Hizzoner: Gandolfini to Handle Subway Crisis in Pelham 123

Could James Gandolfini get elected mayor of New York? Oh, absolutely.  

According to Variety, James Gandolfini, erstwhile ruler of his own little Jersey fiefdom, will cross the river to play the mayor of New York in Tony Scott’s remake of 1974’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

The thriller tells the story of a NYC transit cop who must try to outsmart a group of armed gunmen who are demanding one million dollars within one hour in exchange for the lives of eighteen hostages held on a subway car. Travolta, unsurprisingly, is playing the leader of the criminals (he’ll be doing the Travolta as charming psychopath thing). Presumably Washington will play the cop. Gandolfini’s mayor will have to try to look like he’s doing something to end the crisis, because let me tell you, no one in New York would have any patience with the subway being screwed up like this. I can just picture 9000 angry people squashed together on the 123 platform in Times Square saying, “Hostages? That’s the worst excuse the MTA has come up with yet. They raised the fares again and they can’t even end a hostage crisis and get the goddamn 1 train running? &%#^MTA!!”

Gandolfini’s been busy since last year’s Sopranos finale, trying to work his way away from the role. He completed work in Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are (though if there’s any truth to the rumors, he may have to go back and reshoot that, maybe with another director. What a disaster that whole situation is. If Spike Jonze had Edward Norton as his screenwriter he’d have a better chance of getting his version out rather than the studio’s. But I digress.). Gandolfini’s own production company, Attaboy Films, is producing a film in which he’ll play Ernest Hemingway, to be directed by Philip Kaufman. Going back to HBO, Gandolfini will star as Sonny Vaccaro, the sneaker impresario who manipulated the careers of many a young high school basketball player. If this was a sports blog, I’d tell you the whole story, but since it’s not, just picture basketball camps run by Vaccaro for hotshot high school players with as many Reebok and Nike executives hanging around as college and pro scouts.

The Taking of Pelham 123 is one of those Golden Age of ’70s action thriller films. You hesitate to mess with a film that’s already pretty good and well-regarded, but it’s an intriguing enough cast to make me interested.