(from left) Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) and Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
The cult horror classic makes its return with a brand new chapter in ‘The Exorcist: Believer.’ Helmed by director David Gordon Green (‘Halloween Kills’), the film follows two families connected by their daughters’ mysterious disappearance in the woods.
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Where Can I Watch ‘The Exorcist: Believer’?
(L to R) Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) and Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
The film premiered in the United States on October 6, 2023, kicking off the horror season. Originally, ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ was set to be released on October 13, but shifted its date to avoid competing with ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,’ which became a mega box office hit, grossing over $92 million during the opening weekend.
Producer and Blumhouse founder Jason Blum acknowledged this on his X (formerly Twitter) account by quoting a Taylor Swift song, “Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23.”
Look what you made me do.
The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23#TaylorWins
‘The Exorcist: Believer’ became available on PVOD on October 24, 2023, only 18 days after its theatrical release. The reason may be due to the film’s poor reception with both critics and audiences alike, with 22% critics score and 59% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
For those who missed the movie on the big screen or just prefer to watch horror flicks at home, ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ is available digitally on services such as Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and Vudu. You can rent the film for $19.99 or purchase it for $29.99.
‘The Exorcist: Believer’ has a total runtime of 1 hour and 51 minutes.
When Will ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Be Available To Stream?
Director David Gordon Green on the set of ‘The Exorcist: Believer.’
The movie was released by Universal Pictures, and the film will be streaming on its streaming platform Peacock on December 1, 2023. For other films in ‘The Exorcist’ franchise, you can find it streaming on platforms such as Peacock, Prime Video, Max, or Hulu.
(L to R) Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
‘The Exorcist: Believer’ is technically a reboot, as it introduces brand new characters and stories. However, the movie very much exists within ‘The Exorcist’ world as director David Gordon Green brings Ellen Burstyn into the film to reprise her role as Chris MacNeil – Regan’s mother in the 1970 original.
Fans were delighted to learn about Burstyn’s return, as the trailer shows her speaking with a possessed Katherine, “We’ve met before. But I’m not talking to you now”. Katherine’s demonic voice responds with, “Are you looking for Regan?” alluding to her daughter’s brush with demonic possession and exorcism.
Much like horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis’ return to the latest ‘Halloween’ franchise (also helmed by David Gordon Green), fans may be expecting Burstyn’s appearance in the film to have the same effect. However, her role is not as significant as the trailer makes it out to be. Instead, the story focuses on the two families – Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine’s (Olivia Marcum) parents.
The film also explores other cultures’ ideas of exorcism, taking it beyond the Catholic church.
Watch the official trailers for ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ below:
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The official synopsis for ‘The Exorcist: Believer’:
“Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; ‘One Night in Miami,’ ‘Hamilton‘) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, ‘Hidden Figures‘) on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum) disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.”
Who Is In The Cast of ‘The Exorcist: Believer’?
The movie stars Lesie Odom Jr as Victor Fielding, Lidya Jewett as Angela Fielding, Olivia Marcum as Katherine, Jennifer Nettles as Miranda, Norbert Leo Butz as Tony, Ann Dowd as Ann, and Ellen Burstyn reprises her role as Chris MacNeil.
Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
Can it replicate the success (hit and miss as it was) of Green’s ‘Halloween’ trilogy? On the evidence of this, not really.
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What’s the story of ‘The Exorcist: Believer’?
(from left) Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) and Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 13 years ago, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett) on his own.
But when Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn).
Who else is in ‘The Exorcist: Believer’?
(L to R) Tony (Norbert Leo Butz), Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) and Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
Director David Gordon Green on the set of ‘The Exorcist: Believer.’
Clearly deciding that because his first ‘Halloween’ movie was a hit with audiences and critics (and ignoring the response to the other two), David Gordon Green returns to the horror beat by planning a sequel-skipping follow-up to another legendary horror title.
Unlike John Carpenter’s franchise, which had at its core Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, something that Green hitched his own wagon to, this time he’s only really using Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil (the mother of Linda Blair’s possessed Regan in the 1970s original) as window dressing.
Instead, the focus here is on two new families –– Odom Jr’s Victor and the parents of Katherine. And opening up the concept for a linked possession does offer a few decent ideas.
