This is shaping up very nicely.
It’s fitting that in a week where The Sopranos celebrated its 20th anniversary, the prequel film is starting to take shape and the latest additions are very exciting.
Fresh from the news that a younger version of Tony Soprano will feature in The Many Saints of Newark, Variety have reported that Vera Farmiga (The Departed, The Conjuring) and Jon Bernthal (The Punisher, The Wolf of Wall Street) are in final negotiations to join the film.
Of course, both have experience dealing with the Mafia on screen with Farmiga playing Leonardo DiCaprio’s beleaguered shrink in Martin Scorsese’s beloved drama. As for Bernthal, well, he’s usually great in everything he does including his role as Frank Castle, scourge of the underworld in The Punisher.
Aside from this, Bernthal has featured in the likes of Fury, Sicario, Wind River, The Accountant, Baby Driver, Widows, and The Walking Dead.
The prequel to The Sopranos is set in the era of the Newark riots in the 60s, when the African-Americans and the Italians of Newark began to fight each other in the streets.
Chase also said that the film will harken back to a more ‘professional’ era of the Mafia.
“The Mafia was very polished at that time, how they dressed and what they did. Those traditions were followed more loosely in the series. These weren’t guys who wore tracksuits, back then,” he said.
Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones, The Sopranos) is directing the prequel with the show’s creator, David Chase, on scriptwriting duty.
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