Martin Scorsese is going for round two with one of his more critically panned adaptations

Martin Scorsese fans rejoice, because the acclaimed filmmaker is making a return to one of his previous projects, that being his adaptation of the Herbert Asbury book The Gangs of New York. 

Don’t be alarmed, it’s not a sequel. Rather, Miramax Television is developing a TV series based on the source material, and Scorsese has put his hand up to executive produce, as well as direct the first two episodes. 

Herbert Asbury’s The Gangs of New York is a non-fiction book detailing the history of its title subject in the latter half of the 19th century, before the Italian-American mafia rose to power in the 1920s, the period during which Asbury penned the book. 

Scorsese’s original Gangs of New York adaptation from 2002 starred Leonardo Dicaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz.

While Scorsese is widely considered by many as one of the masters of cinema, critics largely considered Gangs of New York to be decent, but not his best work – with the film not taking home any Academy Awards following its release.

Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance, however, did take home a number of accolades from other industry bodies like the British Film Industry Association. 

Cameron Diaz, on the other hand, was pretty poorly received in the film, widely considered to have been miscast and put on a pretty abysmal Irish accent for the role. 

No release date has been set for Scorsese’s second attempt at adapting The Gangs of New York, but we wouldn’t count on it coming any time in the near future.

The director just premiered the documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, with his next feature film Killers of the Flower Moon inbound next year, followed by his executive production work on Hulu’s The Devil in White City.