What also works –– at least until it really doesn’t –– is exploring other cultures’ ideas of exorcism, widening the world of ritual and belief beyond the Catholic church.
(L to R) Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr., background) and Angela Fielding (Lidya Jewett) with additional cast members in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
Odom Jr. adds another decent role to his cinematic resume, even if he is saddled with a very seen-it-before single dad role, all comedy bonding and then concern.
Green has also stacked his cast with some great performers in both the lead and supporting roles, the two youngsters who end up vessels for demonic creatures working with the special effects team to convince you that they’re suffering at the hands of some terrible entity.
The likes of Ann Dowd (in particular) and Raphael Sbarge do good work with their parts even when the writing lets them down. They’re given moments to shine and some shading in between the scares, and they really put the work in to sell these side characters. Ditto Norbert Leo Butz as Katherine’s concerned dad.
Finally, Green has the courage of his convictions with regards to the outcome, but we’ll say no more about that.
What are the problems with ‘The Exorcist: Believer’?
(from left) Angela Fielding (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia Marcum) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
Possibly the biggest issue with the new movie is that, unlike William Friedkin’s, it exists in a world where we’ve had enough possession stories to fill at least one level of Hell. Even just earlier this year, we had Russell Crowe puttering around on a Vespa before doing battle with the forces of evil in ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’.
The existence of those other films is not a fault of this latest stab at ‘The Exorcist’ but the choice to make it –– and to attempt to follow what is still regarded as the best –– can entirely be laid at the feet of Green and his team.
So, this needed to be truly great to stand out. Unfortunately, it’s mostly middling. Despite the performances from most of the cast, it’s clear that Green and co. were mostly on a nostalgia trip, bringing back Burstyn for little more than a glorified cameo, reduced primarily to offering exposition.
This is also very much in the Blumhouse mold, the difference between this movie and Friedkin’s stark. Where the original is cold and calculated, this is all eager jump scares and frenetic pacing, images thrown at the screen in an attempt to keep us unnerved.
Yet the effect by the end is more enervating than unnerving, the bag of tricks becoming clear. Yes, it might seem unfair to compare this with one of the greatest horror movies of all time, but when you opt to shoot “a new chapter”, you already invited that.
Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) in ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ directed by David Gordon Green.
What ‘The Exorcist’ does with a few lashings of pea-soup, a quick neck twist and some levitation, the new movie cannot challenge, even with a healthy respect for physical effects augmented by judicious use of digital trickery.
Likewise, the demonic figure at the center of the story is in no way as compelling as in the original, possibly because our attention is split between the two victims. And an obvious attempt to channel the personal connection of the first film (more than once) comes across as crass more than emotional.
And beyond the script letting the ensemble down in key moments, it starts to unravel as a whole, cliches creeping in to possess the movie long before the credits roll.
Is this likely to make your head spin with excitement? Unless you know almost nothing about the original, probably not. While Friedkin’s rightly lauded original might be considered slow by today’s audiences raised on a diet of endless jump moments and quicker editing, Green’s version will try the patience in other ways.
Proof, surely (even with Green’s confirmed plans that this should kick off another trilogy) that the co-writer/director might be better off going back to fully original work.
One to see only if the power of curiosity compels you.
‘The Exorcist: Believer’ receives 6 out of 10 stars.
‘The Exorcist: Believer’ opens in theaters on October 13th.
(L to R) Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc and Janelle Monáe as Andi in ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’ Photo: Courtesy of John Wilson/Netflix.
When Blanc is accidentally invited to a “murder mystery party” held on a private Greek island by tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), he soon discovers that all the other guests have close ties to Bron. But when someone is actually murdered, Blanc is on hand to crack the case.
(L to R) Kathryn Hahn, Madelyn Cline, Edward Norton, Leslie Odom Jr., and Kate Hudson in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’
Johnson has truly assembled an all-star cast that in addition to Craig and Norton also includes Janelle Monae as Bron’s ex-business partner Cassandra Brand, Kathryn Hahn as Claire Debella, the governor of Connecticut now running for Senate, Kate Hudson as Birdie Jay, an ex-supermodel turned fashion designer, Jessica Henwick as her assistant Peg, Dave Bautista as YouTube star Duke Cody, Madelyn Cline as his girlfriend Whiskey, and Leslie Odom Jr. as Lionel Toussaint, Miles’ loyal employee.
