Real life friends Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are set to team up for HBO as a pair of fictional crime-solvers.

That network has won the bidding war for True Detectives, Deadline confirmed this week, an eight-episode drama that will feature these stars as the title characters - McConaughey as Rust Cohle and Harrelson as Martin Hart - whose lives collide over the course of 17-year-long hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana.

The series will be flashback-heavy, with current day testimony leading to glimpses over the years of the investigation.

McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have appeared in two movies together, Edtv and Surfer, Dude. HBO likely hopes True Detectives is better received than either of those films.

It will start shooting in the very near future and likely premieres in 2013.

In other HBO news, the network announced renewals this week for Girls and Veep.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.