Alan Taylor to Direct ‘Sopranos’ Prequel ‘The Many Saints of Newark’

Alan Taylor has officially signed a deal to direct a feature-length film prequel to The Sopranos titled The Many Saints of Newark, according to a report by The Wrap.

Taylor has an impressive resumé as a director, including Terminator Genisys, Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World and several episodes of Game of Thrones. His association with The Sopranos goes back even further, however, as he once won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing on the show.

The forthcoming prequel will follow the wave of riots plaguing Newark in the 1960s, according to a report by The Wrap. Younger versions of characters from The Sopranos are set to appear, though there is no word on how many and who they will be. At the time, Newark was the stage for a number of savage conflicts between Italian-Americans and African-Americans.

All in all, Taylor directed nine episodes of The Sopranos. He won his Emmy for season 6, episode 18, titled “Kennedy and Heidi.” Aside from Taylor, only three director handled more episodes of the show — 12 were directed by Allen Coulter, 13 were directed by John Patterson and 20 by Timothy Van Patten.

He’s not the only familiar face returning to the franchise. Sopranos creator David Chase will produce The Many Saints of Newark, and he reportedly chose Taylor himself. Lawrence Konner is also listed currently as the co-writer on the film. Konner was credited for writing three episodes of The Sopranos.

The prequel movie has been hotly anticipated by Sopranos fans. The show ran from 1999 to 2007, and in that time it won 21 Emmy Awards and secure 111 nominations. It is often revered as the greatest TV show series of all time, and it helped establish the model that many premium cable hits are based on these days.

That is never clearer than when looking at the amount of writers and producers from The Sopranos that have gone on to do iconic work. Taylor and many others would later work on Game of Thrones — perhaps HBO’s most successful show of all time. He also found his way on to Boardwalk Empire, as did Konner.

Taylor had a string of successes in the award circuit following his Emmy win for The Sopranos. He picked up a Directors Guild of America Award in 2008 for his work on the Mad Men pilot episode, and an Online Film and Television Association Award in 2013 for Best Direction in a Drama Series on Game of Thrones.

The Many Saints of Newark was announced in March by New Line Cinema. David Chase’s production company, Chase Films, is also involved, and Nicole Lambert has been named as an executive producer for the company.