The Sopranos creator David Chase is developing a movie that will serve as a prequel to the hit television series. According to a Deadline report, production company New Line Cinema has bought Chase’s screenplay to develop it into a film. Chase will co-produce the film and help select a director, the report said.
The film, with the working title The Many Saints of Newark, is reportedly set in New Jersey in the ’60s, when the city was hit by race riots. This also translated into lethal conflicts between the respective gangs of Newark’s Italians and African Americans. Chase’s co-writer on the script is Lawrence Konner who was also part of The Sopranos writing team.
The Deadline said that some of the characters from the series could appear in the film, but there was no further detail about the plot.
The Sopranos, which made HBO a household name in America and beyond, revolved around Tony Soprano (played by the late James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster. The series ran for six seasons till 2007 and won a host of awards including five Golden Globe awards and 21 Primetime Emmy Awards. The Sopranos has frequently topped the lists of the greatest television series of all time.