Could "True Detective" help Colin Farrell's box office rep?

Colin Farrell – or, more precisely, Colin Farrell’s mustache – got lots of attention on social media during the Golden Globes on Sunday night.

The Dubliner grew the bushy, Burt Reynolds-like facial hair for his upcoming role in the HBO series True Detective, which he’s currently filming with Vince Vaughn in and around LA. Farrell plays a corrupt cop called Ray Velcoro who – judging by photos of Farrell on set -- looks a lot more disheveled than squeaky clean Colin did when he took the stage to present a Golden Globe with Lupita Nyong’o, darling of last year’s award season.

The Sony email hack before Christmas which revealed some juicy Hollywood secrets also ensnared Farrell a few days ago. The website Inquisitir reported on new emails leaked on Twitter that indicate one Sony exec’s wariness of casting Colin as a lead in a potential new action movie, given his rather poor box office track record to date.

“As for Colin Farrell, only Total Recall which we spent 600 M JPY (Japanese yen) and grossed 1 B JPY…the rest has been a very small release except for Fright Night which also lost money,” Noriako Sano, director of Sony Pictures Entertainment in Japan, wrote in an October email to other studio honchos.

It’s true that Colin’s box office numbers could definitely be better, but True Detective did wonders for Matthew McConaughey’s career. Maybe it’ll have the same effect for Colin.