Jon Bernthal and Vera Farmiga Join THE SOPRANOS Prequel Film THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK

We’ve got some big casting news to share with you regarding David Chase’s The Sopranos spinoff film, The Many Saints of Newark. According to Variety, Jon Bernthal (The Punisher) and Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring) have joined the cast of the film.

There’s no information on who Bernthal or Farmiga will play in the movie, but it was already revealed that the story would be set in the era of the Newark riots in the ‘60s. "That was a time when the African-Americans and the Italians of Newark were at each other’s throats, and amongst the gangsters of each group, those conflicts became especially lethal."

It was also recently revealed that the story will also involve a young Tony Soprano. Chase explained that he’s looking forward to exploring the period that Tony Soprano glorified in the show’s early episodes:

“It is going to depict when it was good. The mafia was very polished at that time, how they dressed and what they did. Those traditions were followed more loosely in the series. These weren’t guys who wore tracksuits, back then.”

Chase co-wrote the script with producer Lawrence Konner and Alan Taylor, who helmed nine episodes of The Sporanos, will direct the film.

Bernthal and Farmiga will join the previously cast Alessandro Nivola, who will play Dickie Moltisanti. Dickie “will provide an entry point into a look at the mob’s origins in the turbulence of racial tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans in Newark, New Jersey at that time.”

This should be a great film project for Bernthal and Farmiga to be a part of. It’s not hard to imagine them in this Mob world that Chase has created.