So it seems the creator of the classic TV drama The Sopranos, David Chase, is none too
pleased with HBO at the moment. The home of The Sopranos has always of course been HBO,
and we are just a few weeks away from the release of The Many Saints of Newark, the
Chase-produced prequel movie of The Sopranos.
What with the COVID pandemic and the fallout of numerous lockdowns throughout the world,
the movie world has been a bit unstable, and we’re continuing to see innovations from
film studios is regards to movie releases, and in general this has sparked outraged among
the thespians of Hollywood. For example, Scarlett Johansen, who plays Black Widow in Marvel’s
cinematic universe, is suing Disney as they decided to release their films on their streaming
platform as well as cinemas, and with Johansen being paid a percentage of the film’s gross,
she obviously feels she’s being robbed of millions of dollars. The likes of Hollywood’s
top directors such as Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve also condemned Warner Bros
decision to move its entire 2021 output to a simultaneous streaming and cinema release,
with he films being available to stream on HBO Max for 31 days.
Now we have David Chase in on the action, who is apparently furious that The Many Saints
of Newark is being made available to stream on HBO Max while coming out in cinema at the
same time. During a lengthy interview with Deadline, he insinuated that he wouldn’t
have even made the film if he knew it was going to come out on a streaming platform
alongside the cinema release.
“I don’t think, frankly that I would’ve taken the job if I knew it was going to be
a day-and-date release. I think it’s awful,” Chase said, saying that he was “extremely
angry” when he found out about “Many Saints” moving to HBO max. “I still am” he continued.
“I mean, I don’t know how much you go into this, you know, like…okay. If I was…one
of those guys, if one of those executives was sitting here and I was to start pissing
and moaning about it, they’d say, you know, there’s 17 other movies that have the same
problem. What could we do? Covid! Well, I know, but those 16 other movies didn’t start
out as a television show. They don’t have to shed that television image before you get
people to the theater. But we do. And that’s where we’re at. People should go see it
in a theater. It was designed to be a movie. It was…it’s beautiful as a movie. I never
thought that it would be back on HBO. Never.”
Some interesting thoughts here from Chase, echoing the likes of Christopher Nolan with
Tenant and Martin Scorsese with The Irishman, where these directors have reiterated that
their films are made to be seen in theatres on the big screen, not at home with your feet
up on the couch in front of your television set.
I’m not gonna get into the whole theatres vs streaming debate here, but you can kinda
see where Chase is coming from, because he’s referenced the fact that The Sopranos was
a TV show and The Many Saints isn’t – it’s a movie, it’s separate to the show, and
it needs to be seen as such, and one way to do that is not to have it shown on HBO like
the series was. Chase is good at things like this, at gauging the perception of The Sopranos,
it’s place in the zeitgeist, what people think of it and what effects creative decisions
will have. For example, and I do have a more detailed video on this coming out in the future,
but Chase didn’t originally want Frank Vincent on The Sopranos, the guy who played Phil Leotardo.
He was actually rejected after his audition, and the reason was that Chase felt he was
too famous and well known for playing Billy Batts in Goodfellas, and The Sopranos already
had a lot of Goofellas actors in it, and was highly influenced by Scorsese’s flick. Once
the show had established its own identity, Vincent joined the cast in season 5.
So clearly, Chase thinks about the viewer’s immersion when they’re watching his projects,
and the film already has a few challenging hurdles to get over, like the fact that James
Gandolfini’s son Michael is playing the role that made his father a household name,
the fact that the movie is coming about 15 years after the show ended, the fact that
beloved characters are being played by new actors etc etc. So Chase clearly knows the
odds are stacked up and one of the things that would help the movie establish its own
identity and separate itself from The Sopranos is to be a theatre exclusive, but as many
fans will be watching it on HBO as they did the series, in addition to the fact that the
film is under 2 hours long, perhaps there’s a fear of fans finding the movie to be nothing
more than a glorified elongated Sopranos episode.
In related news, Jon Bernthal, who plays Johnny Boy in The Many Saints of Newark, the father
of Tony Soprano, has warned fans that the movie will not be like the show. Speaking
on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Bernthal said it was a “blessing” to be a part of the
project and was particularly impressed with Michael Gandolfini. He said:
What Michael Gandolfini does in this movie and to be a part of his journey … I just
feel really honored that I get to walk alongside him. I think he approached it with courage
and real dedication
Bernthal also noted that super fans of the show will be pleased, as stories told within
The Sopranos are acted out in Many Saints, but he’s also seemingly advised for expectations
to be tempered.
“I will say that’s different,” he said “I think people are going to go in expecting
The Sopranos — it’s not that. I think that it was very smart that they set it in
the past and it’s a genuine prequel. You will see that when he was writing this show,
he clearly understood the full history of who these characters were. And for the real
super-fans, I think it is going to be so much fun.
To go in with measured expectations is always good advice, in my opinion. In the age we
live in, where the hype machine for a Hollywood projects begins before the cameras have even
started rolling, we get images released, trailers for trailers which give away the entire film,
actors selling their films as the greatest thing ever during press junkets, crazy high
initial reviews for new movies – with everything involved, it’s no wonder why people are
so often disappointed with news released, which are unable to match the impossible expectations
set by audiences due to the manufactured Hollywood hype machine. And here, we’ve got something
a little different – people involved with the movie saying it’s good, but different.
It kind of reminds me when the people involved with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman kept
re-iterating that the film was good, but it wasn’t Goodfellas – it was a different
kind of film.
It goes without saying that we should all go in with measured expectations. Thinking
it’s going to be the best film ever made will not help you, and it’s a given that
with the casting, the runtime and other stuff, that the movie will underwhelm some people,
and there will be those who expected a certain kind of film but were given another. In fact,
I imagine a huge number of people feel we don’t even need a Sopranos movie, and they
are potentially going to taint a perfect TV series. And it’s certain that this film
will challenge you in some way, it won’t be a straight up gangster film – it will
depict stories told in the series, it will possibly retcon assumptions we have and almost
certainly make some big revelations. The Sopranos never played it safe, it never got complacent
despite its massive popularity as the series went on- it was constantly challenging us,
right up until the infamous final shot of the series. Beloved characters were killed
off an the most unexpected of times, storylines ended as quick as they came and some, like
the Russian that disappeared in Pine Barrens, were intentionally never resolved. Be prepared
for a film that will be different, go in with an open mind, and accept that this is not
going to be The Sopranos 2.0, and hopefully, you’ll come away from the experience wholly
satisfied.
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