Corey Stoll And Billy Magnussen Are The Latest Wiseguys To Join ‘Sopranos’ Prequel Movie Cast
The Sopranosprequel movie cast continues to expand like someone’s waistline after eating a whole tray of baked ziti. The latest:Corey StollandBilly Magnussenhave come about the film, titledThe Many Saints of Newark, in undisclosed roles. They joinAlessandro Nivola, who is playing Dickie Moltisanti, andJon BernthalandVera Farmiga, who, like Stoll and Magnussen, are playing parts currently under wraps.Varietybroke the news that Corey Stoll and Billy Magnussen are joining theeMany Saints of Newarkcast. And who are they playing? Beats me! The other day, when Jon Bernthal and Vera Farmiga were announced as part of the cast, Itheorizedthat they could be playing the parents of Tony Soprano. But I’m unable to guess who Stoll or Magnussen might be portraying.
Stoll has quickly become one of those “oh, it’s that guy!” actors, popping-up in many roles across TV and film. Last year he could be seen on the big screen inFirst Man, and on the small screen in Amazon’s seriesThe Romanoffs.Magnussen appeared in last year’sThe OathandGame Night, and will next be seen in this year’s live-actionAladdin, as well as the Netflix movieVelvet Buzzsaw.
The Many Saints of Newarkis set in against the backdrop of the Newark riots in the 1960s.David Chase, who createdThe Sopranos, is writing the script. “I became interested in Newark, where my parents came from, and where the riots took place,” Chasesaid. “I started thinking about those events and organized crime, and I just got interested in mixing those two elements.”
Not much more is known about the film. We know that Nivola is playing the father ofSopranoscharacter Christopher Moltisanti, and we know that Tony Soprano will appear in the film as a child.
“I’m playing a guy in his thirties/forties, and that generation, in Newark in the sixties, would have spoken hardly any Italian at all,” Nivola said inan interview. “There was a lot of Sicilian and Neapolitan dialect words – Goomah! Pro-shoot! Mozarell! – so there’s a lingo, but an element of the story that’s important is that I can’t speak Italian, and that I can’t communicate with an Italian immigrant who I get to know. I don’t start shooting until April, so until then I’m just going to hang out with Made Men in social clubs.”
