A 'True Detective' reunion is in the offing as Matthew McConaughey signs on for Nic Pizzolatto movie

If you aren't familiar with Mike Hammer, he's one of those classic hardboiled detective characters popular in the 1930s and 1940s. Hammer debuted in Mickey Spillane's 1947 novel "I, the Jury." Hammer has been portrayed in film and on TV multiple times, though never in what we would call a seminal, hit version.

Hammer stands out as a character not just because he's a New Yorker, but because he's truly violent and angry. He's almost as much vigilante as private eye. Casting McConaughey as Hammer is quite a change as the character has typically been portrayed by tougher seeming actors. For instance, Stacy Keach played him a bunch of TV, which gives you a sense.

Granted, while nothing of Mike Hammer's character would cause you to envision a sinewy, laidback guy with a Texas drawl, many will be introduced to the character through this movie. It'll be "The 'True Detective' guy is making a private eye movie with Matthew McConaughey!" Their reunion is the selling point more than anything Spillane wrote back in the day.

(h/t Variety)