The Sopranos Creator to Direct Horror Movie for New Line

David Chase and Terence Winter, who previously collaborated on the Chase-created HBO drama The Sopranos, have set up an as-yet-untitled horror project at New Line Cinema, Deadline reports. the deal is part of Chase’s first-look deal at Warner Bros., and will reteam the pair for the first time since The Sopranos. With no firm details about a title or premise, fans have already started joking that the movie might be an adaptation of Cleaver, the movie-within-the-show that existed within The Sopranos. In-story, Cleaver was written by Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), and incorporated secrets of the Soprano crime family into the plot of a slasher movie.

Per The Cleaver‘s Wikipedia entry (yes, there’s a pretty decent entry for this fake movie), “The film starred Jonathan LaPaglia as Michael ‘the Cleaver’ and Daniel Baldwin as mob boss Salvatore (‘Sally Boy’). Sally Boy’s key advisors are played by George Pogatsia (Frankie) and Lenny Ligotti (Nicky). Initially, Moltisanti and Lupertazzi attempted to cast Ben Kingsley as the mafia boss in the episode ‘Luxury Lounge,’ but Kingsley turned the part down.”

Chase is set to direct the movie, which is based on a screenplay by Chase and Winter. The pair will also share producing credits.

The Sopranos remains one of the biggest hits in the history of television, earning 21 Emmy Awards and ushering in a golden age of TV. In 2021, Chase made the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark. He made his feature film directing debut with 2012’s Not Fade Away, which starred The Sopranos star James Gandolfini and was released shortly before his death in 2013.

Winter scored an Oscar nomination for the screenplay to Wolf of Wall Street, and won numerous Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a PGA Award for his work on The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire. Most recently, he wrote Tulsa King for Paramount+ and Bob Marley: One Love (co-written with Frank E. Flowers), which got a theatrical release from Paramount and is currently still in select theaters as well as for sale on digital platforms.

Before working on The Sopranos, Chase had a writing and producing career that included hits like Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The Rockford Files. In both cases, he wrote episodes of the TV series as well as TV movies that came later. He also worked on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Northern Exposure, the latter of which was just released to streaming for the first time ever on Prime Video.