Former "The Walking Dead" producer Frank Darabont has been hired by TNT to produce the pilot episode of "L.A. Noir," a project based on a book of the same title by John Buntin, reports The New York Times’ ArtsBeat blog.

The book is based on the real battle between the mob and the Los Angeles police from the 1930s to the 1960s, although the project would be set in the 1940s and 1950s if it gets picked up, the piece notes.

Darabont has previously worked on projects about crime, with his work on "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile," the story points out. He left "The Walking Dead" abruptly last summer when AMC said it was replacing him with Glen Mazzara, a writer for the program. Neither Darabont nor the network has talked much about why he left, the piece adds.