The only problem with a Part IV...............

I just think it would be so sad not to see anyone from the past Godfather's, so why even make one? -Pat

I think almost any proposal for a GF IV would feature Pacino, Keaton and Shire as Michael, Kay and Connie, in at least some limited roles.

The attraction of a GF IV, if done well, would be in the back story - coming up with credible actors to play a younger Vito, and younger versions of Michael, Sonny, Fredo and Tom, as well as other characters like Tessio, Clemenza, Pentangeli and Roth in their younger days.

But any version of GF IV would almost have to touch upon the final 18-20 years of Michael's life and what happens to the Corleone family during that time frame.

We have to remember that Michael, Sonny, Fredo, Connie, and Tom were no older then 30 in Part I. So you think they'd have to show them in their teenage years? -Pat

The chapters of the GF novel which Puzo used for the basis of his GF IV script, which would presumably be most of the "flashback" storyline, cover the time period in the mid-to-late 1930s when the Corleone family rises from being just neighborhood gangsters, to a power on the national organized crime scene.

Vito would be about 40. Hyman Roth, Tessio, Clemenza and Pentangeli, about the same age maybe up to about 50. (In fact, since we know Roth is 67 in 1958, we can say he'd be 45 in 1936.)

Sonny and Tom and Fredo, early twenties. Michael, late teens to maybe 20. Connie, mid-teens.

i totally back up the making of GF4, and hats off to EnzoBaker for his selection of character look alikes for a part IV.

That's some of the problems UunderBoss and I are running into with our "scriptment."

However, Parts II and III did a good job of introducing good secondary characters into the mix, and a part IV would have to do that instead of recycling the original cast, just to get familiar faces in there. Part III used that up with Enzo, Lucy, Calo, and some others, and they weren't even really full characters.

Part IV would still have the corps players of Michael, Vincent, Connie, and Anthony.

The flashbacks could bring back the original characters, and with inspired casting, would be the main draw of the film.

I personally think a Part IV should be a prequel to Part I and show the family's rise to where they are in part I.

Although we are writing a script for a Part IV which advances past Part III, I think that the golden years before part I are where the meat of a good story exists.

Anything past Part III is going to feel like Goodfellas or Sopranos if done the wrong way. We have to remember, the Godfather is the original - and has to feel like it still is the Godfather and not some cheap knockoff with the name attached.

I think TGF VI should be a flash back story. Unfortunetly i think Pacinos and most of the other members role would be limited to what happens after marys death.(due to age)
Since the movie was made awhile back most of the people that played the characters wouldnt be able to be in it. But if it was a flash back story they would be able to use differnt people for the Flashback characters.

Well, the only "continuing characters" from GF III who would, presumably, appear in GF IV would be:

Michael Corleone - Al Pacino
Connie Corleone - Talia Shire
Kay Adams-Corleone-Whatshisname - Diane Keaton
Vincent Corleone - Andy Garcia
Anthony Corleone - Franc D'Ambrosio
Al Neri - Richard Bright


Minor characters:
Enzo The Baker - Gabrielle Torrei
Johnny Fontane - Al Martino
Grace Madison - Bridget Fonda
Dominic Abbandando - Don Novello
Andrew Hagen - John Savage


Out of the "major" characters, Pacino, Shire and Keaton are all still hale and healthy. I haven't seen Bright in anything in a couple years but Al Neri's role would certainly be that of a very "senior consigliere" at this point.

Torrei and Martino, I'm not sure about, but it wouldnt be a GF film without Enzo and Johnny, would it? I could see Johnny Fontane's glitzy Las Vegas funeral being the set-piece for one of the early plot points - maybe the first business meeting of the long-absent cousins Santino Jr., and Michael Francis (Rizzi) Corleone, with Anthony and Don Vincent Corleone. (Maybe they could reopen the Lake Tahoe house as a set...)

In the grand GF tradition of abruptly writing people out of the story line, I don't think anyone would object in the least if it was explained that shortly after Mary's murder, Vincent became suspicious that B.J. Harrison had supplied Lucchesi and Altobello with info which helped set up the attack at the opera house - and shortly thereafter, B.J. went on a fishing trip with Al Neri.

And by the mid-to-late 90s - the time frame for my version of GF IV - it's entirely reasonable to believe that Andrew Hagen would have left the priesthood and gone to work for the Corleone organization.

