Tony Soprano is the Mayor of New York!

Sometimes remakes get me excited. It's rare, very rare actually but once in a while there will be a movie with the right cast, crew and reasoning to really get my juices flowing. James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma carried that feeling last year as we anticipated that movie (and it was awesome) and now Tony Scott's remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 is working it's magic on me too. We already know that Denzel Washington will star as the New York transit cop who deals with a hostage situation as a subway train gets held for ransom by terrorists (basically it's his role from Inside Man again). John Travolta (in his role from Swordfish but hopefully with more realism) plays the leader of the terrorist group, a part that Robert Shaw made his own in the 70's. Now Variety carry word that Tony Soprano himself - James Gandolfini will play the Mayor of New York who is under pressure from all sides to cut a deal with the terrorists. It will be the third time he has appeared for Scott after roles in True Romance and Crimson Tide...

With the climate the world is in from threats of terroism reciding seemingly around every corner, I don't think there could be a more timely remake than this one. The original is a fantastic movie but Scott's capable of great things and he's got a good cast here. I'm expecting this to be at least as good as Spike Lee's Inside Man (which I rather enjoyed) and hopefully, if we say our prays a little and drink our milk - it will be as awesome as Mangold's Yuma was.