Edward Burns Penning The Brothers McMullen Prequel and New Show on TNT

South Forker Edward Burns hasn’t been able to develop a satisfactory sequel to his 1995 breakout hit, The Brothers McMullen, so he’s working on a prequel instead.

The Brothers McMullen explored the relationships of three Irish Catholic brothers on Long Island. Describing the prequel, Burns said on Twitter, “Set in 1986, Jack is a senior in college, Barry a senior in HS, Pat finishing eighth grade.”

In the original, Burns plays Barry (or Finbar) McMullen, Michael McGlone plays Patrick McMullen and Jack Mulcahy was the eldest McMullen brother, also named Jack, who was struggling with temptation outside his marriage. As explained on IMDB.com, the “angst-filled tale of three Irish-Catholic brothers explores men’s relationships with women.” Three plotlines runs parallel, with each brother facing a different kind of crisis.

The prequel, which occurs about a decade before the first The Brothers McMullen film, will clearly have to star different actors, considering Burns, McGlone and Mulcahy are now 18 years older and their characters must appear 9 years younger than they were in 1995. Burns tweeted his plans to cast “all unknowns” in the roles, but he said he will try to cast “a name” for their father, who died just before the events of the first movie.

“I’m writing the script now. If all goes well, we’ll shoot sometime in the late Spring,” he tweeted, explaining, “Mrs. McMullen will hit the old country while Mr. McMullen hits the bottle.”

Along with penning future projects, Burns has also been incredibly busy with current work. His recent The Fitzgerald Family Christmas was just released on DVD and Netflix, and it’s still getting rave reviews from fans (see trailer here). Meanwhile,the filmmaker and actor plays Bugsy Siegel in TNT’s new Frank Darabont-created noir cop drama Mob City. Originally titled Lost Angels, the “epic three-week event” featuring cops and crooks in 1940s Los Angeles debuts Wednesday, December 4 at 9 p.m. (see trailer below).

TNT also just approved the Burns-penned Public Morals, a show about New York City’s Public Morals Division in 1967—a time when vice cops fought crime, but often gave in to the temptation and immorality they battled against. Deadline.com reports that fellow Hamptonite Steven Spielberg joins Burns (who will also direct and star in the show) as co-executive producer, along with Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey and Aaron Lubin. Public Morals is the first television project where Burns is both creator and star.