When you consider the most celebrated entries in the mafia genre, GOODFELLAS and The Sopranos are definitely among the very best, and the two projects actually share 27 actors in common, including Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, and Tony Sirico. According to Deadline, we'll soon be adding one more actor to that lengthy list as Ray Liotta is set to join the cast of THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK, the upcoming Sopranos prequel film.
"I am thrilled to be working with David Chase and Alan Taylor on The Many Saints of Newark," Liotta said in a statement. "David’s talent is unmatched and the directing of Alan Taylor makes this even more exciting. I respect them both immensely and look forward to making this special project with New Line." There's no word just yet on who Ray Liotta will be playing in the film, but he'll be joining Alessandro Nivola (JURASSIC PARK III), Vera Farmiga (THE CONJURING), Jon Bernthal (The Punisher), Billy Magnussen (ALADDIN), Corey Stoll (ANT-MAN), and Michael Gandolfini (The Deuce), who will be playing a young Tony Soprano. The film will be set in the era of the Newark riots in the 60s. It was a time when the African-Americans and the Italians of Newark were at each other’s throats, and among the gangsters of each group, those conflicts became especially lethal. Alan Taylor (THOR: THE DARK WORLD) will be directing THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK from a script by Sopranos creator David Chase and Lawrence Konner and production is expected to begin this spring.
"I was interested in Newark and life in Newark at that time. I used to go to down there every Saturday night for dinner with my grandparents. But the thing that interested me most was Tony’s boyhood. I was interested in exploring that," Chase has previously said of the film. "The movie will deal with the tensions between the blacks and whites at the time, and Tony Soprano will be part of this, but as a kid." The Sopranos creator has also teased that THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK will show us the "good 'ol days" of the crime family. "It is going to depict when it was good," Chase said. "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."
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