Ray Liotta – an actor all too familiar with gangster roles – has entered negotiations to join ‘The Soprano’ prequel movie, ‘The Many Saints of Newark’.
Liotta would join the likes of Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Jon Bernthal, Billy Magnussen, Corey Stoll, and Michael Gandolfini, who will play the Tony Soprano role originated by his late father James Gandolfini.
Terminator Genisys’ Alan Taylor will be directing the movie, he is no stranger to the murky underworld of the TV show. Having already directed a number of episodes on the series, he also won an Emmy for sixth season episode Kennedy and Heidi in 2007.
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The script, which is written by Chase and Lawrence Konner is said to be set during the Newark riots in the ’60s when racial tensions between the Italian and African American communities were at boiling point. It is also thought that a number of the original cast members from the show are set to return for the feature.
It’s looking likely that Tony Soprano’s father, Giovanni Johnny Boy, the former captain of the Soprano crew (played in flashbacks by Joseph Siravo), and a younger version of his wife Livia (played indelibly in the show’s first season by Nancy Marchand), and Tony’s uncle Junior, played by Chianese will be the centre of the feature.
Chase will produce the film with Chase Films’ Nicole Lambert serving as executive producer. New Line is the production company.
Liotta is best known for his role as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’, and has spent his career flitting between TV and Film. His upcoming projects include an untitled Noah Baumbach project in which he will star opposite Scarlet Johansson and Adam Driver.
