HBO Zings Bada Bing Rumors

Fri., Mar. 7, 2008 4:49 PM PST by Natalie Finn

It sounds as if talk of the Bada Bing reopening is nothing but a bunch of B.S.

An HBO spokesperson says there is "no truth" to a rumor that The Sopranos saga will be making its way to the big screen.

While talk of a feature film version of the groundbreaking cable series began almost immediately after the credits silently rolled on last year's finale, the hype got a shot in the arm recently when the manager of the strip club that stood in for the Bada Bing said he got a tip that a Sopranos movie was in the works.

Satin Dolls manager Nick D'Urso told the Bergen County Record that renovations on the Lodi, New Jersey, club were on hold because someone told him via telephone that the building would be needed as is.

“I got an inside tip that they’re going to do a movie, so I don’t want to make any major changes,” D’Urso said Wednesday. “I’m not going to reveal my sources, but we got a call from somebody [working] on the script."

Two stripper poles featured during those scenes when Tony would unwind with a drink at the Bada Bing bar have already been auctioned off on eBay, and some miscellaneous painting and refurbishing has been done, but otherwise, the club has changed little since the Soprano crew did business in the back room.

“If we remodeled it, they could always spend the money to recreate it the way they want to, but why bother?” D’Urso said. “Even if it’s all for naught, I’d rather wait.”

And D'Urso wasn't the only one who thought the ambiguous Sopranos ending was tailor-made for a big-screen sequel, akin to the one bereft Sex and the City fans are being rewarded with May 30 (despite the fact that SATC theoretically tied up all of its loose ends).

The Sopranos faithful jammed message boards--at one point crashing HBO's Website--immediately after the show not so much faded as jolted to black, sharing theories and clamoring for answers.

And for those who determined that Tony Soprano had not just been whacked, or that they had to see it to believe it, only a two-hour addendum would do.

Creator David Chase lost little time in shooting down the possibility of continuing the storyline, however, telling the Newark Star-Ledger, "I think we've kind of said it and done it."

"I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting or adding to what is there," he said of the series' Journey-scored final sequence. "I hear some people were very angry and others were not, which is what I expected."