Back in March, it was announced that The Sopranos creator David Chase is returning to the world of the acclaimed HBO series for a prequel film entitled The Many Saints of Newark, which is being produced by New Line Cinema.
Having secured Alan Taylor, director of the Emmy Award-winning episode ‘Kennedy and Heidi’, to helm the movie, we now have our first piece of casting news with Variety reporting that Alessandro Nivola (Selma, American Hustle) is set to portray Dickie Moltisanti.
Dickie Moltisanti is the uncle of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and father of Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), who was murdered prior to the show, and – along with Tony’s father Giovanni ‘Johnny Boy’ Soprano and Corrado ‘Junior’ Soprano – was key figure in helping to turn their small gang into a successful crime family.
The Many Saints of Newark is set in the 1960s during the Newark riots. Taylor is set to direct from a script written by Chase and Lawrence Konner.
Nivola has recently been seen opposite Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in Disobedience, while his upcoming big screen roles include The Art of Self Defense and The Red Sea Diving Resort. He also takes on the lead role in Foreign Skies, an upcoming limited series for Channel 4 in the UK.
