Paramount prepping new Godfather?
Posted : November 10, 2006 Writer : Clint Morris
Remember those rumours about a possible “Godfather 4”? Remember how they said it would star Anthony LaPaglia, and be filmed in his native Australia? Well, those rumours were a pile of horse dun… apparently.
The good news is - there might be another “Godfather” film – or two.
Thanks to the success of the book “The Godfather Returns” – and the newly commissioned “The Godfather’s Revenge” – Paramount have decided to try and transfer those literary beauties to the big screen. Though the studio snapped up the rights to the books – both written by Mark Winegardner – quite a few months back, its only this month that “Returns and Revenge films seem to have been ramped up to active -development status – meaning they’ll probably get underway within the next year” a rat within the ranks at the studios, tells Moviehole. “I don’t think the new film is going to be done in Australia [though], no”.
The casting problem with “The Godfather Returns” is that the story is set between “The Godfather” and “The Godfather II” – yep, its been quite a few years since Al Pacino and company gave life to those characters, so it’d be almost impossible to fluke it with CGI – so unless someone can turn back the clock…
“They’ll re-cast naturally”, the studio leak says. “I guess you’ll notice it about as much as Brandon Routh stepping in for Christopher Reeve in Superman [Returns] – a film that was supposedly set between Superman II and Superman III. Difference being here of course, all the characters will probably be recast”.
The second film, “Godfathers Revenge”, will much easier to cast because it’s a “prequel, about how Tommy Hagen came to shack up with the Corleone’s”.
No word whether Andy Garcia will get a look-in in any of the films, but the actor, who co-starred in “The Godfather Part III”, said recently that he’s surprised Paramount haven’t done anything “Godfather” sooner. "The irony and fascination for me is that - with all the movies Paramount takes risks on each year - they have this franchise people are desperate to see and they won't green-light it”, said Garcia. (Garcia was said to have suggested to director Francis Ford Coppola that Leonardo Di Caprio play Sonny Corleone in a “Godfather” prequel).
Here’s my two-bob : I see the films happening, but I see them being VERY different beasts, - almost disparate - to the original films. They may feature the same characters, they may even retread over familiar territory, but they’ll be more contemporary re-working’s if anything. I guess, in some respects, they have to be – today’s main cinema-going audience weren’t even around – and I’m predicting eight out of ten 17-year-olds haven’t even seen the original films – when Brando presented us with an offer we “couldn’t refuse” all those years ago.
Thanks to “Ms Published”
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