Overview
If you woke up this morning and got yourself a hankering for one of the best TV shows ever made, here's some good news: a big-screen prequel to The Sopranos is on its way. Fourteen years after HBO's hit mobster drama cut to black, creator David Chase has penned The Many Saints of Newark, which jumps back to Tony Soprano's formative years in the 60s and 70s. And, because family was always a huge part of the influential drama, the film's central role is played by Michael Gandolfini (The Deuce, Cherry) — son of the late, great James Gandolfini.
The Many Saints of Newark hops into Soprano's story when he's a teen in the titular New Jersey city — a place under the sway of the DiMeo crime family, struggling with race relations and about to be caught up in the race riots of 1967. Young Anthony plans to go to college, but he also has a strong relationship with his uncle Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola, The Art of Self-Defense). Fans of The Sopranos will recognise the name, with Dickie the father of series regular Christopher Moltisanti.
As the just-dropped first trailer for The Many Saints of Newark shows, Anthony's connection to his uncle will have a huge impact on his life — and on his path to becoming the ziti-loving, panic attack-suffering, hot-tempered mob boss that The Sopranos followed for six seasons between 1999–2007. Leaving a significant imprint on the film: the casting of the younger Gandolfini. Even from just this initial sneak peek, it's impossible to imagine this movie being made without him stepping into his dad's shoes.
Whether director Alan Taylor, a veteran of The Sopranos, gives Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' a whirl in the feature is yet to be seen. It doesn't pop up in the trailer, though. Of course, when the film releases in cinemas in September, The Sopranos aficionados can definitely look forward to spending time with a few familiar characters other than Young Anthony — including Corey Stoll (The Report) as Uncle Junior, Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) as Anthony's mother Livia, and Billy Magnussen (Made for Love) and John Magaro (First Cow) as his future righthand men Paulie Walnuts and Silvio Dante.
Leslie Odom Jr (One Night in Miami) and Jon Bernthal (Those Who Wish Me Dead) also co-star, while seeing Ray Liotta (Marriage Story) jump back into the gangster genre immediately conjures up memories of Goodfellas — the Martin Scorsese classic that also charted the rise of a young man within the mob.
Check out the trailer below:
The Many Saints of Newark releases in Australian cinemas on September 23.