Martin Scorsese is developing a 'Gangs of New York' TV series

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16 Oct 2022, 14:36

“Ears and noses will be the trophies of the day. But no hand shall touch him.”

You know when you don't know you want something until you do?

Deadline are reporting that Hollywood royalty Martin Scorsese is developing a TV spin-off of his 2002 historical crime drama Gangs of New York, itself based on Herbert Asbury’s 1927 non-fiction book The Gangs of New York.

Scorsese’s movie grossed over $193 million worldwide and received ten nominations at the 75th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Scorsese and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. 

Day-Lewis was cast as Bill the Butcher, a real-life leader of the Bowery Boys gang in New York. Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Liam Neeson, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Brendan Gleeson, and Stephen Graham also appeared.

A Gangs of New York TV series was previously in development in 2013, but never came to fruition. 

That series was to follow organised gangs not only in New York, but in other cities such as Chicago and New Orleans and chronicle the birth of organised crime in America. It is not known whether the new series will take the same format as what was planned.

Scorsese has made TV in recent years, but mostly in the realm of documentaries. He has form prior to that, mind, directing the first episode of HBO's Broadwalk Empire in 2010 and serving as Executive Producer for a further 56 episodes.

The 79 year old New Yorker will be hoping for more luck with this Gangs of New York series than he is having with his adaptation of the Erik Larson novel The Devil in the White City.

Leonardo DiCaprio acquired the rights to the book over a decade ago, which tells the story of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago from the viewpoint of the designers, including Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, and also tells the story of H. H. Holmes, a criminal figure in that same time often considered by historians as the first modern serial killer.

The plan was for the movie to be directed by Scorsese. It's now in development as a Hulu TV series, but both director Todd Field and star Keanu Reeves have dropped out, leaving its future uncertain.