Sopranos fans everywhere rejoice, for The Sopranos creator, David Chase, has sold his screenplay for a prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark, to Warner Bros. New Line Cinema.
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. Chase will also serve as a producer and will be involved in finding a director for the picture.
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It is said that some of the well-loved characters from the series will appear in the film, due to the timeline of the plot – which is being kept under wraps – 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.
Warner Bros Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich said “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,”
Having worked in television for over 40 years, Chase has written and produced shows such as The Rockford Files, The Sopranos – which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007 -and Northern Exposure. His last feature was back in 2012 with Not Fade Away where a group of teens in the 60’s form a rock band and try to make it big.