Sopranos Prequel Trailer - The Many Saints of Newark

I saw them filming a few blocks from my house at the same location as the Sopranos final scene.

David Chase is an old fucking hack. I'm sure he figured out plenty of ways to fuck this up.

Jimmy's son has all the moves of his father down pat.

Where is that, r1, on Bloomfield Ave in Montclair?

No reason to sign up for HBO Looks like a tired retread and Michael Gandolfini doesn't have a compelling screen presence. Meh!

I can just tell that this will be one of those movies where the lead actor makes or breaks the movie and things aren't looking good in that department. Of course I hope I'm wrong. You need to hire an actor who has the charisma to carry the movie, not just someone who looks like his father.

No, R4. At Holsten’s.

Those were huge shoes to fill (James Gandolfini). Just from the trailer, it doesn't look compelling. Vera Farmiga looks good, but actually looks like Edie Falco (more than Nancy Marchand).

Smart to go backwards (prequel) rather than forward.

I didn't really like the first season on the Sopranos. I liked it a lot by the 3rd season. Point is, even James Gandolfini needed time to fully step into the character of Tony Soprano. IMO.

^ Agree. Jersey native Farmiga does resemble Edie Falco

I've seen Michael Gandolfini in two smallish roles in other films and he comes off as super gay. I can't see how this is gonna work.

[quote] I've seen Michael Gandolfini in two smallish roles in other films and he comes off as super gay. I can't see how this is gonna work.

It's obviously going to focus on young Tony Soprano sowing his disco diva oats and heading over to the Baths.

Loved Vera’s snort.

R8, looking at the trailer I was astonished that they made Edie Falco look so young as Livia.

I think the younger Gandolfini has presence for days. Smart not to show him too much in the trailer... keep 'em wanting to see more.

I’m thrilled to see Ray Liotta in the cast. I’ve read that he turned down a role in The Sopranos because he wanted to focus on his career in films and didn’t want to make a two-year commitment.

Poor bastard wound up on a tv show with JLo.

I’ll risk it R5.

I initially got HBO because of The Sopranos and canceled my subscription after the show ran it’s course.

I never missed an episode and I’m not missing this.

I’ll just watch goodfellas.

That was probably more like Tony in 3rd grade.

The son looks a little like John Cusack?

Vera F looks great!

I adored his father so I'll give it a shot.

Me too R20.

It’s hard to believe that he’s been dead 8 years this month.

R21 TBH it seems longer than 8 years.

I thought that was a fat Tye Sheridan in the OP pic. Glad it’s not.

I'm good with any Gandolfini.

Seems more like A Bronx Tale II

So, what is this saying? Tony married a woman who looked like his mother?

I'm not loving the title - it seems kind of clunky. That said....all during the original series I always wished they would do more flashbacks. Yes, they did Livia and Johnny Boy, but I always wanted to see how Tony and Carmela met, courted, fell in love, etc. And now they can't - maybe we'll see a young Rosalie Aprile....or maybe Charmaine Bucco, who Tony dated before she married Artie?

We can only hope -

I think they’re selling it as something it isn’t. My understanding is that the film is about the NJ race riots and how they intersected with the mob and that Tony isn’t actually in it that much. The main characters are supposed to be Johnny Boy and Dickie Moltisano.

That would explain a lot R26.

R27, Moltisanti means many saints.

The film features Dickie Moltisanti, father of Christopher.

David Chase is a twisted soul. I'm sure casting and making up an actress to look like Edie Falco was no accident.

Aida Turturro was perfectly cast as cunty Janice. I’m curious to see how young Janice is portrayed.

She’ll spend most of the movie under the boardwalk…with a schlong in her mouth.

Before, after or during her Communion, R33?

This is Tony as a teenager, so he's not supposed to be as menacing as his future mob boss self. What Michael Gandolfini needs to capture is the potential menace lurking under that teenage surface. We'll see.

If this is a hit, they'll probably do more Sopranos movies set in the late 70s and early 80s. They could certainly show us Tony's story at least through 1982 when he 'made his bones' and became a father.

One idea I think Chase will hit hard is the source of Tony's complicated attitude towards Christopher. He loved his Uncle Dickie, but this trailer makes it seem like Dickie was instrumental in sucking Tony into the mob. Years later, Tony would make sure that Dickie's son was doomed to be a mobster, too. He then murdered Christopher once he became a threat, but some of his homicidal rage towards Christopher could also be displaced anger at long-dead Dickie.

Not going to be a hit IMHO. Interest in the Sopranos peaked some years ago even if I think it's one of the best, most compelling TV series ever. Not feeling it.

The resemblance is uncanny.

