Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Departed’ Being Turned Into Amazon’s TV Series

Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning crime thriller The Departed is being adapted for the small screen.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, The Departed, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, is being made into an hour-long TV drama by Amazon.

#TheDeparted TV Series in the Works at Amazon https://t.co/Yh0kSRmAtf pic.twitter.com/GMywnVxT59

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 23, 2016

Released in 2006, The Departed was an official remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs. Apart from DiCaprio and Damon, the film featured an ensemble cast of Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin, and Anthony Anderson.

The crime drama film takes place in Boston, and it follows the story of an Irish Mob boss Francis Costello (Nicholson) who plants Colin Sullivan (Damon) as a mole within the Massachusetts State Police. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover state trooper William Costigan (DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello’s crew. Situations take an interesting turn when both sides realize the matter and both attempt to discover the other’s identity before his own cover is blown.

The film was a critical and commercial success and won several awards, including four Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing for Thelma Schoonmaker, and Best Adapted Screenplay for William Monahan. The film’s budget was $90 million, and it went on to earn more than $280 million at the box office.

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Departed has a rating of 91 percent, based on 264 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. Rotten Tomatoes’ critical consensus reads as follows.

“Featuring outstanding work from an excellent cast, The Departed is a thoroughly engrossing gangster drama with the gritty authenticity and soupy morality we come to expect from Martin Scorsese.”

The adapted TV show will be set in modern-day Chicago and will be similar to the earlier released movie. It is also being reported that the TV adaptation is going to be Warner Bros TV’s first venture in which they are collaborating with Amazon.

According to Deadline, the pilot episode will be written by Jason Richman, who will also serve as an executive producer on the show. Formerly a professional musician, Richman has been credited for writing and creating shows like Detroit 1-8-7, Lucky 7 and Mercy Street.

This is not the first time when an astounding movie is being developed by Amazon as a TV series for its Amazon Video service. Earlier this month, it was announced that Amazon had given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan featuring John Krasinski’s popular CIA hero.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan follows Ryan (Krasinski), a modern-day CIA analyst who uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that launches him into some serious gambit with a new breed of terrorism who have already threatened to create mayhem in the entire world.

It is hard to argue with the fact that The Departed is one of its kind. The crime drama is a brutal, funny and iconic film that has already blended entertainment, art, and business in the perfect way possible. Many critics have already compared it with Scorsese’s other projects like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas.

If the upcoming Amazon TV series will manage to achieve that, then it would be worth a watch.

Nothing has been reported yet as who will feature in the leads, but it would be interesting to see who is going to reprise the iconic characters that came to life by DiCaprio and Damon.

It is also not yet announced when the TV series will go into production and who is going to star in the leads. Do you think that DiCaprio or Damon will be involved in this project? Tell us in comments and keep checking this space for more news on The Departed TV series.

[Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images]