Goodfellas TV series lands at AMC, avoids living the rest of its life like a network schnook

By Sean O'Neal | January 10, 2012 | 6:39pm

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It’s been well over a year now that we’ve been asked to consider the prospect of a Goodfellas TV series, and after a while it got to be normal. None of it seemed like crime—especially with author Nicholas Pileggi on board to revisit “the early years” of Henry Hill et al. under the supervision of the film’s producer, Irwin Winkler. It’s more like they’re enterprising, while all the other guys are sitting on their asses, waiting for handouts in the form of original scripts. After all, they’re not brain surgeons, they’re blue-collar film guys. The only way they could make extra money—real extra money—is to go out and cut a few corners by remaking their most lasting work as a television show. For them, to live any other way is nuts.

Anyway, now it seems like it all might pay off by landing at AMC, where Deadline notes the series is currently in development. This, of course, would put Goodfellas alongside another ’60s-set drama, Mad Men, as well as the similarly acclaimed crime story of Breaking Bad. See, it’s the highest basic-cable honor they can give you. It would mean that the Goodfellas TV show belongs to the AMC family and crew. It means that nobody—not critics, not even fans who consider the film sacrosanct—can fuck around with it, so long as it doesn’t turn out to be The Killing. It’s like a license to steal. It’s a license to do anything. Except say “fuck” a lot.