Frank Darabont's L.A. Noir hasn't officially been picked up by TNT but, with the prestige behind the project, not to mention the newest casting reports, the police pilot's chances certainly look promising. The one-time showrunner for The Walking Dead quickly assembled a dynamite cast for his new potential series including a few stars from his former AMC zombie show in Jon Berenthal, Jeffrey DeMunn and Andrew Rothenberg. L.A. Noir also features Milo Ventimiglia and Neil McDonough in lead roles as well as a guest spot from Simon Pegg in the pilot. And today, the cast added another star to the already stellar ensemble.
THR reports that Thomas Jane is in talks to join L.A. Noir if the project indeed goes to series, a decision the article says should be coming soon. The period drama at TNT would be Jane's first role since Hung, which was recently cancelled by HBO after three seasons, and would find the actor playing mobster kingpin Bugsy Siegel. I've been a big fan of Jane ever since he showed up in Deep Blue Sea (a guilty pleasure of mine), so I'm happy to see him land a key role on such a promising project. Plus, he's no stranger to the genre having played the titular detective in Give 'em Hell Malone. Not the best flick but Jane was just fine. Since the production on the pilot wrapped last week, Jane's Siegel obviously doesn't feature in the first show but could become a pretty prominent character down the line.
L.A. Noir is based on John Buntin’s true-crime novel "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City" which details the decades-long fight between the LAPD and the city’s mobsters. Bernthal plays police officer Joe Teague, a former Marine now at the centre of the LAPD's mob squad who is investigating Mickey Cohen (Siegel's right hand man and the future area boss), while co-star Ventimiglia is Ned Stax, a young lawyer and master fixer for the mob who served alongside Bernthal’s Teague during WWII. McDonough stars as the hard-noised police chief with and DeMunn and Rothenberg also both working for the LAPD.
