Steven S. DeKnight, creator and showrunner of Spartacus, is developing a U.S. adaptation of the Italian crime drama Romanzo Criminale for Starz. Romanzo first aired in 2008, following the gang that controlled Rome’s heroin trade in the '70s and '80s. The U.S. adaptation’s setting won’t be quite so exotic, as DeKnight plans to set the series in Philadelphia during the late '60s and early '70s. Meanwhile, the Italian gang featured in the original will be transformed into a crew of “working class criminals who attempt to seize the American Dream by any means necessary.” Here’s hoping they at least drive cool cars.
Romanzo Criminale was based on a 2002 novel by Giancarlo De Cataldo about the notorious Magliana gang. That novel was, in turn, made into a 2005 movie that was also called Romanzo Criminale, starring Italian actor Michele Placido.