Michael does seem very gay but if he butches it up he’ll meet his father in the middle (who was so emo).

Michael has his father's eyes, nose, and smile. He didn't get James's high cheekbones and strong chin, but that's okay because the Tony we knew was always pretty fat, so his bone structure was hidden, anyway. He's smaller than his father overall, but with the right costumes and camera work, he can look as big as they need.

The real test is if he can bring Tony's unique blend of menace and vulnerability. Even a young Tony Soprano would have both, and if Michael can't capture the dichotomy he won't be Tony Soprano, however much he resembles his father.

I was offered the lead in The Sopranos but I turned it down. I am sick of the Edie Falco worship.

A younger, thinner James.

Between this and the new SATC coming, it's going to be the HBO 2000 line up all over again.

[quote] Not going to be a hit IMHO. Interest in the Sopranos peaked some years ago even if I think it's one of the best, most compelling TV series ever. Not feeling it.

Actually, HBO reported that during the first few months of the pandemic, The Sopranos was its most watched series.

There are also plenty of folks who are now going the rewatch the original in the time leading up to this film.

I feel like The Sopranos is still a big part of the cultural landscape. As opposed to Game Of Thrones, which kinda disappeared the week after its finale.

Why do trailers reveal so much nowadays?

It's as if they don't trust the audience to be intrigued by what they don't fully understand yet.

And he doesn’t even really look convincingly like his father on screen R6. I’m fairly sure he doesn’t have his father’s charisma, talent or acting ability as well. This will most likely be his one foray into acting and then, bye.

R1 / R7 - There are a couple of restaurants in that area I like (Stamna, Boonsong & Cafe Mobay)

If it is, so be it R47. As a fan of James Gandolfini and a fan of The Sopranos, I am thrilled that Michael has been given the opportunity.

Michael Gandolfini already had a part in The Deuce and the Russo brothers' Cherry, and he's also been cast in their upcoming film, The Gray Man. He may not have his father's career, but Tony Soprano won't be the only role he plays.

I’d like to see a Moltisanti v. Pentangeli death match.

R43 Looks like a retread of Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale and Jersey Boys and though I'm a fan of the series and have re-watched it again over the years, the trailer doesn't make it look good and I'm not interested in seeing The Sopranos: The Early Years.

You’re not curious at all, r52 even though you liked the series and obviously watched other mob related movies? I find that weird.

I'm not interested in Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, Bonnie and Clyde the prequel . . . U get the point. Coppola's The Godfather II might be an exception even if physically Robert De Niro doesn't look like a young Brando and that film was a prequel and a sequel with the actors from the original continuing their characters' arc. And Goodfellas, The Irishman, Donny Brasco, The Soprano's are all first-rate, but the rest are pale imitations.

R54 wears blinders when in the Louvre until he reaches the Mona Lisa.

^ tone deaf

R35 Uncle Dickie sucking Tony. Sounds promising

I couldn’t get into The Sopranos, too violent.

[quote] One idea I think Chase will hit hard is the source of Tony's complicated attitude towards Christopher.

Actually, that was one relationship that wasn't really clear, not explained in a satisfying manner on the Sopranos. It never made sense why Tony felt so familial with Christopher. Carmela supposedly had a closer family relationship to Christopher.

Yes, I realize Italians take family relationships seriously, but Tony and Christopher's relationship just seemed out of proportion for how closely (not very) they were related (by blood).

I could more easily understand Tony's relationship to Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi). With just a little bit of exposition, it became clear. They grew up as kids together. Tony fainted / crapped out the night they were supposed to do a job together. Tony B. ended up doing the job alone and ended up serving lots of time in prison.

Even David Chase said that Christopher, in reality, would have been killed much earlier. Due to him being a drug addict, a liability, etc.

I didn’t realize Christafuh wasn’t actually Tony’s nephew.

There is no blood connection between Tony & Christopher. Here's the breakdown.

[quote] Rather than being uncle and nephew, Tony and Christopher are actually cousins. On top of that, while Tony again frequently says that Christopher is not only his nephew, but his blood, that also isn't accurate. Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher's father, is the first cousin of Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco), whose last name before marriage was DeAngelis. So, Christopher is really Carmela's first cousin once-removed, and only a cousin through marriage to Tony. However, since Tony was close to Dickie and has acted like a father to Christopher for most of his life, Tony calls him his uncle - as Adrianna (Drea de Matteo) explains all of this to the FBI in The Sopranos season 5, it's "an Italian thing."

Tony needed a mob heir and right-hand man, and he knew it couldn't be AJ for many reasons. He decided on Christopher, but later in the series it's clear that's not a secure position. If things had gone differently, Tony could have chosen Tony Blundetto or Bobbie Bacala instead. They were much more closely related via blood or marriage than Chris ever was.

