Martin Scorsese To Direct, Executive Produce A Gangs Of New York TV Series - Report

A TV show adaptation based on the 1927 non-fiction book The Gangs of New York, which previously inspired the Martin Scorsese 2002 feature adaptation, is reportedly in development at Miramax. Deadline was the first to report.

Scorsese is attached to executive produce the potential series, and also direct the first two episodes. Playwright and TV writer Brett Leonard (Shantaram) will be working on the scripts, which reportedly will focus on characters not featured in the movie and portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz. No casting information has been announced regarding what characters may be in this show.

The acclaimed Oscar-winning director was previously attached to an earlier vision for a series adaptation of the book that would have followed organized crime in Chicago and New Orleans. In 2013, when that project was first announced as in development, Scorsese said: "This time and era of America's history and heritage is rich with characters and stories that we could not fully explore in a two-hour film. A television series allows us the time and creative freedom to bring this colorful world, and all the implications it had and still does on our society, to life." That previous version wound up not coming together and never entering production.

Speaking at the New York Film Festival this week, Scorsese made some critical remarks about Hollywood's focus on box office figures and numbers, calling the practice "repulsive" and "really insulting." Scorsese said (via IndieWire), "Cinema is devalued, demeaned, belittled from all sides, not necessarily the business side but certainly the art."

Scorsese's mobster movie The Irishman, was released in 2019 on Netflix. His next movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, will have a streaming debut on Apple TV+.