Any thoughts on how the Godfather would be produced today if based on today's Mafia? How would the plot be altered if at all and who would play the original parts, etc. (e.g., Vito and Michael)?

I think that it wouldn't be as good. Even if they didn't make the original GF. Why? Because it wouldn't have the feeling of the way things were. The mafia now isn't as big as other things going now. But it was based on the times back then. It was a big thing then that was how things were.

Good topic!

I don't think The Godfather would be as good today because of a few reasons:

A) We already have The Sopranos to represent today's mob family

B) Time difference brings on a classical feel to this movie

C) RICO

D) Ever since the Pizza Connection, the mafia has been too caught up in narcotics. Vito's philosophy on drugs would have never held up in today's cosa nostra.

E) Too many betrayals. Sure, the Corleone Family had their share of traitors (Carlo, Tessio) but I believe that in today's family, if they had a problem with loyalty, it wouldn't be a few individuals. I'm thinking people would come together against them, weakening them even more. Imagine if Tessio, Paulie, and Carlo decided to start their own family, league, or coalition and started recruiting thugs off the street. Though it probably wouldn't hold up against some of the stronger families, the Corleone's would have been made weak due to the information known by Tessio, and maybe even Paulie. It's just how strategies, and values have changed.

F) Making a GF based on today is like making a new Romeo and Juliet based on today. We know that wasn't a good idea!

Anyway, that's my opinion.

Interesting thought, Olivant! I don't think this topic has ever been posted before--will wonders never cease?!!
I come at it a bit differently. I've always believed that the GF films are NOT about the Mafia per se--it's a Trilogy about an Italian-American family, with the Mafia as a defining milieu. (In the same way, "Gone With the Wind" isn't a Civil War film, it's a story about a family with the Civil War as the defining milieu.)
With that in mind, a very good film about an Italian-American family could be made against today's Mob background. We'd see a parallel set of pressures on members of the family, updated: to get involved with drugs or not; the constraints of living with updated and improved electronic surveillance, the constant threat of RICO and betrayal by plea-bargainers in the family, competition from other ethnic gangs. I also think a modern GF could derive considerable tension from the fact that opportunities to go to college or otherwise find success in the straight life would be constantly tugging at family members.
Some excellent attempts have been made along this vein--"Mean Streets" and "The Brotherhood" come to mind. But they weren't focused on a family in the way that GF was. "The Last Don" was a move in that direction, but not a very good one in part because it didn't really emphasize the changing milieu in the way you're suggesting (and it was crammed with all that Hollywood crap that Puzo felt compelled to show off). Maybe someone else will do better.

Actually more likely than not a story like the Godfather Today would probably be about a family from someplace like India or Vietnam cominginto the United States, with the older Generation clinging to one set of values, the middle generation being tempted by the bad and wanting what is good for their children. In the 40's when the GF saga begins, Italian Americans were really second class citizens, and for many of them the mob was tghe only way to get out of poverty.

I agree with Tony Love, but I have to add a few points,

If The Godfather 4 is made someday, I hope, it would be about the today`s Mafia, with too many betrayals, rats(plus Frank Pentangeli and Willy Cicci), drugs(Vincent is gonna be in drugs business) and RICO.

Good posts. I guess I am just trying to figure what current movie stars would do justice to the various chracters. For example, could you picture George Clooney as Michael or Nicholas Gage as Sonny?

The plot twists around RICO, etc. that are suggested could make it very interesting though. There would probably be so many more variables today for the family to deal with than back in the 40s.

It would be really hard to make a modern-Godfather movie unique or even good.

The Sopranos has already done pretty much everything a modern family/mafia movie could do -- and pretty well. Comparisons and similarities to that show would do the Godfather injustice because without the Godfather there would be no Sopranos, not the other way around.

You'd need a spin to it, something fresh. The last thing we need is a Godfather movie that gives us nothing new. For as much as I do love Part III it is stale, even in 1990 before all the neo-gangster movies and shows came out later that decade.

The only thing I can think of is setting the Corleone family in another time era... like the Civil War... or Vietnam... or fuedal Japan. The same themes in The Godfather could be used in those time eras, but it just wouldn't be so much about the mafia.

I guess it would be like setting a Shakespearean play in a different era, which is done all the time to good effect.