Have not none of you who are screaming "No Puzo, No GF!!!" watched the DVD Bonus disc? In fact the one member of the "GF Family" who was most unequivocal that he DID in fact want GF IV to be made, was none other than Mario Puzo himself. He goes into some detail about how he had half the script written, gave some of it to Garcia, Pacino, DeNiro, etc etc.

If a GF IV is ever made, there's no doubt it will be based very heavily on Puzo's preliminary drafts. So everyone can rest assured that Puzo's influence would still be very strong.

I think if a GF IV is ever made it will be based in large part on the segments of the original GF novel by Puzo which have not already been covered in I, II and III.

GF I and II are probably the two most honored American films ever made. GF III was a disappointment because it was rushed, which resulted in several key casting losses and a hurrieedly-thrown -together script.

The script has already been seasoning, in some parts, for up to 20 years.

If done well, GF IV could in fact partially redeem III by tying up some of its loose plot points and also wrapping up some hanging plot threads left over from I and II.

I'd love to see it happen, and I think it could become a "prestige project" like Oliver Stone's "JFK", which featured a huge list of A-list stars who all wanted to be in it because they thought it would be a feather in their acting caps.

I think DeNiro, Pacino and Shire probably feel "ownership" in their characters and would be excited to see them out in a truly fitting fashion. And Garcia could move up into that top rank of Hollywood respected actors with a strong performance in GF IV.

My thinking is that actors are fans too. They like to play roles with substance to them. A GF IV, based significantly on Puzo's previously-written plot structure and emphasizing a logical progression of the epilogue sequences, and done with the attention to detail it deserved, could be one of the great events of American cinema in the next 10 years or so.