*Ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards on September 15, we look back at our interviews with some of this year’s nominees. Issa Lopez received three nominations this year – for outstanding limited or anthology series, outstanding directing and outstanding writing (for episode 6).

Issa Lopez loves to challenge himself. The writer and director, known for the mystical feature film from 2017 Tigers are not afraid, believes that your comfort zone is the last place you will find stories worth telling.

“If you are not afraid, you are doing something wrong” Lopez says during a recent Zoom interview. “As a filmmaker, you have to deal with enormous fears. You just have to do it. With the right team, you can do anything.”

Perhaps nothing proves this better than True Detective: Nightland, López’s latest attempt. As writer and director of the fourth season of the acclaimed HBO crime anthology López creates a story that is both literally and physically harrowing.

Set in the fictional town of Ennis in Alaska, Nightland takes place in December, when the sun sets and the days are dark. A sinister mystery with haunting undertones begins when a team of researchers disappears without a trace from their isolated high-tech facility. An investigation by Police Chief Elizabeth Danvers (Jodie Foster) soon finds the men in the lonely tundra, naked and frozen in a giant ball of ice.

A cryptic clue leads Danvers to believe that these deaths are connected to the recent unsolved murder of an indigenous townswoman. The discovery prompts Danvers to reunite with her former partner. Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis). Navarro’s obsession with finding the young woman’s killer led to her demotion from detective to patrol officer, causing a rift between the two women. Now Danvers and Navarro must put aside their differences to solve the new mystery, while also facing their own demons.

True Detective: Nightland took root during the pandemic. Inspired by the puzzle craze that swept the nation, López decided to create her own puzzle. And that triggered fear number one.

“I have never written a crime novel before, but I love, love them,” says López. “II always felt they were beyond my capabilities. I felt I needed training to create this very strange structure. But I decided to challenge myself. I thought good noir was about where it happens. I thought of the Arctic. What would happen if the crime story was set in the ice and around a small town?”

By a happy coincidence, during López was deep in noir thoughts when a call came from HBO. True Detective The team was excited to see how she would approach the fourth season of the series.

“I said, ‘It’s strange that you should ask that.'” Lopez remembers. “It was the perfect combination of two worlds. What makes True Detective so effective are two very complex characters with a background from a corner of America that itself becomes the third character. My idea developed towards a True Detective Story.”

Having spent most of her career in feature films, López enjoyed the opportunity to work in a six-episode structure. It allowed her to explore several themes centered around a True Detective-worthy mystery.

“I’m the type of filmmaker who brings a lot to the table. Sometimes a film has to carry a lot,” he continues. Lopez. “But when you have six hours to expand your world, you can make it really layered. You can talk about the Arctic, about small towns in America, about being a woman in a man’s world, about loss and loneliness. You can explore Indigenous voices. Seventy percent of the population is Indigenous. You can’t make up a story without dealing with that. So I started putting it all together and letting it mature.”

Writing the script was just one obstacle. Nightland presented a challenge of its own.

“It was freezing cold,” shouts López about filming in Iceland over 120 days, including 49 consecutive nights of shooting.”Some nights we were shooting in -23 degrees Celsius… conditions I could never have imagined in my life – let alone shooting a show.”

López wisely heeded the advice of her Icelandic hosts when they told her that it was not bad weather, just bad clothing. Everyone dressed accordingly. Although they Although she jokingly cursed the author for subjecting her to these icy conditions, she knew her instinct was right.

“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” explains Lopez. “The way the cold, the wind and the snow in our eyelashes shaped the show. The actor’s breath, the spirit, the taste, everything about it – we would never have been able to make you feel cold in your living room if we hadn’t filmed there. It was so worth it.”

Ddetermined to make optimal use of the location, Lopez And Nightland Cameraman Florian Hoffmeister (who received an Oscar nomination for his film) tar during filming) decided that instead of fighting the darkness, they would capture the exact images of a scene and envelop it in darkness. The idea was to immerse the viewer in the experience.

“When you look at it, it seems scary – that there is more than you can see,” explains Lopez“And that’s what darkness is all about. It hides things you can’t see.”

López gives an example of a scene in which Navarro wanders through a snowstorm looking for a suspect. The only light is the beam of the flashlight on her forehead. “You can only see a small part of their eyes in the spotlight and wherever it falls,” she adds.”Navarro throws away an orange and then it comes back out of the darkness. It was so beautiful to see.”

An added bonus was the natural light that nature provided. “We had northern lights every week,” says Lopez. “I will never forget that.”

Another plus was the depth that Foster and Reis brought to their characters. Foster’s character was originally written as a woman struggling to keep herself under control. Foster loved Nightland but I didn’t feel a connection to Danvers. She suggested a more world-weary police chief. What if she was a smart-ass with a short fuse and no patience for those around her?

“I listened to her and said, ‘Okay, if I understand correctly, you want me to make her an asshole.'” López remembers.”She laughed and said, “Yes.” And I said, “I can. I like that.”

López envisioned Navarro as a tough fighter. She thought Reis, a professional boxer, would embody that. But when she met the actress, she sensed an opportunity for a kinder, warmer Navarro.“She has really become the opposite of Danvers. She feels and acts openly and honestly,” says the director.

López celebrates success helped take the original ideas of the script to another level during filming. Without giving too much away, she reveals a crucial twist that came about just like that.

“There is a crucial scene where a huge surprise happens,” says Lopez.”I had rewritten it many times and we had rehearsed it many times. And then we got to the set and Jodie said, ‘I don’t know if she…’ And I said, ‘Okay…’ We threw the scene away, called the rest of the actors together and came up with such a powerful, absolutely explosive scene. It happened right there and it was exhilarating.”

López couldn’t be happier with True Detective: Nightland. However, it’s entirely possible that she’ll choose a less demanding climate for her next project. As evidence, López cites the fact that the coffee cup Danvers drinks from in the final scene has a “Hawaii” logo on it.It’s an inside joke about where my soul wants to be,” she says with a laugh.

True Detective: Night Country is streaming on HBO Max.