The director David Chase is working on making a The Sopranos prequel. This will, however, not be a TV series, because Chase has been reportedly working with New Line Cinema to introduce the world from his hit HBO series on to the big screen. The film is tentatively titled The Many Saints of Newark and is based in the 1960s when the famous Newark riots took place. A time which saw the African Americans and the Newark Italians vie for each other’s blood which unleashed a brutal and deadly riot.
Warner Bros’ owned New Line bought the script for The Many Saints of Newark from David Chase, who had jointly written it with Lawrence Konner (who was also one of the writers on the HBO series. Apart from being the co-writer, Chase will also produce the film and will handpick the director. As of now, there is no clue as to who is being approached to direct The Many Saints of Newark. However, these are early days for the project. This is what WB Chairman, Toby Emmerich said about the film.
“David is a masterful storyteller and we, along with our colleagues at HBO, are thrilled that he has decided to revisit, and enlarge, the Soprano universe in a feature film.”
David Chase has avoided reviving The Sopranos earlier. However, this gives a scope of further exploration of that world, and he doesn’t need to recast any known faces from that series. Although some of the characters from the series will play the part of their younger past. It is not yet clear as to which all characters will be featured in The Many Saints of Newark. We are unlikely to see a younger Tony Soprano or Carmela Soprano appear in the film. But, nothing is impossible. During an interview last year, Chase had said that he was keen to make a Sopranos prequel, but, didn’t make any mention of the film back then.
“I wouldn’t want to see that happen, no. Like recasting? Everybody’s getting older; you can’t match people anymore. I could conceive of maybe a prequel of The Sopranos. I could never see [a return of the show] except as a prequel.”
HBO had aired The Sopranos from 1999 to 2007, and it put HBO a leading home entertainment player. There is a large number of people who consider the show to be one of the best TV shows ever created, and there are a number of lists which feature The Sopranos at the top spot. The Sopranos created a market for DVDs of TV shows and won a whopping 21 Primetime Emmy Awards. The series was also honored by five Golden Globes, and it received the Peabody Awards for its initial two seasons. As of now, there is no mention of a release date for the Sopranos prequel film, but, we will update you as soon as further details are available. This news was provided by Deadline.