I'll just tick off a few plot points I think would logically follow in the "coda" sequences:

1) Immediately after Mary's murder, Michael withdraws from active involvement with the family for a period of maybe 10 years. Michael retires to Sicily where his overall health improves. Connie, with her eye for manipulation, remains more directly involved in the family as Vincent's ultimate consiglera.

Vincent marries Grace Madison a year or so after Mary's death, and they have a son, Vito Pietro Corleone, and daughter, Carmella Luciana Corleone, in the early 1980s (1981-1983).

In the early 1990s, underworld manipulation and infighting leave Vincent in a position where he has to ask Michael for help. "Once he thinks he's out, they pull him back in."

2) The shock of seeing Mary's murder fundamentally unhinges both Kay and Anthony. At first, they cut off all contact with Michael, but they remain embittered and enraged which grows worse over the years.

Anthony's opera career stalls and he returns to law practice, where he becomes wildly succesful for defending several high-profile celebrity clients from drug, murder and sex-crime raps. (They are all guilty, we are led to believe, but Anthony gets them off.)

Finally Kay advises Anthony that the only way he - they - can get revenge for Mary's death, is for Anthony to join the family operation. Michael at first disagrees, but Vincent and Connie see that Anthony's smoothness and legal skill would be useful.

3) Connie's son Michael Francis (Rizzi) Corleone finishes a decade-long federal prison drug trafficking sentence in the late 1980s. He is almost 40.(We also find out that his brother Victor, who was married with a son, was killed in a stolen-car crash in the mid-1970s.) He now wants into the organization.

4) At the same time, Santino Jr. - who has been living quietly as a real estate developer in Florida, is wiped out in a stock fraud case which results in his indictment. He is in his mid-40s. He is convicted and gets a suspended sentence, but also decides it is time for HIM to get involved in the family business, which his "bastard" half-brother Vincent is now in control of.

Santino also has a son, Mario Corleone, who was born in the late 70s when he and his ex-wife were living in Miami, and another son, Giorgio Corleone, about the same age as Vincent's kids (b. 1981). Connie's grandson Victor (Rizzi) Corleone Jr. (b. 1972) also went to live with his uncle Santino in the 70s, when his dad was killed in the car crash, and mother died of a drug OD.

Well anyway, that's how I'd do it for starters...

(and set up GF V and VI while we're at it too... )

No way Kay tells him to do that. She killed her other son because she didn't even want the chance he would have worked for Michael.

No way Kay tells him to do that. She [b]killed her other son because she didn't even want the chance he would have worked for Michael. [/b][/QUOTE]

Just think about who, ultimately, Kay and Anthony might be planning to get revenge ON.

We have to remember that Michael, Sonny, Fredo, Connie, and Tom were no older then 30 in Part I. So you think they'd have to show them in their teenage years? -Pat [/QB][/QUOTE]

Connie was 18, Michael was 25, Fredo was 26, Sonny was 35, and Tom was also 35

[/qb][/QUOTE]We have to remember that Michael, Sonny, Fredo, Connie, and Tom were no older then 30 in Part I. So you think they'd have to show them in their teenage years? -Pat [/QB][/QUOTE]


Connie was 18, Michael was 25, Fredo was 26, Sonny was 35, and Tom was also 35

He was in an episode of The Sopranos in a guest role in either Season 3 or 4. I can't remember which.

He was in an episode of The Sopranos in a guest role in either Season 3 or 4. I can't remember which. [/b][/quote]I only started watching The Sopranos seriously in the last season or so, so I missed it.

It would have been great if they called him "Al." And asked him about, "How were things in the olden days, Al? I heard the old man passed away in Sicily a couple years ago..."

EnzoBaker, a cheesy reference to the events of The Godfather on a show like The Sopranos would be terrible. Like oil and water, these two worlds just do not mix

I understand that it's all in good fun, and I agree that Neri should be featured in a fourth installment.

different topic, i know, but i just have to ask: does anybody know anything about the solo voice and guitar version of the godfather waltz theme with italian lyrics? it's sung in GF2 during one of the vito corleone 'retrospectives' about half-way through. just after young vito makes his first assassination he returns to his wife and children (michael) sitting on doorstep and there's some some random guy with a guitar sitting on the steps of his house too, singing this song, i think (although it's not synched very well). i presume it's also the work of nino rota, but i've never heard of it published anywhere, on CD or sheet music. anyone know about it??

^^^^ You might try making a topic just for that in the Godfather forum. Might get more replys.