The Sopranos

[The NZA]

The Sopranos creator David Chase admits anger and frustration over prequel film streaming on HBO MAX

DEADLINE: This prequel was an easier sell, but because WarnerMedia put its entire 2021 slate as day-and-date on HBO Max, you are back on HBO. How did that feel?

CHASE: I don't think, frankly that I would've taken the job if I knew it was going to be a day-and-date release. I think it's awful.

DEADLINE: It is kind of ironic that here you make a theatrical film based on the iconic HBO series, and it's coming out day-and-date on something with HBO in the title. What did you feel when that edict came down?

CHASE: Extremely angry, and I still am. I mean, I don't know how much you go into this, you know, like…okay. If I was…one of those guys, if one of those executives was sitting here and I was to start pissing and moaning about it, they'd say, you know, there's 17 other movies that have the same problem. What could we do? Covid! Well, I know, but those 16 other movies didn't start out as a television show. They don't have to shed that television image before you get people to the theater. But we do. And that's where we're at. People should go see it in a theater. It was designed to be a movie. It was…it's beautiful as a movie. I never thought that it would be back on HBO. Never.

DEADLINE: You really could have walked away from this?

CHASE: Yeah…I mean, well, I say that…okay. I could've walked away, yes, but there was a part of that story where my partner Lawrence was saying come on, let's get to work. Let's do something, do something, do something. It'll be good for you. Now, do you walk away from that? I don't know.

 

given his frustrations with the network years ago & all, i kinda get where he's coming from here...but come on guy, we can only put so much into the "theater experience" right now, it's a fuckin pandemic man

[alive she cried]

Yeah, as soon as I hear about this kind of reaction, the same as Nolan and others, I'm like, will ye cop the fuck on. When I think of how grateful I would be to have my short film on even the smallest streaming service, and these guys are crying because their movies are on HBO Max or Disney+, my heart fucking bleeds. It's just egotistical bullshit, this, "The cinema experience is so different to watching at home". Yeah, it is. At home I'm not sitting in chewing gum, with a 6' 9 man sitting in front me (literally happened at Shang Chi) and some teenagers talking (or worse) in the corner. There's probably financial issues too, but I find it hard to feel sorry for millionaires losing out on their big pay day (until their next movie) because people are dying.  

Edited September 16, 2021 by alive she cried