrote two short stories during his MFA at the University of Arkansas—'Ghost-Birds' and 'Between Here and the Yellow Sea'—which were sold to The Atlantic Monthly. In 2004, his work was among the finalists for the National Magazine Award in Fiction. His collection Between Here and the Yellow Sea was long-listed for the 2006 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and named one of the top five fiction debuts of the year by Poets & Writers Magazine.

He received an honorable mention from the Pushcart Prize, and his short story 'Wanted Man' is included in Best American Mystery Stories 2009. His first novel, Galveston, was published by Scribner's in June 2010 and earned him the Prix du Premier Roman Étranger, the French Academy's award for Best First Novel, Foreign. It was also a 2010 Edgar Award finalist for best first novel and won third prize in the 2010 Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, plus the 2011 Spur Award for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America.

Reader's Guide

A new season of True Detective premiered on June 21, 2015, with Pizzolatto again writing/co-writing all the episodes. In late 2015, he signed a new deal with HBO through 2018. In August 2016, HBO announced a potential new series written by Pizzolatto starring Robert Downey Jr. centered on Perry Mason, but he dropped out in August 2017 to focus on the third season of True Detective. Along with Richard Wenk, he co-wrote the screenplay for The Magnificent Seven (2016), released on September 23, 2016.

He adapted his novel Galveston for the 2018 film but requested to be credited under the pseudonym Jim Hammett after director Mélanie Laurent's contributions. In December 2018, he revealed he assisted Deadwood creator David Milch in writing the screenplay for the film adaptation, and Milch helped him with the third season of True Detective by co-writing the fourth episode. In April 2019, he wrote the screenplay for Ghost Army for Universal Pictures, to be directed by Ben Affleck.

In January 2020, FX announced an overall deal with Pizzolatto for the drama series Redeemer, but negotiations for early termination began after Redeemer was canceled. In April 2020, he said he was interested in writing a Batman film. In March 2022, HBO announced a fourth season of True Detective with the subtitle Night Country, written and directed by Issa López, with Pizzolatto remaining as executive producer. In March 2023, it was reported he would write a Western series for Prime Video, later refashioned into a television adaptation of The Magnificent Seven. In April 2023, he was hired to co-write the script for the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Blade.