The latest installment of the HBO series True Detective takes the audience on a thrilling crime mystery in the cold, dark nights of an Alaskan winter. So, where was True Detective: Night Country filmed?
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In the fourth season of the series, the story focuses on the town of Ennis, Alaska. Starring big names like Jodie Foster and John Hawkes, the show has a new writer and director this season with Issa López. This change is the first for the show, with Nic Pizzolatto guiding the first three seasons.
In True Detective: Night Country, the city of Ennis is not a real place, but there are actual cities above and around the Arctic Circle. However, for multiple reasons, filming wasn’t done in Alaska. The majority of the filming took place in Iceland.
Filming True Detective: Night Country in Iceland
In fact, the movie was part of a new incentive in the Nordic country to bring in more film production. Multiple media reports suggest that not only does the country offer cost savings for production, but it also has an international airport and the infrastructure needed to film a show that costs tens of millions of dollars.
“As much as we would have liked to be true to the elements of the story, the part of Alaska where we needed to shoot this–which is above the Arctic Circle where the night expands into months–doesn’t have the infrastructure,” López was quoted as saying in Total Film. “It’s a big production. And Alaska, in the months that we were going to be shooting there, you reach temperatures of minus 36 Celsius. It gets beyond human endurance … to the point that cameras don’t work.”
Iceland has seen a recent spike in shows using the country’s beautiful outdoor spaces as a backdrop. The FX show A Murder at the End of the World, which premiered late last year, was also filmed partially in Iceland.
