Goodfellas: the TV show

AMC is developing a television series adaptation of Martin Scorsese's iconic Italian-American mafia film Goodfellas, with a specific focus on protagonist Henry Hill's pre-mob years in the 1960s. Looks like it'll be quite the one-two punch of television trends here: The Sopranos mafia culture meets the stylish Mad Men era. But will it just be another all-trend and little-to-no-substance show like Pan-Am or The Playboy Club?

There is certainly a lot of potential for quality here given AMC's track record lately, the fact that cable tends to allow more creative freedom, plus that Goodfellas screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi has signed on to the project. The right casting could make this a really great show. On the other hand, rehashing characters and plots from an acclaimed film leaves a lot of room for falling short. Even Scorsese himself has had a hard time with TV-- he couldn't seem to please everyone with his work on Boardwalk Empire.

Whatever the result may be with this new Goodfellas project, we're eager to see what else will unfold here. After all, there are only so many Joe Pesci quotes one can stretch over another two decades