All the hype surrounding the recent The Sopranos anniversary has spiked a re-interest in the mob drama. Variety reports that Sopranos viewership last week on HBO Go and HBO Now was up 70 percent compared to late 2018, while “according to the Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand Top 20 shows for the week ending Jan. 6, The Sopranos has landed back on the list, all the way at No. 3,” behind only Game of Thrones and Surviving R. Kelly. Even creator David Chase is feeling nostalgic: he’s currently working on a Sopranos prequel movie that takes place in Newark, New Jersey (shocking!) in the late 1960s.
Alessandro Nivola stars as Dickie Moltisanti (Christopher’s father) in the Alan Taylor-directed The Many Saints of Newark, while The Punisher‘s Jon Bernthal and Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga have joined the cast in mystery roles.
Little else is known about the script, which Chase co-wrote with Lawrence Konner, although Nivola tipped that it’s set “with the backdrop of the race riots that were happening in Newark at that time, and the racial tension between the Italians and the blacks at that moment is a big part of the backdrop of the story.” Young Tony Soprano will also appear in the film, while “more players from the Sopranos lore are expected to be joining the cast,” Variety notes.
Maybe Bernthal can join the upcoming Walking Dead movies, too. And the Breaking Bad movie. He shouldn’t stop until he completes the film-based-on-a-cable-drama Connect Four. And while we’re at it, someone should make a movie about Farmiga’s Bates Motel. That would be an original idea!
(Via Variety)
