Martin Scorsese to direct Shutter Island TV spin-off

Leonardo Di Caprio in a scene from Shutter Island.

Martin Scorsese is set to direct a TV spin-off from his 2010 thriller Shutter Island.

The new series, titled Ashecliffe after the eerie island mental hospital from the film, will be brought to the small screen by HBO and Paramount.

The storyline will centre the hospital's past secrets before the events of Shutter Island took place, according to Deadline.

Fans of the hit movie can expect to learn more about Ashecliffe's founders and their horrible early 20th century treatment methods.

Dennis Lehane, the pen behind Shutter Island, has written the script. His best-selling novel followed a US Marshall, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film, who visits the hospital to investigate after one of the criminally insane patients disappeared.

Scorsese is currently busy working on Shusako Endo adaptation Silence, starring Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson and his gangster movie Revenge of the Green Dragons comes out this autumn.

The influential director is on board to co-produce an as-yet-untitled Seventies rock'n'roll pilot with Mick Jagger, while boxer Mike Tyson has claimed that he is helming a film about his life with Jamie Foxx in the lead.

Lehane's other novels Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River have also enjoyed cinematic success, while his thriller The Drop, starring Tom Hardy and the late James Gandolfini, will reach audiences in November.

- Independent