Ever since the Sopranos finally met its demise after six successful seasons, there has been a gaping mobster-shaped hole in small screen schedules. Now a television version of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas could be about to plug that gap, according to the Deadline blog.

While there's no talk as yet of Scorsese's involvement (though the Oscar-winning film-maker is no stranger to small-screen gangland territory having recently directed the pilot episode of HBO's Boardwalk Empire), Deadline reports that original screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi is on board and likely to pen the pilot at the very least.

A TV Goodfellas would most likely draw once again on the story of real-life gangster Henry Hill, played in the film by Ray Liotta. Hill's testimony during court hearings in which he gave evidence against his former partners in crime gave the screenplay its remarkable depth and detail.

"In Goodfellas, Henry Hill opened up and gave up everything," Pileggi has said. "He had the pressure of testifying under oath and, if they caught him in a lie, he was going to prison and he'd have been dead in 10 minutes. I was just lucky enough to be like a stenographer as this guy talked about what it was like to want to be gangster. You could never have made that stuff up."

Deadline reports that Warner Bros's TV arm is leading the charge to sign the series. Warner was the studio that backed Scorsese's 1990 film, which starred Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Paul Sorvino alongside Liotta. It won one Oscar (for Pesci as best supporting actor) and was nominated for a further five in 1991, including best director for Scorsese himself.