The Scorsese-verse is expanding. After the legendary filmmaker’s first ventures into the world of streaming, directing the pilot episode of HBO’s Vinyl (2016) and the Netflix original film, The Irishman (2019), Martin Scorsese is returning to the small screen for a new adaptation of his epic historical film, Gangs of New York (2002). This effort revives a similar attempt back in 2013, which failed to materialize. Nevertheless, the Taxi Driver director is giving it another go twenty years after the release of Gangs with a new round of episodes scripted by television writer and playwright Brett Leonard.

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Deadline recently broke the news that Scorsese will direct the first two episodes and serve as an executive producer for the first season, mirroring David Fincher’s involvement almost exactly in season 1 of the Netflix original series House of Cards (2013). This announcement comes after Scorsese condemned Hollywood’s “repulsive” obsession with how much money theatrical films make in their opening weekends and overseas.

While theatrical filmmaking was once considered the ultimate vessel for visual storytelling, with each passing year, it looks increasingly like a sinking ship for auteurs, many of whom are jumping to TV and streaming services. This upcoming adaptation of Gangs of New York could be a turning point where more auteurs free themselves from runtime limitations and box office pressure of theatrical filmmaking, joining the ranks of Scorsese, David Fincher, and Steven Soderbergh, among others.

Theatrical Releases From Auteurs Have Taken a Beating in Recent Years

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Recent years have seen auteur films repeatedly underperforming at the box office. While Wes Anderson, Jordan Peele, Tarantino, and Spielberg have managed to keep their heads above water, many recent auteur films haven’t washed their face; David O. Russell’s Amsterdam (2022), Robert Eggers’ The Northman (2022), Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (2020), Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky (2017), P.T.A.’s Inherent Vice (2014) and Licorice Pizza (2022), as well as Scorsese’s most recent theatrical release Silence (2016).

While many recent films failed to compete with the box office successes of comic book films, up-and-coming auteurs have been flocking to TV and streaming.

Then there are the well-established auteurs with deep roots in theatrical films who have virtually abandoned the multiplex in recent years.

David Fincher produced two hit shows for Netflix. And Mank (2020). Thus far, Steven Soderbergh has made two films for Netflix and four for HBO. Fincher hasn’t released a theatrical film since 2014 with Gone Girl, and Soderbergh hasn’t since 2013 with Side Effects; discounting Logan Lucky and Unsane (2018), which Soderbergh distributed as independently of the studio system as possible.

Gangs of New York Is Perfectly Suited For Longform Storytelling

     Miramax

Fans of Gangs of New York should not get their hopes up for Daniel Day-Lewis to reprise his unforgettable role as “Bill the Butcher” from the film. The three-time Oscar winner quit acting after a final performance in P.T.A.’s 2017 film Phantom Thread. Add Leonardo DiCaprio to the list of actors that are unlikely to return. But maybe. Just maybe Scorsese will grace viewers with a reprise of his cameo as a wealthy landowner.

While Brett Leonard’s scripts for the show are all based on the same source material as the Gangs film, the new series will feature a different cast of characters from Herbert Asbury’s 1927 book The Gangs of New York. With the film’s sprawling runtime of nearly three hours and Asbury’s source novel at 400 pages, Brett Leonard and Scorsese must have plenty to work with. During the first attempt to adapt Gangs for TV in 2013, Scorsese released this statement:

Scorsese’s desire to tell longform stories has become increasingly evident in the sprawling runtimes of his latest theatrical efforts. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) is three hours long. Silence, nearly three hours. The Irishman, three and a half. It’s as if Scorsese has grown too powerful to be contained by the two-hour standard that mere mortal filmmakers must obey. The filmmaker’s interest in longform stories is shared by David Fincher, whose work on House of Cards, as well as his ongoing work on Mindhunter (2017), represent the biggest auteur jump to TV so far.

In 2013, during the height of AMC’s hit TV series Breaking Bad, Fincher told HitFix:

Other Auteurs Are Likely to Follow in Scorsese’s Footsteps

     Sony Pitcures Releasing

Maybe Wes Anderson will develop and direct the first couple of episodes of a stop-motion adventure show for FX on Hulu about an anthropomorphic rodent navigating the Dickensian sewers of London. How about a Netflix limited series from The Safdie Brothers, Escape From Rikers Island? Sam Mendes could probably adapt one of his films, like American Beauty (1999), into a compelling eight-hour miniseries. Just as long as he doesn’t do Revolutionary Road. Eight hours of Revolutionary Road would be excruciating.