Martin Scorsese’s eminent ‘90s classic Goodfellas is to be resurrected for a TV series.
Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote both the Oscar-winning 1990 movie and the book it was based on, will pen “at least the pilot episode” according to Deadline , which bodes well for continuity and tone.
The original movie followed Ray Liotta’s small-town criminal Henry Hill, who attempts to work his way up to the top of the mob hierarchy – with a little help from his friends.
Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (who bagged the Oscar) co-starred as fellow mobsters Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito, who Hill is tempted to betray in his quest for power.
With Scorsese having just found success with TV’s Boardwalk Empire (which has been renewed for a second season at HBO after only one episode has aired), this is a clear sign that TV dramas are the place to be right now.
Mad Men is still putting out a classy mini-movie every week, and with the end of The Sopranos, TV bosses obviously felt there was a mob-shaped hole in the weekly schedules.
Mostly, it comes as a welcome relief that the Powers That Be decided to foster a new version of the story on the small screen, and not resort to the remake treatment...
