James Gandolfini, the actor behind Tony Soprano, is planning his first big movie beyond The Sopranos to be set and shot in Bangkok. It’s going to be an adaptation of Jake Needham’s novel The Big Mango.
Nicholas Cage was in Bangkok a few months ago filming Bangkok Dangerous, and the Bangkok Post recently ran an article about how James Gandolfini wants to make a movie in Thailand’s capital too. The film will be based on Jake Needham’s novel The Big Mango. It’s being touted as James Gandolfini’s first major project after the completion of The Sopranos.
Tony Soprano, courtesy of Wikipedia
Widely regarded as the Asian equivalent to New York, Bangkok has long been affectionately dubbed The Big Mango – and this was the title author Jake Needham took for his first novel set in the Thai City Of Angels. Needham is an American ex-lawyer who found success with The Big Mango, and has subsequently made a career out of books written about Thailand and Asia. Having lived with his wife in Bangkok for over a decade, Needham is no stranger to the city.
Last week Needham wrote a fascinating piece for the Bangkok Post about being on the set of The Sopranos while he was working with James Gandolfini on the script for The Big Mango. Or, at least, attempting to work on the script – as Needham points out, it’s hard work getting anything done on a movie set and while the movie rights of The Big Mango have been bought and optioned, it’s questionable if the script will ever get finished and the movie made.
Still, Gandolfini does seem to be genuinely enthused about the book since reading it several years ago so perhaps his own enjoyment will see the movie version come about.
Unfortunately The Big Mango is only for sale within Asia itself – you can’t get it on Amazon.com.
The Bangkok Post article is on the Bangkok Post’s site and Google’s cache, complete with pictures.
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