Skip to content
News

Scorsese/Jagger HBO Show Casts ‘Sopranos’ and ‘Boardwalk’ Goons as Music Creeps

Scorsese Jagger HBO New York Music Drama

It’s been four years since the Martin Scorsese-Mick Jagger HBO collaboration set in New York’s ’70s music scene was announced, and still it has no name and no release date. But the cast keeps growing.

Last year it was announced Bobby Cannavale of Boardwalk Empire would star in the series produced and written by Terence Winter, executive producer and writer on Sopranos (and Boardwalk) and writer on Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. The series starts in 1977 at the dynamic convergence of punk, disco, and hip-hop — Cannavale maneuvers it all as Richie, a cocaine-fueled record executive.

Over the past few months a handful of names have been added. Among them: Olivia Wilde, who will play Cannavale’s wife, a former actress and model who reverts to her former Bohemian life; Ray Romano, the label’s fast-talking and sketchy head of promotions with mob connections; Juno Temple, an ambitious assistant in the record label’s A&R department; and P.J. Byrne (Rugrat in Wolf ), an executive business partner to the label searching for an act to save his career.

Well, things seem to be moving forward as today yet more actors were announced, giving us a broader picture of the world these heavy-hitters are creating: comic Andrew Dice Clay will play a cocaine-loving radio good; Denmark’s Birgitte Sørensen stars as a socialite/muse à la Edie Sedgwick, purportedly to Andy Warhol; and James Jagger (yep, Mick’s son) portrays the singer of a fictional punk band dubbed Nasty Bits.

If you sensed some nepotism/cronyism while reading those credits, as AV Club points out, you’d be right. Aside from aforementioned collaborations, Scorsese directed the pilot episode for Boardwalk Empire, while the Rolling Stones have provided countless songs for Scorsese’s films over the years. There was also a Stones documentary and The Long Playwhich chronicled the music business over three decades. 

Among other announcements to the cast are Joe Caniano and Max Casella who appeared on both Sopranos and Boardwalk, Robert Funaro also from Sopranos, and J.C. Mackenzie of The Wolf Of Wall Street, The Aviator, and The Departed. At least they’re all coming in with a good track record.