Scorsese developing 'Gangs of New York' TV series

It's been announced this week that Martin Sorsese will be working with Miramax to bring 'Gangs of New York' to the small screen.

In a statement released on Thursday, Scorsese said that he wanted to return to the source material: Herbert Asbury’s 1928 book 'The Gangs Of New York: An Informal History Of the Underworld' as he felt that he'd only managed to represent a small part of the work in his Oscar-nominated film of 2002, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis.

The director said in his statement: “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 colourful world, and all the implications it had and still does on our society, to life.”

Miramax have said that the series will also widen its scope to include the rise of crime in cities such as New Orleans and Chicago.

The TV network that will host the series has yet to be announced.