The working title alone is enough to send shivers up fans’ spines.
After nursing one particular story idea for over a decade, Sopranos creator David Chase has submitted the finished script for The Many Saints of Newark and it looks like world’s famous gangster family is back in business.
Many fans and critics regard the legendary HBO show as small screen perfection and complete in every way, so what is there left to explore?
Main star James Gandolfini also died back in 2013, along with many other veterans of the show since it came off the air in 2007, so the prospect of picking up the existing story is hugely problematic.
Chase, it seems, has always been more fascinated with exploring the past history of his beloved crime family.
Deadline reported the huge news with some tantalising hints about what fans can expect.
The website said: “Some of the beloved characters from the series will appear in the film.”
It also confirmed the project will be a prequel set in the 1960, exploring the tensions in the district between the crime lords of the rival Italian and African American communities. Best of all, this sets up exciting indications of which of the senior Sopranos characters would appear as their younger selves.
The report added: “I couldn’t get any more information about the plot, but the time period indicates there will be room for 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.”
Another writer, Alan Sepinwall at UPROXX, also revealed that his conversation with Chase back in 2007 had foreshadowed the new project. At the time he recalled: “Earlier in the interview, he (Chase) notes that his favorite part of the show was often the characters telling stories about the good ol’ days of Tony’s parents. Just a guess, but if Chase ever does a movie spin-off, it’ll be set in Newark in the ’60s.”
Far too many years later, the Sopranos creator is finally about to give fans a huge treat, with the movie expected to hit cinemas in 2019.