Earlier this year Frank Darabont divulged his next TV project following his exit from AMC’s The Walking Dead. Today TNT greenlit the project ordering a total of six episodes that will comprise season one. For the uninitiated, here’s a newly released series synopsis.
This new series tells the true story of a decades-long conflict between the Los Angeles Police Department, under the determined leadership of Police Chief William Parker, and ruthless criminal elements led by Mickey Cohen, a one-time boxer who rose to the top of L.A.’s criminal world. The series is a fast-paced crime drama set in Los Angeles during the 1940s and ’50s. It’s a world of glamorous movie stars, powerful studio heads, returning war heroes, a powerful and corrupt police force and an even more dangerous criminal network determined to make L.A. its West Coast base.
If you’re like me and following Darabont from Atlanta to Los Angeles, you’ll be happy to hear that he’s recruited not one but two stars from his acclaimed zombie drama. Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead’s Shane) stars as Joe Teague, an ex-Marine now working as an LAPD cop in an era rampant with police corruption. Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) plays Det. Hal Morrison, who heads up the LAPD’s new mob squad. The series also stars Neal McDonough (Captain America) as Capt. William Parker, Teague’s boss who is determined to weed out corruption and bring down Mickey Cohen; and Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) plays Ned Stax, who fought alongside Teague during World War II but who now works as a lawyer with connections to the mob.
TNT president and head of programming Michael Wright on the pickup: “This series is an intense, exciting drama that takes viewers back to a truly fascinating time in the history of Los Angeles. Frank Darabont, Michael De Luca and Elliott Webb have delivered an outstanding opening episode that evokes the time and place in stunning detail. Together with a pitch-perfect ensemble cast and top-notch production crew, they have woven an engrossing tale of heroism in the face of greed and corruption. We’re very excited to be working with such talented storytellers in bringing this project to life.”
L.A.Noir, based on the book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City by John Buntin, will premiere in 2013.
[Via TNT]