So last spring Vince Vaughn shot Term Life, a noirish crime pic for Universal distribution, and now he’s reportedly in talks for a major role in season #2 of HBO’s True Detective. In the view of HuffPostLive‘s Ricky Camilleri, the latter may prove to be Vaughn’s biggest shot in the arm since The Wedding Crashers. Because right now Vaughn is really hurting — more or less in the same spot Matthew McConaughey was in (i.e., “King of the Empties“) before he turned things around three years ago.

“Vaughn’s comic shtick” — Delivery Man, The Internship, Couples Retreat — “has grown tired for audiences in the same way it grew tired for McConaughey’s shirtless, lady-charming leading men of 2003 to 2010,” Camilleri declares. “McConaughey needed Dallas Buyers Club, The Wolf Of Wall Street and, of course, True Detective, in the same way Vaughn now needs True Detective. The difference now is that this HBO show is already an established hit that can have the stars of its choosing. McConaughey helped make it that by lending his name, performance and Oscar win to the first season of the show. If Vaughn lands True Detective he can rebrand himself as a viable and layered movie star with mystery and wit.”