A television series based on The Gangs of New York is in development from Miramax Television according to Deadline. The series will be based on the 1927 non-fiction book by Herbert Asbury with Brett Leonard (Shantaram) writing and Martin Scorsese, who directed the 2002 film Gangs of New York based on the same book, executive producing and directing episodes of the series.
Asbury’s book details “the confrontations between rival gangs in New York in the mid- to late-1800s, prior to the domination of the Italian-American Mafia during Prohibition in the 1920s.” The series will feature new characters from Scorsese’s film, but beyond that little is known about the potential series.
In an interesting twist, Scorsese had been thinking of developing The Gangs of New York into a TV series as far back as 2013 but nothing ever came of it. Leonard approached the Goodfellas director earlier this month with a script and Scorsese decided to join Leonard’s new take. They both will executive produce alongside their managers Rick Yorn and Chris Donnelly.
As of now The Gangs of New York has no home, but Miramax will begin shopping the series around to premium and streaming studios. We can probably expect a bidding war from the big names like HBO, Netflix and Amazon.
Scorsese’s Gangs of New York starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis and Cameron Diaz and was the first of many films Scorsese and DiCaprio have worked on together. DiCaprio will later be seen in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon next year.
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