Following his SXSW winner Shithouse and Sundance winner Cha Cha Real Smooth, the latter of which was picked up for a June release by Apple TV+ to the tune of $15 million, director Cooper Raiff has now found his next project.
The director, who turns 25 this year, will helm The Trashers, a new drama scripted by Adam R. Perlman (Billions) set to star David Harbour. The film will tell the rise and fall of Jimmy Galante (Harbour), a Danbury, Connecticut trash magnate and the purported inspiration for the character of Tony Soprano. In 2004, Galante bought the city’s minor league hockey team and assigned his teenage son to run it. The team gained notoriety for their rough and violent style of play, but also developed a wide fan base as they started to win more and more games. The team’s success and fame all came to an abrupt end with Galante’s arrest on 72 criminal charges.
Backed by 30WEST, production begins this fall so expect a 2023 festival premiere. “I feel so lucky to be working with David,” Raiff said. “He’s a magnificent actor and the perfect Jimmy Galante because he’s truly tough and impossibly warm. He’s also the best person and I hope he reads this and knows I want to be friends with him forever.”
In his review of Cha Cha Real Smooth, Jake Kring-Schreifels said, “It’s not exactly cool to be the nice guy these days, but Cooper Raiff is making a good case for them again. In each of the 24-year-old’s first two movies, his sensible zoomer characters have the gift of being goofy, innocent, and naive. They wear their kind and confident hearts on their sleeves, even if they often breach the comfortable boundaries of social norms. Mostly they are empathetic, rid of the toxicity that makes vulnerable young men—and the movies they star in—sour and one-dimensional. That this young and perceptive writer-director is so emotionally honest only elevates the entirety of his humble, charming, crowd-pleasing work.”