The Godfather could return:

No bull guys, just read this today off my internet service providers news page. Here's the article:

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The Godfather could return
11:35am Tuesday, 22rd October 2002

American publishers are planning to release another Godfather book.

Random House have reached an agreement with the estate of Mario Puzo which will allow them to bring in a new author to write another chapter in the Corleone family history.

Paramount Pictures, who produced all three Godfather films, will have first option to turn the new book into a film.

"These characters just keep pulling you back in," a spokesman for Random House told http://www.variety.com .

"There is enormous continuing interest in the Corleone family, and a great opportunity to tell a story that could take place before, during or after the original book".

The spokesman says the original was a classic, and the idea is not to compete with it, but rather to continue the story in an entertaining and artful way that will make his readers very happy.

An announcement about the new author is expected next month.

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Here's the link if you don't believe me. A new book?

Boy, that would be great! Thanks Turi! If this does come to be, we have to remember that it will be hard to live up to the first two. And another writer??? Still, as much as we all love the GF, it will be enough perhaps to "wet our beaks" IMHO I hope they go to the early days of Vito and family, but this is good news no matter what era they decide. Keep us posted if you hear any more news. They out to check out this board for our opinions of another GF and check out some of our scripts that others have posted for ideas.

TIS

I certainly hope it's more like the first book rather than the second movie. I find Michael very bland in the second movie. As for it being another author.. it has potential to both be good, or be horribly terrible. (Like the 3rd film)

Perhaps they could go for the "missing years" approx. 1960-1979. Problem might be making the actors look young enough if it were made into a film!!

Hi Senza Mama,

Yes I would be happy with that. I really hope they don't go to the "Vincent" years. I have a hard time acknowledging him as the DON. I think Vito's rise to power would be great. I'll have to assume there would be all new and "different" cast. That would be something inevitable, especially if they go "back" to the early days.

Boy wouldn't this discussion really "Spark up"??? The board will be buzzing, and that's a good thing.

TIS

That would be great!! Maybe It would be nice if It would be going abaut Vito still being a young
boy and it would take until the time of the first
movie

I think they would have to be careful and find just the right writer to do it, since the original waas such a work of art.

After the "Gangster" movies "Gone With the Wind" is one of my favorites (Hence the "Scarlett") and a few years back they came out with a sequel to the movie called "Scarlett", it was an okay movie acting wise but the story progression was good. It is just so easy to make a piece of crap just for the sake of money. Book or movie wise.

You are right Scarlett. If this does come about, like I said, we need to "presume" it won't be the "masterpiece" of the first two, and hope it is a really good movie. If it ended up matching the first two, that would be great, however, I don't think it's likely....yet "hope springs eternal."

Much depends on the storyline, actors/directors, etc. Plus, I hope they don't call it GF4 (somehow that would seem like a "curse" of sorts. )

TIS

One thing I hope they don't do with any kind of a movie is invent stuff that doesn't fit in with previous things shown or written about in the novel. As an example "Vincent", Sonny and Lucy never had a child together and it just didn't fit in, to me anyways.

I am in agreement with you there Scarlett. I thought I heard that Puzo had started another GF book? Do you know if that is true?

The article said that it was considering a movie on the Corleones, so we know it wouldn't be on any of the other families. It seems the only way to make another movie on the Corleones is to go back, if they want to include the whole family.

TIS

Only if you read the book. The way that the movie handled Sonny and Lucy's relationship, Vincent's existence was completely plausible. After all, Sonny was with her the day he beat Carlo. The movie cut out (thankfully) the whole Jules/Lucy thing. As a matter of fact, you never even see her when Michael goes to Vegas. If you didn't know better from reading the book, it was no stretch of the imagination to believe that Sonny could have left a "love child."

It is too bad Apollonia died in the novel and movie. In the novel it stated she'd been in her first month of pregnancy, it would have made an interesting story line for hers and Michael's child to have been involved in the Family business. His and Kay's children Tony and Mary weren't really involved, GF2 didn't show any of Sonny's kids or Connie's kid either being involved and well Fredo, no hope there either but I guess he and Deanna could have had kids. So who is left?

