Gangs of New York TV series in the works with Martin Scorsese to direct

A Gangs of New York TV series is in the works – with Martin Scorsese set to direct the first two episodes.

According to Deadline, the show is a new take on the 1927 non-fiction book The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld by Herbert Asbury, with all new characters. Playwright/screenwriter Brett Leonard is set to serve as head writer.

Scorsese directed 2002's Gangs of New York, which received 10 Academy Award nominations and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, John C. Reilly, and Brendan Gleeson. 

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Back in 2013, the filmmaker announced he would be helming a series based on Gangs of New York – but that it would venture out of Manhattan and explore organized gangs in Chicago and New Orleans. There is no word yet if the newly announced series will follow the same concept.

Leonard is perhaps best known for The Long Red Road, a play directed by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman that starred Tom Hardy. Leonard would go on to work with Hardy on the FX series Taboo, and is set to write the upcoming Apple TV Plus series Shantaram.

Scorsese's latest film, Personality Crisis: One Night Only, a documentary that follows the life of David Johansen, lead singer-songwriter of 1970s glam punk band the New York Dolls, premiered this week at the New York Film Festival (where he had some choice words about the movie-goer fixation on box office numbers).

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