A proposed new TV series was announced this week that, if judging by the pedigree of its producers, sounds like a significant new entry in the mob television genre.
The untitled series, from Showtime and Imagine Entertainment, is based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, the journalist-turned-screeenwriter whose books were the basis for Martin Scorsese’s 1990s mob films Goodfellas and Casino. It’s inspired, per Deadline, by “Pileggi’s in-depth chronology of organized crime in America — which is also the history of corruption in America — as seen through the eyes of the mafia’s First Family.”
The other name behind the series is Terence Winter, a Sopranos veteran writer who went on to create Boardwalk Empire, alongside Pileggi’s old collaborator Martin Scorsese, while Winter also wrote Scorsese’s movie The Wolf of Wall Street. Also listed as executive producers are Imagine’s Brian Grazer and Samie Kim Falvey.
Winter is also on board as a writer for the just-announced series for HBO Max that’s set in the same universe as the upcoming movie The Batman.
Much remains unknown about the series, which is said to be in its early stages. We don’t know what the show is called, when we might be seeing it, or whether “Pileggi’s in-depth chronology” is a reference to his previously published books that Scorsese adapted, or some other part of the author’s work.
But that much talent, on that ambitious a subject – on a network, Showtime, that’s been making good decisions lately, make this a project worth watching.