This movie gives Tony's mentorship of Chris a really nasty edge. Dickie pulled Tony into the mob and ruined him, so Tony did the same thing to Dickie's son.

It could have gone differently. The job Tony casually hands AJ at the end of the series could have easily been given to Chris. It would have been Chris's dream job: Easy, well-paid, adjacent to the mob but not right there in it, part of the entertainment industry but requiring far less ambition than most industry jobs. With a job like that, he could have been secure, successful, and sober. The job might have saved him.

AJ could have been given any of a dozen easy jobs and been fine, Chris's only chance was this one job, and Tony denied it to him. There has to be a deep rage at the core of that decision, and it's now clear the rage goes back to Dickie Moltisanti.

Tony was a better husband and father than Dickie Moltisanti. Dickie did something stupid and got himself killed--he wasn't around to protect Christopher growing up. His widow Joanne was left an impoverished alcoholic.

Tony's death before the sealed indictments are handed down, and his careful stowing of assets in offshore accounts, means that Carmela will be left the richest widow in Essex county while still in her mid-40s. She'll marry again, probably to some clueless civilian like Vic Musso, and live a pampered, stress-free life. She won't live in genteel poverty like so many mob widows.

Tony's smarts and ruthlessness allowed him to live just long enough to see his family free of the mob life. According to David Chase, Meadow will marry a mob lawyer and AJ will be a low-level movie producer with mob ties, but neither will really be in the life. Their grandkids will be free of the mob entirely, and Grandpa Tony's exploits will be nothing more than colorful family legends, especially since Tony died before he could be convicted of anything serious.

Tony couldn't save himself, but he saved his wife and kids. That's the biggest fuck-you he could have given to Dickie, Livia, Johnny Boy, Junior, and all the rest. It's also something none of his contemporaries managed to pull off.

This is what I loved about the Sopranos; you could discuss it endlessly like a great novel.

I always thought Tony genuinely loved Christopher; yes, he used him, treated him badly and of course ultimately killed him. But I always thought he had trouble seeing Christopher with the cool mercenary eye he used on others because he genuinely loved him. When Christopher challenged him, like the after the Jackie Jr. card game heist, you got the sense that Christopher's insubordination genuinely hurt him, more than just a boss dealing with an out of line employee

[quote] There has to be a deep rage at the core of that decision, and it's now clear the rage goes back to Dickie Moltisanti.

This is the kind of stuff Chase does brilliantly. Does he have a formal education in psychology?

Love and hate were always twisted up in Tony's mind, though: His relationships with his parents, all of his friends (except perhaps Silvio), and even his wife had elements of tenderness and brutality. He even admitted to having moments of hating AJ late in the series. The only person he treated with total love and affection--minus a few yelling matches--was Meadow.

Meadow may have thought that AJ, being the son in the family, was more important to his parents, but I honestly don't think that was true in Tony's case.

Notice that Meadow had the same dark coloring as all of Tony's mistresses and the young Livia, as well as his idealized dream woman Isabella.

I'm not suggesting incestuous feelings towards Meadow. Rather, I'm suggesting that Meadow represented the pure and loving female ideal to Tony, the one he sought in all his other women and never quite found. The woman he wanted to please and the woman he wanted to protect and care for. Hence, his heartbreak when he finds out she's giving up being a pediatrician (the modern suburban version of the caring madonna) to marry a mob lawyer and perhaps becoming one herself. This was his final and most bitter disappointment.

Come to think of it, Meadow kind of sounds like Madonna, doesn't it? Clever Chase.

Madonna really sounds like Meadow if you say it in the North Jersey dialect: Madon'.

I heard this interesting interview with Chase on NPR where he talked about his mother leaving her first marriage & running away with this guy (Chase was some made up name), Chase's father. So it was like she gave up everything to be with this guy and her son was...something less than she hoped. Very Livia. I think that's why the Sopranos touches a nerve with people: under all of that mob stuff was a story about how the people we love most disappoint us, our disappointment in ourselves & who we've become and our love & anger at the people closest to us.

That's kind of why I wonder if show will be any good because the Sopranos at it's core was really Chase's story about his own family, specifically his mother.

[quote] Tony's death before the sealed indictments are handed down, and his careful stowing of assets in offshore accounts, means that Carmela will be left the richest widow in Essex county while still in her mid-40s.

I don’t think so. Tony seemed like he hid most of his money from Carmela. Who would tell her how to access all the money? The attorney? The attorney seemed like a criminal himself. I don’t think Tony even had that much money saved for Carmela. He refused to sign the trust.

