Michael Gandolfini plays the young Tony Soprano in David Chase's prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark. (Photo: Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Posted on 09/03/2021 6:34:34 AM PDT by Albion Wilde
David Chase didn't have to look very far for the actor who would play the young Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark — a feature-length prequel to the iconic HBO series. The Sopranos creator cast Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini, in the highly-anticipated film, which premieres Oct. 1 in theaters and on HBO Max. But for the younger Gandolfini, inheriting the family legacy was a huge responsibility.
"It's probably the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make," the 22-year-old actor confessed to Empire magazine in a new interview....
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
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Looks JUST like his dad. This will be a GREAT movie!
Hopefully there will be plenty of Italian Americans protesting outside theaters when this is released. Not because people like me are against the Soprano’s rather protesting the double standard and hypocrisy.
Let’s hope he us a good actor.
Man in theater: “It’s great to finally see a movie where mobsters have names like ‘Siegel, Cohen, and Lansky’”
Other man: “Oh, are you interested in the history of this time?”
Man in theater: “No, I’m Italian!”
When I first was the trailer for the movie, I thought, “wow, they did a great job finding an actor who looks like a young James Gandolfini”. That was before I learned he is the late actor’s son.
That was my thought. The trailers look like he has a large role in the movie. I hope he has the acting chops to pull it off.
LOL...my wife liked the show. I only liked it when they played loud music and I’d go get a glass of water as those were usually the scenes from Badda Bing.
Regardless- i intend to protest in NYC with others to highlight the utter hypocrisy of woke hollywood.
i intend to protest in NYC with others to highlight the utter hypocrisy of woke hollywood.
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are they not supposed to have _% of minorities in every film now?
I'm not sure I understand what you are getting at. Are you saying that the movie contributes to a stereotype that "all Italians are mobsters"?
After everything David Chase has invested in the original productions of The Sopranos, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't keep Michael on just out of sentimentality.
Bingo-
Can’t have Eskimo Pie ice cream anymore because its racist
Can’t have Aunt Jamimiah pancakes anymore because its racist
Have to have movies and animated flicks represent tans/queers etc otherwise its racist.
But a movie based on a series which stereotypes Italian Americans as a bunch of gangster, womanizing, thugs?? Well we’ll give that every award Hollywood can possibly give!!!
Your comment reminds me of that era in the development of the mob control of gambling in Cuba and Las Vegas—topics that are covered in some detail in the latest of Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's "Killing" series—Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America, which came out in May of this year.
This book is a bit flawed in small, annoying ways, and gets off to a slow start that should have had more clarifying detail for readers younger than 65, but it is still riveting as the interconnections between the Mafia and the U.S. government are methodically laid out. Siegel, Cohen, Lansky and many other criminals are discussed, along with Hoover, the Kennedys, and the FBI. The corruption we are seeing lately has been a long time coming.
Toughest decision he’s ever had to make….
Must have lived a pretty sheltered life so far.
I think you may be lumping David Chase (original family name: DeCesare) in with the typical Hollywood product, which has become formulaic and aimed solely at commercial success. The Sopranos was not so much a product to provide a payday to investors as it was a fictionalized autobiography of David Chase's early life in a working-class Italian-American neighborhood, his own struggles with panic attacks and depression, and a form of therapy for him. He had already had two successful serialized shows on television (not movies), and this was the medium of expression he alreadly knew.
I get the feeling it succeeded longer and more than he ever dreamed, and became its own thing with its own momentum; but it started deep in his psyche, and speaks to the immigrant subculture experience of many transplanted Americans. To me, it is literature, not just a way to make money, and certainly not a mean-spirited way to portray his roots. It is a tragicomedy, in which he displays the ridiculousness and fantasy bravado of those who identify with organized crime, and how badly it almost always ends for them.
He was only around 18 when filming started, and which covid interrupted, delaying release; and yes, he was the privileged son of a big celebrity and probably sheltered—until his father died in front of his face, leaving him alone in a foreign country, when he was 14.
I would think the decision even to resurrect an award-winning characterization brought to life by his recently-deceased father would have been emotionally daunting for someone twice Michael's age. And he revealed that he had never even watched The Sopranos until the possibility of playing the role came up; so he had to start from scratch. Apparently his father and mother did care enough to shelter him from forming a fascination with mob life or violence portrayed by his own father. I salute them for that.
More or less by accident, I lived for a number of years amongst mafiosi and a mob war, long enough to see innocent little children brought up around it, eventually get sucked into it, and in several cases end up in jail or dead because of that life. The theatricality of the Italian mob makes it seem like make-believe, until it isn't. The theatrical brutality is also exquisitely horrible.
Will they include the incident where young Tony and Jackie Aprile Sr. robbed Feech La Manna’s card game?
I answered your previous question incorrectly.
I really don’t care about the Soprano’s. I really don’t care it stereotypes italian Americans- i don’t consider myself an “Italian American,” I am an American of Italian heritage.
That said its the double standard I will be protesting- no eskimo pie, no aunt jemimiah, etc, etc but the Soprano’s is okay.
All fans are gonna have to watch the series again (again) before seeing the movie.
I watched the entire Downton Abbey before seeing the movie, and was able to explain a few things to the person who went with me to the movie.
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