The Sopranos creator David Chase has said he is “extremely angry” that the upcoming prequel film The Many Saints of Newark is premiering on HBO Max.
In an interview with Deadline, Chase explained that he thinks the day-and-date format, where the film will open in cinemas and on the streaming service at the same time, is “awful”.
“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,” he said, adding that he was “extremely angry” when he found out about the HBO Max release.
“I still am [extremely angry],” he said.
He continued: “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.”
Chase continued on to reference the original Sopranos TV show airing on HBO, leading him to believe they need to “shed” the “television image”.
“’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 theatre. But we do. And that’s where we’re at,” he said.
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“People should go see it in a theatre. 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.”
The Many Saints of Newark is set to explore the relationship between a young Tony Soprano — played by the late James Gandolfini’s son Michael— and Dickie Moltisanti, the father of Michael Imperioli’s Christopher Moltisani.
“Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark’s history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters begin to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family’s hold over the increasingly race-torn city,” the film’s official synopsis reads.
“Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, who struggles to manage both his professional and personal responsibilities – and whose influence over his impressionable nephew will help make the teenager into the all-powerful mob boss we’ll later come to know.”
The film is currently scheduled to be released in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 4th.
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Check out the trailer for the Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark:
