THE Sopranos is getting the big-screen treatment.

New Line is developing a movie prequel, currently titled The Many Saints of Newark, penned by David Chase.

Chase, who created the hit series, wrote the screenplay with Lawrence Konner.

Some of the fan-favourite characters from The Sopranos are expected to appear in the film set in the era of the 1960s Newark riots, when African-Americans and Italians were adversaries.

Considered one of the greatest television series of all time, the groundbreaking series ran for six seasons from 1999 until 2007.

The timeline for the series means many of The Sopranos cast won’t be in the show but Deadline reports Tony Soprano’s father, Giovanni “Johnny Boy,” the former captain of the Soprano crew (played in flashbacks by Joseph Siravo), and a younger version of his wife Livia (Nancy Marchand), and Tony’s uncle Junior, played by Dominic Chianese, could be involved.

Its numerous accolades include 21 Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Chase will serve as producer as well as co-writer on the film.

Chase’s last feature film was the 2012 drama Not Fade Away, starring James Gandolfini, who played mobster Tony Soprano in the series but died in 2013.

“David is a masterful storyteller and we, along with our colleagues at HBO, are thrilled that he has decided to revisit, and enlarge, the Soprano universe in a feature film,” Warner Bros Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich said.