No, I don’t think Carmela would be broke like Angie was at first, after Pussy got killed. But she would have to watch her money.

[quote]And now they can't - maybe we'll see a young Rosalie Aprile

I could watch an entire series based on Rosalie Aprile and Ginny Sack going to the beauty parlor, gossiping, bitching about their families, etc.

YES, R72!

Chrissy Metz would make a great Ginny

I loved the Rosalie Aprile character. I don't think she and Ginny Sacramoni would have been hanging out together, though.

Ginny Sack is so fat, she had to have a 90lb mole removed from her ass.

^Ralphie

Coming soon a new movie from Chase--

Tony and Ralphie Meet Frankenstein

[quote] Notice that Meadow had the same dark coloring as all of Tony's mistresses and the young Livia, as well as his idealized dream woman Isabella.

You know this is a show about southern Italians?

They’re descended from Naples, right?

As funny as it seems, Chrissy Metz as Ginny Sack in a prequel about John and their whole life would be fascinating… another “Sopranos Story” (as this film is subtitled).

I do, R78, but Meadow could have been blonde: In fact, HBO wanted Jamie-Lynn Sigler replaced after the pilot with a blonde young actress. Chase fought to keep the dark-haired girl.

Also, Tony could have chosen any woman he wanted as a mistress. Chase had him repeatedly choose dark-haired women. He and Melfi even discuss it in his therapy sessions.

Chase specifically had Tony fixate on dark, traditionally Southern Italian-looking women (even when they were Russian like Irina or half-Cuban like Valentina) because he was making a point about Tony's obsession with the Italian Madonna ideal. An ideal his beloved daughter (whose name even sounds like Madonna in the Jersey dialect) also resembled. A daughter Tony desperately wanted to become a pediatrician, a doctor who specifically helps children lead healthy, happy lives. The type of life he wished his own mother had given him as a child.

This was not a coincidence. This was deliberate on Chase's part.

I'm Italian (mob-adjacent Bronx family) and worked in advertising (gay art director like Sal Romano). Knowing both worlds very, very well, why is the Sopranos so compelling and authentic and Mad Men so pretentious and inauthentic? How does Chase get one so very right and the other, while successful, not so much?

Mad Men isn't Chase's baby, it's Matthew Weiner's.

Ah, I conflated Weiner's supporting contribution on Sopranos with lead on MM. Thanks for clarifying R83.

Ginny Sack was thin and beautiful when John Sacramoni first saw her in the fur department at Wanamaker's.

Didn’t she used to be a hoofer?

Ever notice that when Tony gets involved with blondes, the women never try to fuck up his life: Carmela, the Icelandic Airlines stewardess, the chippy he fucked down in Miami in "Remember This," the stripper he got a blowjob from in "Cold Stones"?

The one time an encounter with a blonde woman boomeranged on him was when he fucked Svetlana, and that was Irina's fault. Svetlana would have happily taken the diamond horseshoe pin and never said a word.

It's the dark-haired women who always cause him trouble, even the ones he doesn't fuck: His mother, his brunette mistresses, Tracy the Stripper, his father's old mistress Fran. The exceptions to this might be Melfi and Meadow, but otherwise, Tony repeats the same destructive patterns over and over again with all of these LIvia stand-ins.

What the series never explains is WHY Tony married Carmela instead of a Livia clone. Melfi points out that he made one good decision in his life vis-a-vis women, but we've never really gotten insight into why he made that decision. Maybe the prequel film will clarify it.

[quote] What the series never explains is WHY Tony married Carmela instead of a Livia clone.

Watch the trailer again.

Yeah, I get that Vera Farmiga looks like Edie Falco. Maybe that was the point in casting her. The resemblance wasn't there in the original series, though: Nancy Marchand looks nothing like Edie Falco.

[quote] Didn’t she used to be a hoofer?

No, it's that she has hooves.

Oh no! The actress who played Ginny Sack died not long after the show ended, from liver cancer. She was only 46.

She had a hot 90 pound mole on her ass, but she couldn’t live forever.

I always wondered if she was an actress. She seemed a little amateurish to me.

To answer the poster, I think Sopranos came across as more authentic because so much of the cast was from NJ and was Italian--they knew guys like this in the neighborhood and had heard the accent their whole lives.

[quote] What the series never explains is WHY Tony married Carmela instead of a Livia clone.

I know we're talking about a TV show and not real life, but Sammy the Bull (on his youtube channel) talks about how they all married their friends' (goombas) sisters. The mafia families (even in New York) are not huge, and they're all inter-related. If you are of a certain age, you probably have a limited knowledge of girls your age whom you know and can date (and whose families are okay with being related to the mafia).