This is surreal -- not even sure what I think yet... but I'm gonna move this to the GF4 forum...

I'll try to find out from Carol and Jonathan what the deal is!

JG

Geoff,

Who's Carol & Jonathon??? Someone in the know??? Do keep us posted please.

TIS

Carol Gino (Mario's significant other, and author who finished The Family for him) and Jonathan Karp (his editor at Random House)

Some more information on this;

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Random House is making an offer it hopes a worthy author won't refuse: Resurrecting the "Godfather" characters immortalized by Mario Puzo.

"I love 'The Godfather,' and just kept thinking about those characters. I wanted to see more," Jonathan Karp, a vice president and executive editor at Random House, said Tuesday.

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In an e-mail sent to literary agents last week, Karp wrote that he was looking for 'someone who is in roughly the same place in life Mario Puzo was when he wrote 'The Godfather' -- at mid-career, with two acclaimed literary novels to his credit, who writes in a commanding and darkly comic omniscient voice."

Puzo, who died in 1999, was $20,000 in debt and supporting a wife and five children when he sat down to write "The Godfather," which came out in 1969. "It was really time to grow up and sell out," the author later said.

"The Godfather" has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and led to a pair of classic American films that collected nine Academy Awards. Puzo, who collaborated on the screenplays, won two Oscars.

Many consider the movie versions superior to the book, but Karp's message emphasizes that "the original Puzo novel -- not the films -- are the basis for this sequel. The author can either create a story that occurs after the events in the novel or concurrent with them."

Random House and the Puzo estate will choose an author based on a 5-10 page outline, for which the deadline is November 4. Karp says submissions should be sent to agents, not to the publisher.

Numerous fictional characters, from James Bond to Scarlett O'Hara, have been perpetuated after the author's death. There have been notable commercial successes, such as Alexandra Ripley's "Scarlett," but few would call the posthumous books worthy of the originals.

"We're never going to match what Mario Puzo accomplished with 'The Godfather,' " Karp said. "But we take this very seriously. We understand these are mythic characters with a mass following, and we will do justice to this."

Sounds good. I just hope it's not a case of, "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."

Hey Geoff,

I don't know how well "connected" you are to Carol and Jonathon, but if this does come about, would they be willing to scan our posts/scripts as to what the fans like us might want to see in another GF movie?? After all we are the fans, perhaps they will consider some of our ideas??? It's a long shot, but thought I'd ask anyway.

Like Snake says though, I hope we don't get our hopes up and then get let down. But for now anyway, this is GREAT news!!!

TIS

Brave thing you asked....really!!!

I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't want to see The Godfather resurrected by another writer.

Why? First, it seems like literary necrophilia, like a greedy publishing company trying to milk Puzo's legacy.

Second, the author is the only person who completely understands the world he or she creates in a novel. Not even Coppola understood the Godfather characters as well as Puzo.

Third, an author's work is a reflection of his or her personality and life experiences. This cannot be duplicated. It would be like trying to clone Elvis. A "sharecropping" writer might do a great job in mimicking Puzo's style and in recreating the Corelones' world. But it won't be The Godfather.

I realized this when I read one of John Gardiner's James Bond novels. Good writing, but Gardiner cannot fully recreate Ian Fleming's Bond, because he's not Fleming.

So what's the alternative? Take comic books. Superman and Batman have been through generations of writers. Each writer has a unique interpretation of these timeless characters. They're still not the Siegel/Schuster Superman or the Kane/Finger Batman, of course. The writers know that and the fans know that. Also, superhero characters are much less fleshed out than the Corelones, so new writers have more room for interpretation.

With that in mind, I think there's room for writers to experiment with new Godfather stories without billing the stories as "authorized sequels." How about a collection of short stories about the Corelones or the supporting characters?

you wouldn't say so after seeing some of the Behind-The-Scenes material from the DVD bonus disc!!

this I like, the movie trilogy will probably never get 'better', only longer. written, short stories can on the other hand contribute something... but if it will be Puzolike...or too much Puzolike... i dont know