Things have been awfully quiet since the first announcement, back in September 2010, of a Goodfellas TV adaptation in development. We began to suspect that it might have been fitted with a concrete overcoat and left to sink to the bottom of a convenient river. But good(fellas) news! The show has now been put into development by Mad Men/Breaking Bad cable network AMC.

Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the film based on his book Wiseguy, is officially confirmed aboard the show, planning to write the pilot with Homicide: Life On The Street veteran Jorge Zamacona.

There’s no word on exactly which part of Henry Hill’s saga the series would cover, but if it makes it to the air, there’s plenty of scope to tell the story of the Lucchese crime family from its early days in the 1960s to its fall.

And it’s not the only period drama that Pileggi has been working on: he’s also got Ralph Lamb cooking away, which tells the true story of a cowboy-turned-Las Vegas sheriff in the same era. That show has James Mangold attached to direct the pilot, so it remains to be seen whether Pileggi will end up splitting his time between two shows…