“The Sopranos” Creator Discusses New Show

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: What made you return back to the Sopranos now?

DAVID CHASE, CO-WRITER, “THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK,” CREATOR, “THE SOPRANOS”: Well, I’d always said I didn’t want to do a Sopranos movie. That’s right after the show went off the air. And that was kind of true and still true then. But I mean, still true now. But I had done a couple of things. I made a movie in 2012. Then that was that. And I had written a six-part miniseries for HBO that we couldn’t come together on the financing. And I was trying to figure out what to do next. And told the emirate who’s a chief of Warner Bros. Movies, had been after me since forever to do a Sopranos movie and he came — he was — we were talking then and he pitched it again and the timing was right.

GOLODRYGA: And the timing took place in the late ’60s, early ’70s and in Newark. Why did you go back to that time specifically?

CHASE: Well, we wanted — the crew, Tony’s crew, that took place, they were from Newark. So, if we’re going to go back in time Soprano crew and the DiMeo family, it would have to be in Newark. And the Newark riots were a very interesting time. And I had some familiarity with it. And it seemed like it would be something different for the Sopranos in the Sopranos universe.