The result is a fun and funny sequel, which features great performances, a gorgeous production design, and an unpredictable twist, but relies too much on the basic formula of the original and features a group of fairly unredeemable characters.
Director Rian Johnson is a terrific filmmaker, as evident in his early movies like ‘Brick’ and ‘Looper.’ At one time it looked like he would be given the keys to the ‘Star Wars’ kingdom after his brilliant work on ‘The Last Jedi,’ but toxic fans made sure that would never happen. So, I’m glad that he has found a franchise of his own with ‘Knives Out,’ as Netflix already plans a third installment.
Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’
It’s also a revival of sorts for actor Daniel Craig, as finding a second franchise has been difficult for many former James Bond actors, but Craig shines as the comedic Benoit Blanc. Part Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Clouseau, Foghorn Leghorn and Colonel Sanders, Craig has completely made the character his own and is excellent again in the sequel.
In fact, the all-star ensemble of actors were all really well cast, and play off their personal public personas, whether accurate or not. Edward Norton, known for his dedication to his craft, plays the pompous and conceited tech CEO. Kate Hudson, the “It girl” of the early 2000’s plays a party-girl and former model. Former Wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista plays a man who wants to be known for more than just his muscles. While Kathryn Hahn, known for playing tough yet funny characters, portrays a Marjorie Taylor Greene type politician. The entire supporting cast is excellent and really bring their otherwise unredeemable characters alive on screen.
However, actress Janelle Monae’s performance is filled with potential spoilers, so I’ll just say that acting wise, the singer and actress definitely had the most challenging role and completely nailed it. She created a very mysterious character, that is fully formed even if the audience does not realize it until the end of the film. Monae’s performance drives the drama and is the heart of the movie.
Janelle Monáe as Cassandra “Andi” Brand in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’
My biggest problem with the film is something that often happens when a movie that was not expected to become a franchise spawns sequels. With a sudden influx of success from the original, common thinking is that the sequel needs to be bigger, which is not always the case. With ‘Glass Onion,’ moving the story from a Massachusetts mansion to a Greek island was more than enough, and already made the film “bigger” than the original.
But Johnson shoehorns in a lot of needless cameos, or worst, big name actors in very tiny roles that distract from the rest of the project, and I’m not talking about the main cast of recognizable actors. Without giving anything away, there are two extremely well-known actors that appear in very small roles, basically a line or two each, and it’s very distracting. As an audience member you are almost like, “Hey, what’s that guy doing here?” There are also a few celebrity cameos where the famous person plays themselves, which is mostly used for comic effect and works. But with so many famous faces occupying the main cast, I found the other stunt-casting to be unnecessary.
The movie itself starts off slow, and is at about the half-way point before any murder even takes place, and I do think we could have gotten to that faster. There is a clever and inventive twist, which I of course won’t give away, but just say that it saves the film from being a complete rehash of the original. Without it, you are basically looking at the same movie, the outsider detective who stumbles upon a murder in a exotic remote location where a “family” of wealthy but despicable people are all suspect, and ultimately the detective must team-up with the only respectable character in the group to solve the mystery and catch the killer.
In some ways, ‘Glass Onion’ is not a “Whodunit” as much as it is a “When will they do it” movie. It’s fairly easy to know from the beginning of the film who the killer will be, but the fun is trying to figure out how they will do it, and who they will kill? In that sense, Johnson crafts an intriguing mystery, which is very fun and funny to watch unfold.
The movie also struggles with the despicable characters at the root of the film, as it’s hard to know who to root for besides Blanc. In fact, the main group of characters are so unlikable, it’s hard to care about what will happen to them at certain points in the middle of the movie, which is why it drags. But luckily the murder eventually kicks in reinstating the audience’s interest in Blanc solving the case and seeing these characters receive what they deserve.
In the end, writer and director Rian Johnson crafts another clever and funny mystery with ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,’ which is gorgeously shot and very well acted, but relies a bit too much on the original film’s formula and Craig’s new signature character.
(L to R) Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Janelle Monáe, and Daniel Craig in ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’
‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ receives 3.5 out of 5 stars.
