A Sopranos Movie? Fuggedaboutit... For Now

When we have a favorite TV show there is this tendency to desire, even if we know it's a bad idea, to see it as a movie. Deep down inside we know there's a good chance it won't work, but the silver screen gets the better of us and for some reason we feel cinema is any story's final destination.

There have been all types of TV shows that turned into film. There are those that are successful with quality like The Fugitive, The Untouchables and some of the Star Trek movies; some that are not great yet do very well at the box office such as Charlie's Angels and Sex and the City; and then there are those that should have stayed on the small screen like The Beverly Hillbillies and 95% of the "Saturday Night Live" movies.

Sports-talk host Mike Francesa was talking about the Sex and the City movies saying that the first film was terrible yet it made a lot of money. Somewhere in that thought he mentioned "The Sopranos" as a movie. Listening to Francesa over the last twenty years I know "The Sopranos" is one of his favorite shows so there was that desire for a movie version sneaking out. Should there be a Sopranos movie? I say there is only one way to do it: Wait thirty years.

I'm serious and I have thought about this before. You can't do a Sopranos movie in this generation. The main reason is that so many of the main characters were killed off. These are characters that helped to define the show. They were killed off for a reason and they can't come back. I guess you could introduce new characters in a movie, but for what? Just for the purpose of making a movie?

Another reason is the way the TV show ended. I believe David Chase wants us to guess at what happens to Tony. We don't know his fate. Why, at this point, would we want to? The mystery of that great show would be lost. The show as we know it ended; let's leave it at that.

But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be a movie. Many decent movies have been reboots of old TV shows; the aforementioned The Fugitive is the best example. A lot of time passed between the final episode and the film and a new generation was born. They were able to separate the style of the sixties show with that of the nineties movie. That's part of the reason the film was so successful. It had time to evolve and become its own. That's what a Sopranos movie needs: Time to gain a new audience. An audience that doesn't rely on the TV show. One that forms its own opinions and will relate to an entire new feel and style.

Thirty years from now James Gandolfini will play a small role in the movie and older fans will say, "That's the original Tony Soprano." Other actors like Michael Imperioli and Lorraine Bracco can do the same. But new actors will don (pun intended) the old gang and make the characters their own. It's just the way it has to be if there is to be a Sopranos movie. Believe me, you won't fuggedaboutit.