Frank Darabont Talks About His Walking Dead Exit

Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) recently did an interview over at TVGuide.com where he spoke about his new series over at TNT, L.A. Noir, while also speaking for the first time about his unceremonious exit as showrunner from AMC's The Walking Dead last August, just days after appearing at the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the series.

"It was, for the sake of my cast and my crew, a tremendously regretful thing to face, to have to leave," Darabont said. "But I was really given no choice. I don't understand the thinking behind, 'Oh, this is the most successful show in the history of basic cable. Let's gut the budgets now.' I never did understand that and I think they got tired of hearing me complain about it. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's as far as I want to go with it because otherwise it's just provoking more controversy and that's not really of interest to me. I just want to keep my head down and do my job and be allowed to do my job, that's key, and continue to, hopefully, enjoy it and do good work."

"[The cast and crew] are like family to me," Darabont continued, speaking to the fact that his exit happened suddenly and pretty much hit everyone like a punch to the gut. "It has not been easy for anybody. Let me put it that way: It was like a death in the family. Only I was the dead guy. I felt like William Holden, face down in the swimming pool, narrating this thing."

One of the things that infuriated many fans at the time was AMC's refusal to officially comment on Darabont's dismissal, which came about due to the network's want to cut the budget and Darabont's insistence on spending money on lots of outdoor shooting. "It was a lot of obfuscation and on my end just maintaining what I thought was the most dignified silence that I could," Darabont stated. "Who needs a cat fight in the press, oy vey? There's plenty of stuff in this world that I'm excited about doing, and how lovely that we're getting the opportunity to do this with TNT. How great is that."

Darabont's new show, TNT's L.A. Noir, is a period drama set in 1947 and focuses on LA cop Joe Teague – a man caught in the moral gray zone between the city's notorious gangsters and its corrupt police force. Much like HBO's Boardwalk Empire, which features many "of the era" people and personalities, real-life 40's figures such as LAPD chief William Parker and famed mob boss Mickey Cohen, will be a part of the show, along with fictional characters.

"Boardwalk has done that very well," Darabont commented. "And one of my favorite miniseries of all time is Rome, which invented this wonderful ensemble of fictional characters woven into the actual events and did such a beautiful job of it. That's somewhat the approach that we're taking. We don't want to be limited by facts, because we never want to abuse the facts but we don't want to run the risk of this being a dry thing. I want it to be a bright, vibrant piece of fun drama."

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AMC's The Walking Dead returns with the final six episodes of Season 2 on Sunday, February 12th.

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