[Captions are auto-generated] I want to start with something
you said to me literally the day
after The Sopranos finale
aired, because it's really
interesting in the context of this
movie. I asked, were you ever
thinking about making a movie?
And back then you said you an idea
could pop into my head where I would
go, wow, that would make a great
movie, but I doubt it.
So I'm wondering at what point the
idea popped into your head that made
you go, OK, this is going to be a
great movie
then a second season of the show.
I think the Writers Guild arranged
for me to be interviewed by Tom
Fontana.
I don't get it, but
to one writer interviews another.
And during that interview,
Tom said he thought it would be
interesting to do
a story in Newark
in the old days of
Johnny and Jr.
That appealed to me because
my mother comes from Newark and
at that time my parents
met in Newark at that time.
And so I used to go down to the
Italian section of Newark with my
mother.
Every Saturday, she dragged me down
there while she shopped for Italian
food grocery.
So that kind of appealed to me
and I never forgot it.
I was also interested, always
interested in what rights I had
wanted to make a
infamous film school right after
I wanted to make a movie about.
For guys who
avoid the draft by joining
the reserves and they get
sent in a tank into the Newark
riots and
it changes their life, but I never
did it. But anyway, all
those things sort of combine
into an interest in Newark for me.
I felt I had some.
A spree of the place or something
really happened was
Toby Emmerich, who was
the head of New Light at the time,
from the very beginning in the early
2000s.
Kept pursuing me to do a Sopranos
movie.
And then finally, he was
head of Warner Brothers and
I had done something that
I had done a.
Miniseries script for HBO,
which they wanted to do,
but on a cheesy budget,
and I refused to do that
and I turned that down.
And so this came along
and I thought, OK.
You're very protective of the legacy
of the show. Is that fair to say?
Yeah. All right.
So, you know, because people have
asked me since this was announced,
why is he doing this?
And my response has always been,
David cares about the show.
He wouldn't do it if he didn't think
it was a good idea.
Absolutely.
The idea of prequel
never entered my head.
But then I remember what Tom said,
and that made me think of a young
junior and the young Johnny.
And that's absolutely true.
And I wouldn't do it.
And it's funny. I mean, in that same
conversation back after the finale,
you specifically said many of your
favorite moments on the show were
either depicting the good old days
or just people talking about the
good old days. Yes, but when Tony
was a kid. Right.
So what beyond your own sort
of experience and your family, what
about that period appealed to you?
Well, it was before the RICO
statutes and it was
when mobsters used to
dress well.
Yeah, before tracksuits
and.
I guess that was maybe the highlight
of the month in those days
before before drugs
or before a RICO statute?
Yeah, I mean, Tony in the first
episode says I came in at the end
and now you're now you're in the
glory days. So how different was
it writing about the glory days
versus sort of the pathetic scraps
that Tony and his guys had to live
on?
Well, we didn't go you know, we
didn't go as far we didn't
have as much time.
It wasn't really that different,
just in my
view, a little bit less profanity.
I figured, as I recall those
days.
Not not my age,
when I was 18, you know,
in the beginning of the 60s, fuck,
fuck, fuck, fuck, but
I think people
that older generation didn't use
that much profanity.
That's very simple.