The Many Saints of Newark, David Chase’s Sopranos prequel film set in 1960s New Jersey, just got one step closer to becoming a reality. On Wednesday, New Line Cinema announced that Alan Taylor has officially signed on to direct the movie, based on a script by Chase and former Sopranos writer Lawrence Konner, Variety reports.
Taylor is a longtime HBO collaborator who’s directed episodes of Deadwood and Sex and the City, and some of the best Sopranos episodes during the show’s run, including “Kennedy and Heidi” and the penultimate episode where Bobby gets killed in that model train shop. He also directed “Beyond the Wall” from the last season of Game of Thrones.
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That said, the guy’s track record isn’t so spotless when it comes to movies—his major directing credits include that terrible Thor sequel and the Terminator movie where John Connor is actually the bad guy for some reason. But given that he has so much experience working with Chase on the Sopranos already, he seems like a natural fit for The Many Saints.
The upcoming Sopranos prequel is reportedly set during the Newark riots that took place in the late 60s between the city’s Italian and African American communities. The season one Sopranos episode “Down Neck” featured flashbacks of a young Tony during the riots, but it’s unclear whether the film will expand on that episode or tell a completely different story set in the same time period.
According to a March report from Deadline, the movie is expected to feature “some of the beloved characters from the series,” so it’s likely we’ll at least get an appearance from Johnny Boy and Junior, if not a whole movie centered around the two of them getting arrested at carnivals or whatever.
Along with helping pen the screenplay, Chase is onboard to produce The Many Saints of Newark under his Chase Films banner. There’s no word on when the movie will start shooting or how long it’ll take until the thing hits theaters, but it’s at least nice to know that we haven’t seen the last of the Soprano family yet. Like the Bada Bing itself, The Sopranos isn’t done for good.
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