Thirty years ago, while house-sitting with a group of friends, Martin Scorsese was looking for some reading material  and saw Herbert Asbury's 1928 chronicle Gangs of New York - then a "cult" book often hand-passed among New Yorkers -- sitting on a bookcase.

The title jumped out at him. "I took it off the shelf and read it almost all in one day," recalls Scorsese.

"GANGS OF NEW YORK brings to life a time which we know about only through twice-told tales and people who left behind little more than their names," says Luc Sante, the historian and writer. "To make this history palpable required an act of collective imagination."

The book illuminates the legends and lore of Old New York's notoriously colorful criminal underworld-- and also of a time and place, as Asbury reveals, that ultimately gave rise to the modern Mafia and American mobster. It was a New York City rife with small but ferocious gangs - with storybook names like the Shirt Tails, the Plug Uglies and the Daybreak Boys --all fighting to survive in a hostile and alien world. There is a sense in the book of a "Clockwork Orange" future, except that it is a true history of America's wild past. The book unveils a New York filled with renegades and mobs, slang and savvy, fierce battles and hidden machinations - and a country first discovering the power of the people in the streets.

Reading the book stirred in Scorsese memories of stories he had heard as a boy growing up in Little Italy. "The book contained all the folklore of old New York City and everything I read seemed to fit with my impression of the period," he says. "I guess you could say the project became part of the continuing love and fascination I have for the City."

Scorsese was captivated by the portrait of a time in New York City when immigrants were forced to live outside the law, yet the leaders of society lived above it. He imagined a film version of GANGS OF NEW YORK as an homage to classic American film epics about the roots of the country's character, revealing the story of how young urban immigrants banded together in a time of hopelessness and fear and fought for the right to pursue their individual dreams. He mentioned the book to his friend and collaborator, screenwriter Jay Cocks, who was already acquainted with it. In fact, he owned a copy.

"I also had long been intrigued by the criminals and gangs of that period because my grandfather was a New York policeman," Cocks says. "He kept old copies of the Police Gazette, which were filled with woodcuttings and engravings that illustrated the exploits of the criminal and gangs. I found it fascinating because it's virgin territory in the movies. Most people are unaware of this period in New York's history."

He summarises: "I have always thought about this movie the way Marty once described it to me: a Western on Mars."

Cocks dove into historical research about the period, but also found inspiration in a line from a Bruce Springsteen song about waiting "for a saviour to rise from the streets." And from that notion of a people's hero, the character of Amsterdam Vallon was born. Cocks then created Amsterdam's world. He explains: "The reason Amsterdam was created seemed also to create Bill the Butcher, and Jenny seemed to spring from Amsterdam's need for some sort of respite. There wasn't any respite in that neighbourhood, so they had to create it together."

The story unfolds in New York's long-buried Five Points neighborhood, a legendary landscape of crowded tenements and cobblestone streets on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that Asbury refers to in his book as "The Cradle of the Gangs." Here, each day, scores of new Irish immigrants flooded the nearby docks in search of the American dream. What greeted them, however, was more boiling cauldron than melting pot. The Irish were largely despised -- particularly by the anti-immigrant "Native Americans." The Nativists (as they were also called) saw the Irish as invaders - a threat to their land, work and the democracy for which their forefathers fought. As devout Catholics, it was also feared the Irish would give loyalty to their Church before the nation.

Scorsese sees this clash between new and old as one of the first real tests of what America was supposed to be. Should anyone be free to enter the country? What defined the country if not becoming a place made up of people from other places? Could immigrants be assimilated? Could they become American? Or would fear and intolerance stand in their way?

"This was an extraordinary era for the working classes and the underworld," explains Scorsese, "a time when society was broken into tribes, and the tribes were constantly at war with one another. But unlike the American gangs of today, they were politically oriented."

