Corey Stoll And Billy Magnussen Are The Latest Wiseguys To Join 'Sopranos' Prequel Movie Cast
The Sopranos prequel movie cast continues to expand like someone's waistline after eating a whole tray of baked ziti. The latest: Corey Stoll and Billy Magnussen have come about the film, titled The Many Saints of Newark, in undisclosed roles. They join Alessandro Nivola, who is playing Dickie Moltisanti, and Jon Bernthal and Vera Farmiga, who, like Stoll and Magnussen, are playing parts currently under wraps.Variety broke the news that Corey Stoll and Billy Magnussen are joining thee Many Saints of Newark cast. And who are they playing? Beats me! The other day, when Jon Bernthal and Vera Farmiga were announced as part of the cast, I theorized that 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 in First Man, and on the small screen in Amazon's series The Romanoffs. Magnussen appeared in last year's The Oath and Game Night, and will next be seen in this year's live-action Aladdin, as well as the Netflix movie Velvet Buzzsaw.
The Many Saints of Newark is set in against the backdrop of the Newark riots in the 1960s. David Chase, who created The Sopranos, is writing the script. "I became interested in Newark, where my parents came from, and where the riots took place," Chase said. "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 of Sopranos character 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 in an 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."