Frank Darabont is getting ready to launch his new noir gangster series Mob City on TNT and as a result, he's been doing press for the first time since his departure from AMC's The Walking Dead . The Oscar-nominated filmmaker developed the zombie series and served as showrunner until he and the network had a very public parting of the ways early into production on Season 2.

During a recent interview with Variety, Darabont said he no longer watched the series and called the executives who fired him, "sociopaths who don’t give a s**t about your feelings or the feelings of your cast and crew." We had the opportunity to sit down with Darabont today to talk about Mob City. During the course of our conversation, we touched upon the reasons for his firing from The Walking Dead and the impact it had on a cast and crew that he'd handpicked and had strong, long-term, relationships with.

Frank Darabont and Jon Bernthal on the set of The Walking Dead.

Work with nice people. Otherwise don't show up. That's the lesson.Money. Greed. Power mongering.The big crux of our argument was budget. If somebody comes and hands you the biggest hit you've ever had you don't just say, 'Okay, now we're going to cut your budgets by 25% across the board. And we don't give a s**t if you care, if you don't like it.' That's just...I don't even understand that kind of thinking. Or how much punishment it visits upon the people who are actually making the show, which was incredibly difficult to begin with. Cutting your resources by a quarter in the following season so they work even longer hours and under harder circumstances? It's inhuman. I'll write a book about this one day.Oh yes, they were bullied, and threatened, and their livelihoods threatened, and there was some weight being thrown around. Like I said, I'll write a book. And there are a lot of people who will go on record. That are actually very keen to go on record, because like I said there are a lot of people who felt tremendously abused.Yeah, Jeff didn't want to stick around. Because Jeff is a human being and he's got a tremendous...he doesn't need the work. He doesn't have a very extravagant lifestyle and he wants peace of mind in his life. He's a very good and decent man that way; which is absolutely no reflection on anybody else who stayed with the production. Who had to stay with the production. Who were actually obliged to stay with the production. I actually had a few people, well more than a few people, call and say, 'What do you want us to do? We're thinking of walking off the set. I'm thinking of leaving. I'm thinking of quitting.' And I said do not do that for me. Don't do that. Don't confuse love or loyalty to me with taking some kind of stand that's only going to harm you. Don't expose yourself to legal action or retaliation, which you know these people will take. And just don't do it. It was heartwarming to hear people expressing that loyalty, but I didn't want anyone to compromise their livelihoods. I mean these people have to work and support their families.Oh, yeah. Oh, I love that whole cast. And the crew. That was the thing, it was very much a family. It was a family like this [Mob City] is a family. So having that family torn apart for whatever reasons was very heartbreaking for everybody.

Watch for Darabont's new series Mob City, which is set to premiere on Wednesday, December 4 on TNT.