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Now that True Blood has fizzled out and The Newsroom and Boardwalk Empire are heading into their respective final seasons, HBO is in the business of developing new content. Sure, the network has Game of Thrones and True Detective and The Leftovers, but its drama well is evaporating quicker than California's water supply. Which is likely why the network is looking adapt Martin Scorsese's 2010 film Shutter Island, itself based on a book by Dennis Lehane, into a series tentatively titled Ashecliffe.
According to Deadline, Ashecliffe would take place prior to the events of the movie, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal investigating the disappearance of a mental patient named Rachel Solando from the isolated Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
The show would focus on the hospital's founders, who developed the methods of treatment used at Ashecliffe, by diving into their various secrets and misdeeds. The current plan is to have Scorsese direct a pilot written by Lehane.
Ashecliffe isn't Scorsese's first foray into HBO-produced television; he won an Emmy in 2011 for his direction of the Boardwalk Empire pilot, and he's currently working on an untitled 1970s rock 'n' roll project for the network with Mick Jagger and Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter.