"When we started working on "Gangs of New York"," says writer Jay Cocks, "one of the things Marty said to me was, "Think of it as a Western on another planet." Twenty-five years later, that's still what it is."

For now, we'll have to take his word for it. Outside of a privileged inner circle, all anyone has seen of Martin Scorsese's epic saga of gang warfare in 19th century New York, has been extended trailers screened at the Tribeca and Cannes film festivals.

Originally due for release last December, the film has been plagued by delays and rumours of on-set tension between stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis. Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein allegedly ordered Scorsese to cut about an hour from the whopping 3hrs 40mins cut he screened for Miramax bigwigs.

So what can we expect from the movie? For one, a vision of New York that is likely to be as hallucinatory as "Taxi Driver". The setting is the infamous Five Points slum area of Manhattan, where upwards of 50,000 people - many of them immigrants, from countries such as Ireland and China - were crammed into five-square blocks.

"It was a tinderbox," says Scorsese. But it was also "extraordinary" in a way that allowed them, as film makers, to do pretty much anything. "Gangs of New York" is thus often "quite dream-like", the director explains, "like an Eastern Western. It's a combination of Western and gangster film, with the Civil War as backdrop."

During this era, even New York's firemen were, in Scorsese's words, members of "amateur fire brigades that were more like street gangs". Given the heroic stature they have achieved since 9/11, some commentators have speculated that this is another reason for the film's delay.

"We thought that because we were dealing with New York 150 years ago," reflects Cocks, "that [September 11] would not be an issue. But we found that there was an echo of this and a responsibility to address it. I really believe that we have dealt with this as part of the great continuum of New York, and that people will realise that when they see the movie."

Which, with luck, should be sometime towards the end of 2002.