I'm starting to side with Apple on all things concerning Part IV. I've actually known it all long, but it took her to bring it to light for me. It's still fun to think about future storylines, but it would be an impossible task to make a Part IV work and have it feel like a Godfather movie.

Like Apple has said, after Mary's death, Michael Corleone is a shell of his former self. I can see him becoming catatonic and barely being functional. He now needs help to go to the bathroom. If the silent scream taught us anything, it's that Michael Corleone died there on the steps even though his heart is still "beating." So there goes the possibility of making a Part IV about him, unless you like lots diaper changing.

So any Part IV would have to place Michael in a supporting role, if in a role at all. I feel that a Part IV would have to involve Vincent because he controls the family and if Michael Corleone was the focus point of the trilogy, a part IV would have to focus on the person he made head of the family, which is Vincent. He's basically become Michael and will face a lot of the same things Michael faced when he was running the show.

We've seen the rise to power, the glory days of Vito and the gang in Part II -- and like Apple said, making a Part IV with minor characters in major roles is grasping at paper straws. Vincent is now the Don, like it or not, and any furtherment of the story would have to be around him.

I originally liked the idea about flashbacks to younger Sonny, just like young Vito in Part II -- but this would take away from the movie. Part IV needs to be about Vincent and the last remains of the Corleone family. Do they succeed or fail. And how do the characters change? Sure there can be references to Sonny, but they would be better served in dialogue instead of flashbacks.

So there you have it, IMO. Part IV involves Vincent -- without flashbacks to a young Sonny. When Anthony falls into the family life, the final nail is sealed on the Corleone coffin. Family business destroys the family. I know that theme has been used before, but I think it would be fitting here.