Dec 15, 2002
This is a version of some material I emailed to Random House. I have a copy of this material deposited at the Writersguild. I might post a fuller outline, later, when I get the material copywrited. I haven't contacted Random House through a lawyer or agent and do not know whether this unsolicited concept has been reviewed.
They are looking for a sequel to the original novel, The Godfather, which would be a different plot than this movie sequel idea. I have offered to expand this script idea into a novel for them.
I have not contacted Paramount studios.

November 03, 2002
Author: Abbott Scott Sholdice

Sequel to "The Godfather"


The Godfather: IV
'In the struggle for supreme power, some men, just don't make it.'

Stars:
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, now famous as an international financier.
Catherine Zeta Jones (subject to negotiation) as the new Corleone heiress, his new spouse Karen.

The main Photographic Promotion is a Poster with a photo on a boat in the harbour at Monte Carlo, with the Godfather IV slogan. The material here would be sufficent for a jacket cover. It descibes the movie, but does not give away the deeper plot. It can also be used on a book or Video jacket.

Poster:
Michael Corleone is reclining on the settee on the upper deck on his one hundred and eighty foot Ferretti motor cruiser. Monte Carlo is in the background. Michael's mirrored sun glasses reflect the sky, sun and bikini clad Karen (Catherine Zeta Jones). His suit beige, and shirt ruffled relaxes the blacker, funerary godfather image.
Michael recalls the past in flashbacks; Michael feels pangs of remorse in memories of his daughter's murder and funeral. Abstractedly and becalmedly he sinks into thoughts of these past events.

Final scene: Rome. Camera: Helicopter Pullback from the Roman mountaintop, the city is bathed in a red sunset against the last of the days blue sky.
It is Michael's patio at his colonnade, white marble villa. It is on a treed mountaintop with a winding drive and a cast iron fence.
In Michael's most stirring flashback he recalls his daughters' death, in his arms, on the steps at the Palermo Opera House twenty-four years before.
The camera pulls back from his eyes, then face. The shot has the blue sky around his head like a halo. Smoothly, without cuts, the pullback to a pan of Rome begins.
Some of Michael's grandchildren run to him, at play with a ball, Michael kicks it and they run after it as the pullback begins.

Plot: Anthony, Michael and Kay's son, who was singing the opera performance the night of Mary's murder, assumes the role; head of the Corleone family. Anthony has a successful career in the opera. He goes back to school and gets his business degree at Harvard to please Michael, and follow in his footsteps as Immobilaire's chief executive. He is impressed by Michael's business success and impressive personal wealth. Anthony realizes that taking the responsibilities of the mantle, chief executive at the Corleone conglomerate Immobilaire has become, for him, a blood fate. Michael appoints Anthony to the position of chief executive of the Corleone empire while he retires to be the Chairperson of the Board.

Vincent: (Andy Garcia) Vincent fades from the limelight as Michael's top person. The subtlety of business alienates Vincent from the top circle that runs the Corleone families' thirteen billion dollar financial empire. Vincent is assassinated by Corleone family enemies while on a business trip to Venice. Vincent's body explodes through his hotel rooms' balcony doors and into a canal after being hit by a shotgun blast. Vincent's body passively floats down the canal on a sunny day, gondolas passing in the background, the pool of dark blood surrounding his torso growing ever larger. Vincent's funeral is the second, about half way through 'The Godfather Part IV'. A flashback of Mary's funeral is the first.

Mary: Mary's funeral is the low point of Michael's life. He debates committing suicide with his ex-wife Kay (Diane Keaton); he holds a forty-five caliber pistol to his head, and screams that he is going to pull the trigger if Mary does not come back. Kay runs out of Michael's office in New York; they do not see each other again until a stock brokers meeting years later. Michael is emotionally crushed after solving the string of murders that has been wiping out the Corleones. Mary was killed by the same crime syndicate that bombed his first spouse, Appolonia, years before. Michael cries tears and swears revenge.