The Many Saints of Newark Director Alan Taylor on Working with Sopranos Creator David Chase

With The Many Saints of Newark arriving in theaters and streaming on HBO Max this Friday, I recently spoke to director Alan Taylor about helming the highly anticipated prequel film to HBO’s hit crime drama, The Sopranos. During the interview, Taylor talked about the challenge of trying to balance all the storylines, what it’s really like working with Sopranos creator David Chase behind the scenes, how editing during COVID helped the film, and more. If you haven’t seen the trailers, The Many Saints of Newark is set in 1960s New Jersey during one of the most tumultuous eras in the city’s history and follows the people that shaped a young Tony Soprano. While you might think the film is mostly focused on Tony, it’s actually more about the uncle he idolizes, Richard “Dickie” Moltisanti, played by Alessandro Nivola, who is the father of The Sopranos’ Christopher Moltisanti. In addition, Jon Bernthal plays Johnny Soprano, Tony’s father and a capo in the DiMeo crime family; Vera Farmiga plays a youn