With the success of his and Terence Winter‘s HBO series “Boardwalk Empire,” Martin Scorsese‘s venture into cable television definitely looks like it has the potential to expand. There were reports of a planned television series based on the director’s 1990 gangster classic “Goodfellas,” with the film’s scribe Nicholas Pileggi in the process of writing for a pilot and potentially more, but Scorsese’s involvement in that was still in question at the time.
Speaking with the U.K.’s Culture Magazine (via Digital Spy) though, Pileggi has confirmed that Scorsese is in fact on board, adding that the script will likely be set in a time before the rise of mobster Henry Hill, played in the original feature by Ray Liotta. “We’re trying (to develop the TV series). I want to do it, Marty wants to do it, Warner Bros wants to do it,” Pileggi revealed. “Of course, you can’t pick up from ‘Goodfellas,’ since we murdered everybody, or rather, everybody was murdered! There’s nobody left. But I think we’re going to figure out a way to do the early years – sort of a prequel. The part of the movie people often like best is the opening third, where all the funny stuff is happening, and there’s so much we could fit in.”
Pileggi’s words make it sound like the project hasn’t quite gotten the go-ahead, but we’re sure once a direction comes through that Warner Bros. is pleased with, development will begin in earnest. No word yet on what role Scorsese will play in the project — whether he’ll just advise, produce or actually step behind the camera — but, no doubt, there’ll be more to come from this as the show’s development progresses. The track record of feature-films-turned-television-shows isn’t exactly reassuring but with the high-caliber teaming of writer, director and original producer Irwin Winkler, surely this one’s in safe hands?