Another reason to lament the end of The Sopranos

August 13th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Sure, HBO coaxed about two or three seasons’ worth of extra episodes from David Chase, even though Chase didn’t really want to do them, and it is to the credit of the creator that very rarely was any show considered substandard. At the very least, they were the television equivalent to Let It Be — not good by the creator’s standards, but still better than anything else out there. (Disclosure: I can’t find it, but some critic said that. I think it was in Rolling Stone.)

I’m digressing: what I mean to say is that while Chase was probably ready to move on from Tony and Co. a while back, the cast had to be holding on for dear life. After all, none have found much work during the show or since, even James Gandolfini, who literally put on a clinic every week in Melfi’s office.

And with news of Gandolfini’s next job breaking (thanks to SbB), well, maybe James could have used a couple more seasons as Tony after all:

“Sopranos” star James Gandolfini will return to HBO when he plays Sonny Vaccaro, who signed Michael Jordan to the first million-dollar shoe deal at Nike.

Gandolfini will star in “ABCD Camp,” which he’ll exec produce through his Attaboy Films banner with partner Alexandra Ryan. Attaboy has an exclusive producing deal at HBO.

Dan Halsted also will be exec producing with Baron Davis, the star guard for the Golden State Warriors who formed the production company Verso Entertainment with Cash Warren.

“Friday Night Lights” screenwriter David Aaron Cohen pitched and will write a drama chronicling the last youth basketball camp established by the corporate sports scout Vaccaro.

I agree that Sonny Vaccaro is an interesting character, one of those William Wesley types that makes things happen in sports behind the scenes. For a group of young, independent film producers, this could be a great off-beat topic. But I’m sorry: this just reeks of Blue Chips. The basketball will be cheesy, Gandolfini will have to slim down to an emaciated version of himself (he’ll still weigh 230) … everything just feels wrong.