Scorsese explains the volatile historical background: "The first great immigrant population to arrive in New York came from Ireland during the potato famine, from the 1840s to the 1870s. At its height, more than 15,000 immigrants a week arrived in New York harbour. They had no jobs, no money, and couldn't speak the language. They mainly spoke Gaelic. Having come from Anglo, Dutch and Welsh stocks, Nativists reviled the immigrants because they felt they were the real Americans."

Scorsese and Cocks further focused their tale on one particular Irish gang called the Dead Rabbits. (The gang's name originated in the Gaelic phrase "dod ráibéid," meaning a violent, angry hulk.) For the gang leader who is Amsterdam's nemesis, Scorsese and Cocks based their character on an actual Nativist of the era, Bill Poole, a butcher by trade and later a prize-fighter, known everywhere as Bill the Butcher (the real Poole, however, died in 1855, several years prior to the main action set in GANGS). He makes a powerful adversary for Amsterdam, a man who has insinuated himself into the very power structure of the city, and allied himself with the infamously corrupt Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall. For Amsterdam, who longs for the father he never had growing up, the obsession with Butcher leads to inner turmoil as they develop an almost father-son relationship seemingly based on loyalty and mutual respect but darkened by the truth of their past.

As Amsterdam and Bill the Butcher draw closer to a climactic turning of the tables, Scorsese and Cocks also wanted the film to reveal another side of New York never before seen at the movies - a New York in the midst of the Civil War. The film portrays the volatile mix of poverty, racial tension and general conflict that became like a powder keg ready to blow apart the city.

"The Civil War erupted in New York City in 1863 in a series of riots called the Draft Riots, which were the worst riots in American history," Scorsese explains. "They lasted four days and four nights. In a sense, the riots were the War coming to New York. It all hinged on the first American draft - conscription -- instituted by President Lincoln. All able-bodied men were eligible, but there was an exemption: you could pay $300 and get out. For the poorer classes this was not possible. The draft aroused their fury."

He continues: "Rioters destroyed property in every corner of the city, burning down whatever was in their path. By the second day, the draft was suspended, and the city was in a state of siege. It is at the very moment that the first Union troops arrive in New York to quell the rioters that the monumental battle to the death between Amsterdam and Bill the Butcher and their gangs is enjoined. The climax of the film is played out against the backdrop of the violence and racism of these riots."

Over time, Scorsese continued to fine-tune the screenplay for GANGS OF NEW YORK. Oscar-winner Steve Zaillian ("Schindler's List") worked on the structure of the story and award-winning playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan ("You Can Count on Me") concentrated on further development of the characters.

But the size and scope of the epic drama caused many to fear it was impossible to shoot. Over more than two decades of patient tenacity, the script continued to be refined. Notes Jay Cocks: "I'm glad it took all this time because the movie has many more facets, and some of those facets come from us having lived another 25 years. I must say that I don't think there's another filmmaker in the world who would have had the commitment and the stubbornness to see this through. Marty would not give up."

the cast

GANGS OF NEW YORK is populated by an astonishing array of New Yorkers from a time when the city was a wild frontier - a freewheeling, gritty New York filled with pickpockets and ruffians, political bosses and working-class heroes - all brought to life by a diverse cast.

At the heart of the story is the orphan Amsterdam Vallon, an instinctual survivor who discovers his talents for serving as a courageous leader. Nearly consumed by vengeance, Amsterdam at last realizes his true legacy is not to fight for himself but to fight for a place for his people in the future of this New World. When it was suggested that Leonardo DiCaprio play Amsterdam Vallon, Scorsese was especially enthusiastic. "I have great admiration for Leonardo DiCaprio and have followed his work in all his films," he says. "I always thought I'd like to work with an actor who had the instincts he has. He's the kind of actor I'm used to. I think his lineage is that of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman."

DiCaprio was equally excited about the prospect of working with Scorsese. "I first heard about GANGS OF NEW YORK when I was sixteen--the story of a young Irish immigrant in the 1860s who is placed in the centre of the biggest urban riot in the new world," he says. "I was so determined to do this project with Marty that I actually changed agencies when I was seventeen in order to be in closer contact."