“Lock the doors. Stay in your rooms. Everyone is in danger.” So says detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, back with his southern-fried accent) in the first teaser for Rian Johnson’s latest stab at the ‘Knives Out’ franchise, ‘Glass Onion’.
Given that 2019’s ‘Knives Out’ made more than $300 million at the box office off the back of a thrifty $40 million budget, it was all but guaranteed that there would be more, assuming Johnson and Craig wanted to make them.
No shocker, then, that Netflix was quick to offer up a hefty $469 million deal, which locked in Johnson, Craig, and producer Ram Bergman for two sequels, of which ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ is the first.
Traveling far from the chilly Massachusetts mansion of the original, ‘Glass Onion’ finds Blanc headed overseas.
When tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites some of his nearest and dearest for a getaway on his private Greek island, it soon becomes clear that all is not perfect in paradise. And when someone turns up dead, well, who better than Blanc to peel back the layers of intrigue?
Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’
“The phrase I kept coming back to and talking about the first movie is, ‘It’s a roller coaster and not a crossword puzzle,’ says Johnson, who writes and directs again. “It’s a common mistake in writing whodunits, thinking that you’re making a crossword puzzle, and that the fun is that the audience is actually going to analyze all this and figure it out. I know when I’m reading or watching a whodunit, I always let go of the notion of figuring it out about a third of the way through it.”
Yet he knows that it’s not just the compelling mystery that is key to making a good movie such as this. “The reality is that what makes something successful is a story, and that’s true of a whodunit as well,” he continues. “Are there characters that you care about? Are you pulled through emotionally? Are you on a ride with them with this story? Then the revelation of it all coming together and the whodunit, and the fact that it is all layered in there, is part of the fun of the genre. But, in a way, it can’t be the spine that actually is supporting the body of the whole thing. You just need a good story.”
‘Knives Out’ was certainly a good story, blending different characters together and slowly peeling away the layers of dispute and discord to find the truth of the matter. ‘Glass Onion’ promises more of the same, with the bonus of a fun overseas setting.
‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ will be on limited releases in theaters on a date to be announced, ahead of its arrival on Netflix on December 23rd. Merry deathmas?
(L to R) Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Edward Norton, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, and Dave Bautista in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’(L to R) Kathryn Hahn, Madelyn Cline, Edward Norton, Leslie Odom Jr., and Kate Hudson in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’(L to R) Kate Hudson and Jessica Henwick in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’(L to R) Dave Bautista and Madelyn Cline in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’Janelle Monáe as Cassandra “Andi” Brand in Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ will begin streaming on December 23, 2022.
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(L to R) Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Janelle Monáe, and Daniel Craig in ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’
It’s hardly a mystery as to why Netflix quickly snapped up the rights to two more ‘Knives Out’ movies after writer/director Rian Johnson’s star-studded murder mystery did well at the box office in 2019.
‘Knives Out’ made more than $300 million at the box office, which might not seem like a lot in a time of billion-dollar earners, but that was off the back of a thrifty $40 million budget.
So Netflix was quick to offer up a hefty $469 million deal, which locked in Johnson, Craig and producer Ram Bergman for two sequels. The first, ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ arrives on the streaming service later this year and we have a new look at the movie.
Traveling far from the chilly Massachusetts mansion of the original, ‘Glass Onion’ finds Blanc headed overseas.
Director Rian Johnson and Janelle Monáe on the set of ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.’
When tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites some of his nearest and dearest for a getaway on his private Greek island, it soon becomes clear that all is not perfect in paradise. And when someone turns up dead, well, who better than Blanc to peel back the layers of intrigue?
“You try and invite people that you like,” Johnson says. “But the reality is you never know. At the end of the day, just trying to get the best actors in each part, the actors that are most right for each individual part. So, you also just throw the dice and hold your breath. Luckily, we got a great group that really meshed.”
And one of the big elements this time is learning more about our main man, the dude with the drawl and the keen detective skills.
