[Updated at 10:50 a.m., PT on 4/23/13 to make it clear that this is a drama pitch that FX is developing. It’s not an order for a show.]

FX has bought a drama pitch from James Ellroy, the author of "L.A. Confidential," and producers Joe Roth and Clark Peterson, reports Deadline.com.

The project is based on Ellroy’s 2012 novella "Shakedown," set in Los Angeles during the 1950s and featuring the city’s top informant and fixer, Fred Otash, a fictionalized version of the Hollywood vice cop who later became a private detective, the story says.

Otash, who died in 1992, is known for, among other things, being hired by Peter Lawford to investigate the 1962 death of Marilyn Monroe.

Ellroy is writing "Shakedown" and if the idea goes to series, he will executive produce it with Roth, Peterson, Steven Hoban and Palak Patel for FX Productions, the story says. Two years ago, Ellroy developed the police drama "Throwdown Gun" for FX.