The actor found himself drawn into his character's journey from anger and an unrelenting urge for vengeance to wanting to recreate his life. "I was influenced by a journal that describes the life of a young man of the time who spent his entire youth in a House of Reform. The journal conveys such extreme desperation that it became the perfect back-story for Amsterdam's obsession with revenge," says DiCaprio. "But when he arrives in the Five Points, Amsterdam must learn to repress his desire for revenge. First, he has to learn the rules and codes of this new and unfamiliar world."

With DiCaprio committed to the project, a concerted effort was then made to persuade Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis to play Bill the Butcher, the man who rules the Five Points through a combination of ruthlessness, savvy, intimidation and an unwavering sense of honour.

The process by which Day-Lewis approaches his roles, utterly losing himself in the complex personalities of his characters, is widely known and respected. But he hadn't appeared in a film since "The Boxer" in 1997, and seemed to show little interest in returning to the screen. In the end the prospect of reuniting with Scorsese lured Daniel Day-Lewis out of semi-retirement.

In addition to reading books and researching the period, Day-Lewis even apprenticed with a butcher to learn the details of Bill's business. He left no area of Bill's life unturned. "For my part, in an imaginative sense, all those doors that have DO NOT ENTER written on them in bold red letters- I just crashed right through them without knocking," he says of his process.

The deeper he delved into Bill's personality, the more Day-Lewis found him endlessly fascinating. "Part of my work was to share Bill's conviction, and conviction is a lot easier to live with than doubt," he notes. "He's a man of unassailable conviction. A very dangerous state of mind, yet highly enjoyable and strangely relaxing. He does, however, live with a punishing sense of honour, particularly in relation to Priest Vallon, a kind of idealised self who in life and in death confronts Bill with a profound question about his own worth. That question is a weighty one to live with. To my mind, considering the times and the streets that gave birth to him, he is - however misguided - an honourable man. And thank God he has a sense of humour."

Almost immediately other principal roles - a rogue's gallery of thieves, beggars and gangsters - were cast. Cameron Diaz was signed for the role of Jenny Everdeane, the alluring pickpocket who is a master of stealing both men's hearts and their possessions.

Diaz was also taken by her character's transcendent sense of hope. "Life is tough for Jenny --there's violence, brutality, murder, poverty and sickness everywhere. But she's seen the uptown world and understands there's something better," she says. "Jenny knows it's time to move on, but the question is how to do that and survive."

In addition, Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson ("Schindler's List") was signed for the role of Priest Vallon, whose integrity and principles become a lasting reminder for his orphaned son, Amsterdam. Neeson describes his character as "a bit of a warrior in the Celtic mythological tradition. He's looked up to as a fearless leader, but he has a sense of justice."

Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent ("Iris") takes on the role of the notorious Boss Tweed, who seduces the newly arrived immigrants with promises of food, work and shelter in exchange for their votes. Broadbent relished the chance to recreate a character straight out of history books, noted for being the most corrupt politician of all time, and make him a flesh-and-blood human being. "In his heyday, Tweed was phenomenally successful," notes Broadbent. "He was ruthless, ripping off the government and the people to the tune of millions and millions of dollars until he was caught. Others in history have tried to emulate him, and they're still probably trying to this day. Who he was is still very relevant in America."

Others were equally excited by the chance to travel back in time to a rough-and-tumble New York they never knew existed. Says John C. Reilly: "It was a hell of a dangerous time to be alive. Luckily, my character Happy Jack is clever enough to figure out another option for himself. He sees the grinding poverty, the misery and suffering of the people around him, and he doesn't want to experience it. So he joins the biggest gang of all--the police."

Adds Henry Thomas, who plays the naïve young thug Johnny: "You had to be tough, really tough, to survive in that New York. My character Johnny was born into this world, but he doesn't belong there. He's not quite hard enough inside. I think he's interesting because he's an Everyman the audience can relate to, a desperate kid caught up in crazy times."

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