“You definitely get to know him a little bit better,” Johnson says. “In the first one, because of the way it was structured, Marta, Ana’s character, was very much the protagonist. In a big way, Blanc was the threat. He was almost the antagonist in terms of just the story structure because you were worried, even as they got closer, that he was going to catch her and he was going to have to turn her over at the end. Whereas, in this one, Blanc gets an invitation to come to this murder mystery on this island. We’re very much meeting these people and getting into this world through his eyes.”
‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ will be out for a limited theatrical release (details forthcoming) ahead of its Netflix launch on December 23rd. We suspect… foul play.
Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out.’
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Michael Gandolfini and Alessandro Nivola in ‘The Many Saints of Newark’
Michael Gandolfini talks about how he joined the movie, and Vera Farmiga and Jon Bernthal talk about whether they’d watched the TV series.
Moviefone: You guys play members of the Soprano family. I’m going to start with you, Michael, you are playing a young Tony Soprano was a role made iconic by your father. When they asked you to do this role, what went through your mind?
Michael Gandolfini: Well, it wasn’t like a phone call of like, you have the role, do you want it, yes or no? Which was very helpful. It was like a slow burn, they want you to audition. And at first I was really hesitant, but I thought I’m not really in a position to not audition and go up in front of Douglas Aibel who is a great casting director and get used to it. So-
Vera Farmiga: You had to work for it! You guys are earnest!
Gandolfini: Yeah, that was my first audition. And then I had a second, and then I had a third. So it was like three months of convincing myself. Okay, I have a point of view, I have an idea of how I can do this differently and like sort of… By the end, I’d fallen in love with this Tony and had a real kind of excitement to play him.
MF: Oh my God. If that had been me, I feel like by the end of it, I would’ve been like, what if I didn’t get the role after going by?
Gandolfini: I had nightmares of like, David sitting behind. I had an actual… I remember having nightmares of like talking to David and being like, what are you going to tell? What are we…? Actually, this is crazy, but I had a dream, I remember it was David looking at me, and I was in the audition. I was doing it. And I looked down, and my hands are my dad’s hands.
Farmiga: Oh, wow.
Gandolfini: And I woke up, and I was like, that’s such a Soprano dream. Like it’s just such a yeah. Yeah.
MF: Is it true, Michael, that you hadn’t seen ‘The Sopranos’ prior to getting the role, you then binged it, right?
Gandolfini: That’s true.
MF: So then, Vera and John, had you seen ‘The Sopranos’ before?
Farmiga: I had not.
Jon Bernthal: I had.
MF: You had?
Bernthal: I very much have.
MF: So then, Vera, did you do a binge as well?
Farmiga: I did, but after accepting the role. Because my decision was based on who my compadres were going to be, and the strength of the words on the written page as a whole, as a film, what the film was about, toxic masculinity, depression, American Dream, blah, blah, blah, blah. I knew that it was a good standalone film. I didn’t know how it tied into the original and I didn’t… and so yeah, after I grounded, and I knew what I was in for, I was petrified. Yes.
MF: And real quick, John, can you tell me a little bit about the character that you play for those who don’t know?
Bernthal: Sure. I play Johnny Boy, Tony’s dad, Livia’s husband. He’s a character that very much lives in flashbacks and I think in lore in the show. It’s somebody the people talk about a lot and this sort of larger than life character. So I think he kind of pops up in the movie here and there. And I think this sort of job for me and what I tried to hook into was a guy who has this huge reputation and has this huge sort of life and this energy about him. But deep inside I think that there’s something very different going on than I think what, sort of, comes across. And that was an interesting challenge for me. Yeah.
Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., and Michela de Rossi talk about playing characters in the Moltisanti family.
Moviefone: I want each of you to tell me about the characters you play, for those of you who don’t know, but we’ll kick it off with Leslie.
Leslie Odom Jr: I play Harold McBrayer and I work for the family. And fans of the show, you’ll know what I mean.
MF: Very big. It’s like a secret.
Michela de Rossi: I am Michela de Rossi and I play Giuseppina Bruno, which is the negative one.
Alessandro Nivola: She’s my stepmother, and then my mistress.
MF: That’s not weird at all.
Nivola: No, no nothing Oedipal going on, I promise. I am Alessandro Nivola and I play Dickie Moltisanti, who was the father of Christopher Moltisanti in the show, famously played by Michael Imperioli, brilliantly. He was a mentor figure to Tony Soprano when Tony was a kid growing up who didn’t really have his parents very present. And this was the guy who took a real interest in him, for better and for worse.