No posts in 2 weeks?

Funny you should post R95. I just finished reading this who’s who in the film.

The trailer is really highlighting Tony even though he only has a supporting role. If Mike Gandolfini pulls this off, he'll get another film where he IS the main character for sure. Maybe a limited series on HBO. I'd like to see one that shows Tony in the early 80s, newly wed to Carmela and just starting his mob career.

First, Michael Gandolfini in this, then Phillip Seymour Hoffman's son Cooper is the star of the new Paul Thomas Anderson film coming out this year.

Let's see who's better!

This could go either way, but since they’ve had an entire year more to edit or tweak it - and of course, the new “a Sopranos story” subtitle seems to indicate there is sequel/series potential - I’m cautiously optimistic. Certainly David Chase gives no fucks so it will be what he wants either way.

New trailer up

Damn I saw the title and opened the thread just to post the SNL skit and R100 beat me by an hour.

The trailer in the OP looks very… uncharismatic.

As if this is a sad cash grab with little other reason to exist, dramatically.

REAL new trailer up. The best part is the scene with Tony and baby Christopher at the end.

New trailer is sexier, more violent, better music.

Still on the fence whether I'll watch or not.

DL Fav Billy Magnussen definitely seems to be “embodying” Pauly Walnuts… it seemed like a stretch casting someone so hot for such a specific character role, but apparently it works. David Chase did an interview last week and said Tony Sirico recorded an audio for all Billy’s lines so he could mimic the inflections, etc.. Either way, new trailer looks great!

I'm definitely watching it!

They did a story on this on CBS This Morning yesterday. Chase says it is not a Tony Soprano "origin story", it's a gangster movie. The younger Gandolfini is interviewed, and he gives off cookie-smeller vibes.

Fam.

Purses flying every where.

I’ve watched the series episodes back to back a couple of times. I’ll watch the movie because of it, not because of the son being in it. I mean, why would Gandolfini Jr even bother? He inherited all his daddys’ loot. I don’t anticipate great things from him, because he’s lived large his whole life. And wasn’t this movie finished filming three years ago? Its sat there a long time. Viewers will be sentimental, but truth was, in real life JG was a drunken obese drug user, yes? A couple of former Sopranos actors have a podcast talking about the show. I don’t think the son has anu life experience to draw on, aside from finding his fathers bloated corpse.

I assumed that this was going to be a series when I read about it years ago. Not feeling this as a movie. How much character development can we get in two hours with a character like Tony Soprano?

R8/r9, they put a prosthetic nose on Vera.

School days.

Can someone explain to me why this ‘Tony Soprano is one of the greatest characters of all-time’ legend sprung up? Yes, the characterisation was well-done, but I think it’s going a little far to say GOAT status. Bear in mind we’re including ancient texts, ecclesiastical works, and the writings of great poets & playwrights in this metric.

Would I be confused watching this if I never watched the original series?

R114 I think it's true in terms of broadcast television.

I Love Lucy is still a popular reference point, almost 70 years later. I feel the same way about The Sopranos.

Get real - young Gandolfini is repulsive looking. He has a giant misshapen head and a face that’s best described by the word “splat.” He’s also abnormally white, like he has leukemia or something.

[quote] r118 young Gandolfini is repulsive looking. He has a giant misshapen head

He looks like a serial killer. Which I guess is appropriate for someone who found fame playing a mob boss.

He has some of the same mannerisms as his dad which could help

I just watched 1/2 hour of it.

It SUCKS

I just streamed this on 123movies. It's quite violent. Ray Liotta was the most compelling character for me.

I liked it. Not to give away any spoilers, but the main character is Dickie Moltisonti.

I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t the same as the show and didn’t feature young Tony too much but it was interesting seeing young Paulie, Junior and Silvio. I loved Chris as the narrator.

[quote]Get real - young Gandolfini is repulsive looking. He has a giant misshapen head and a face that’s best described by the word “splat.” He’s also abnormally white, like he has leukemia or something.

Actually, he grew up to be a handsome young man - he was pretty chunky as a kid & not that cute.

[quote] Actually, he grew up to be a handsome young man - he was pretty chunky as a kid & not that cute.

He is not handsome. He looks like Miranda Hart

Ray Liotta walks off with this thing. Badly written. But Alan Taylor could always make shit walk.

Dear David Chase, you're not up to it anymore. Retire.

I really liked it. I am a Sopranos fan and went with a friend who has never seen the series and they loved it too. And I thought Michael was pretty good. Vera was incredible. I would love to spend time in this world.