Sopranos prequel film receives new title and release date

Alessandro Nivola is set to star in the film, with Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, and John Bernthal also cast in undisclosed roles

The Sopranos prequel film has been given the new title of Newark and a new release date.

David Chase, The Sopranos‘s creator, showrunner, head writer, producer is spearheading the film, based on the critically acclaimed HBO series, which aired between 1999 and 2007. Chase wrote the script with Lawrence Konner, a Sopranos staff writer who got the sole credit on three episodes.

Alessandro Nivola is set to star in the film, with Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, and John Bernthal also cast in undisclosed roles.

Nivola is expected to play Richard “Dickie” Moltisanti. Though the character never appeared in The Sopranos – even through flashback – Dickie loomed large over its story. He was Carmella Soprano’s cousin, and was gunned down when his son Christopher Moltisanti was still an infant.

The film was previously titled The Many Saints of Newark, now shortened to Newark, with Deadline reporting the film has been confirmed for a release date of 5 September, 2020.

The film is set amid the 1967 Newark riots, which Livia was seen watching live on television during a flashback in the episode “Down Neck”.

There were 159 race riots across America in what was dubbed “The Long Hot Summer of 1967”, tensions boiling over as African Americans continued to face discrimination in jobs and in housing. In Newark, the catalyst for the riot was one that reverberates through to the present day: the beating of a black man by police.