MF: The Sopranos was one of the greatest TV series of all time. So many fans. And I was interested to learn that Michael Gandolfini, James’ son, had never seen ‘The Sopranos,’ even though James was his dad. Had you guys watched ‘The Sopranos’ prior to?
Nivola: None of us.
MF: Really? So then did, did you guys do binges like he did?
Odom: Yeah, I did. I did over the pandemic, like so many people. I watched it from top to bottom and you know, I get it.
de Rossi: I watched it, the whole thing, when I got the role before shooting.
Nivola: Yeah. I guess I watched the first season of it in the two weeks that I was asked to prepare these five auditions scenes to tape and send in. So I’ve seen all three season in that time. And then when I was offered the job, I watched the rest.
MF: I have moments when I watched the movie where I just felt chills because there are those little Easter eggs that pay homage to the original series. But what was it like for you guys being on set with James Gandolfini’s actual son?
Odom: I mean, it was for all these people, David included, Al included, it was more than just a TV show. You know, it’s years of their life. It changed their lives. Michael tells stories about being a little kid and taking naps in Tony and Carmella’s bed. So anyway, there’s a spiritual thing happening there too. I just felt like we just all wanted to support him and just make sure he was all right and felt loved.
Nivola: Or have him support us and tell us that we were okay. Because he surely was an authority, even though he wouldn’t claim he was.
MF: And actually, Alessandro, would you mind describing the relationship between your character and the young Tony Soprano?
Nivola: Yeah, Dickie hasn’t had a child of his own and he as the movie begins, he’s in his forties, and in Italian American culture, having a child is like a sign of manhood. And so he was really, I think, upset about that. And he latched on to Tony as a kind of surrogate son, as a surrogate father. And I think he really loves him and believes in him in a way that no one else in the world of the movie does. And yet he’s a totally hopeless role model for him and keeps flailing around every time he tries to give him discipline or send him on some path other than outside the life of crime. And one of the tragedies of the film is the fact that he wants to do that and can’t figure out how.
Director Alan Taylor talks about returning to the world of ‘The Sopranos.’
Moviefone: In 2007, you won the Emmy for Outstanding Director for Drama for ‘The Sopranos.’ Here we are 14 years later, you’ve now directed the prequel film. Where did the journey for this movie start for you?
Alan Taylor: Wow. Okay, boy, you’ve got your dates and facts down. I sort of feel I grew up on Sopranos. I was not that long out of film school when I first entered that show in the first season. And then over the course of it, I learned a lot from the actors and from David Chase’s writing. So it sort of felt like home to me in a way. So when David called and said he had a script, it felt very good. Partly because in my career had gone various places, and I’d done a couple of big movies where I didn’t really feel I was home and getting a chance to go back to this world felt very right. Felt like a return to a landscape I knew and a voice that I knew. And so it was a chance to sort of take my movie life and my TV life and bring them together.
MF: Right. So when you first read that screenplay, how did you envision ‘The Many Saints of Newark’?
Taylor: Well, as soon as you read it, you hear that same voice, different characters. Dicky never appears in the show, but he is the main guy in our movie, but it’s the same voice. And that’s the main thing. It’s the same ideas, the same questions that never get quite answered. The same themes that are driving it. The same sense of humor, the same relationship to violence. So to me, it was like, yes, we’re back in the world. And then there was work going on in the script. It kept evolving during the period where we were casting and building it. David was adding things that I think really helped shape it until very late in the game. But from the first read it was, oh yes, I remember this voice.
MF: For major ‘Sopranos’ fans. What do you think that they will love most about this film?
Taylor: I think there’s little things that I guess people refer to as Easter eggs that will play for them, moments that will probably get a laugh and stuff like that. But there’s a big emotional connection to the show. If you know the relationship between… Our movie is very much about fathers and sons and if you know the relationship between our main character, Dickie’s son, Christopher, and his relationship to Tony, there’s a really rich resonance in this movie because here we see that character being born, and I was the director who finished him in the show. So there’s a real echo between the movie and what it’s setting up and how darkly it goes for these characters later on.
MF: I will say the main last shot gave me chills.
Taylor: Good.
MF: And I felt, okay, now I need to now start the whole series from this point.
Taylor: Yeah. I’m pretty curious to people who watch the series and now watch the movie, how they will respond to things. Also, people who are seeing the movie first and then seeing the series for the first time. It’d be interesting to see how those two… I do think they speak to each other, but it’s a very different experience depending on what order you get them in, probably.
MF: Of course. I have to ask you about working with Michael Gandolfini, who is of course the son of James Gandolfini, who originally played Tony Soprano. What was it like having him on set?
Taylor: Delightful. First of all, he’s like this sweet, sensitive, thoughtful, generous, warm guy. So that helps. But I think we all knew that we were asking a tremendous amount of him to go into this dark world his father had sort of defined. And having lost his father to go back there. We had a dinner right before we started shooting where Michael stood up and said, I want to thank everybody here for giving me a chance to say hello to my dad again and goodbye again. And there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, but I think from that moment on, everyone sort of gathered around him, the cast, but also the crew. And he was sort of the beating heart of the movie. He’s not the main character, but he was sort of, it felt like a family thing.
Best Picture nominees ‘Judas and the Black Messiah,’ ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Promising Young Woman,’ ‘Sound of Metal,’ ‘Mank,’ ‘Minari,’ ‘Trial of the Chicago 7,’ & ‘The Father’
Early in the morning on March 15th, Nick Jonas and Prianka Chopra-Jonas announced the nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards. Here are the nominees for this years’ awards:
BEST PICTURE
‘The Father’
‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
‘Mank’
‘Minari’
‘Nomadland’
‘Promising Young Woman’
‘Sound of Metal’
‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
DIRECTOR
Thomas Vinterberg, ‘Another Round’
David Fincher, ‘Mank’
Lee Isaac Chung, ‘Minari’
Chloe Zhao, ‘Nomadland’
Emerald Fennell, ‘Promising Young Woman’
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Riz Ahmed, ‘Sound of Metal’
Chadwick Boseman, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’
Anthony Hopkins, ‘The Father’
Gary Oldman, ‘Mank’
Steven Yeun, ‘Minari’
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Viola Davis, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’
Andra Day, ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’
Vanessa Kirby, ‘Pieces of a Woman’
Frances McDormand, ‘Nomadland’
Carey Mulligan, ‘Promising Young Woman’
Sacha Baron Cohen, ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
Daniel Kaluuya, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
Leslie Odom Jr., ‘One Night in Miami’
Paul Raci, ‘Sound of Metal’
Lakeith Stanfield, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
‘Onward’
‘Over the Moon’
‘A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon’
‘Soul’
‘Wolfwalkers’
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
‘Borat Subsequent MovieFilm’
‘The Father’
‘Nomadland’
‘One Night in Miami’
‘The White Tiger’
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
‘Minari’
‘Promising Young Woman’
‘Sound of Metal’
‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
‘Another Round’ – Denmark
‘Better Days’ – Hong Kong
‘Collective’ – Romania
‘The Man Who Sold His Skin’ – Tunisia
‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ – Bosnia and Herzegovina
‘The Father’
‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’
‘Mank’
‘News of the World’
‘Tenet’
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sean Bobbitt, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
Erik Messerschmidt, ‘Mank’
Dariusz Wolski, ‘News of the World’
Joshua James Richards, ‘Nomadland’
Phedon Papamichael , ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
‘Burrow’
‘Genius Loci’
‘If Anything Happens I Love You’
‘Opera’
‘Yes-People’
DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)
‘Colette’
‘A Concerto Is a Conversation’
‘Do Not Split’
‘Hunger Ward’
‘A Love Song For Latasha’
ORIGINAL SONG
‘Fight For You’ from ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
‘Hear My Voice’ from ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
‘Husavik’ from ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’
‘lo Sì (Seen)’ from ‘The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)’
‘Speak Now’ from ‘One Night in Miami…’
ORIGINAL SCORE
‘Da 5 Bloods’
‘Mank’
‘Minari’
‘News of the World’
‘Soul’
Delayed by the pandemic, the Oscars ceremony will be on Sunday, April 25 on ABC.
