I was on Wikipedia and reading up on the character Willie Cicci. It was written that Willie would have been a major character in GF3, however he died before they started filming. They said that his character was written out and replaced by Joey Saza. So my question is, had Spinell lived, do you think the Willie Cicci character would have been the one making the beef with Michael Corleone?

Also to consider- Willie Cicci had testified against Michael in GF2. So how would they make this work for GF3?

Not a chance. Though he had a tiny role and not much dialog in GF and II, Spinell was so perfect as Willie Cicci that he gets outsized mention here. But, there'd be no way that Michael Corleone would let him inherit the "olive oil business" after testifying against him. In fact, an open question is whether Michael tried to arrange his death at the same time he was sending Tom to Frankie Pentangeli on his Grim Reaper mission.

I wonder why in the Wikipedia article then they mentioned he would be main character in GF3?

Wiki isn't gospel.

How would you characterize Willie Cicci? A button, yes, as he testified. He was the most prominent button of the films (GF and II). He had a few lines in each. The only other prominent button was Paulie and, well, you won't see Paulie no more. Did I miss any?

The other night I was watching the movie "Brubaker" with Robert Redford and who appears, Joe Spinell. I also remember him in "French Connection (2?) and of course Mr. Gazza in "Rocky". Not a stellar career, but he had some work.

He said "At first, I was a button." I inferred that, by II, he must have been Frankie's consigliere or maybe a caporegime, considering how close he stayed with Frankie.

Good point. Going by the Family Org Chart from the Lebo book, Willie is listed with "Buttons - Soldiers". Maybe there are different ranks of Button like Button First Class, Second Class, etc. :), but after that Chart, with Frankie promoted, did Willie move up the to Capo spot or did Carmine "The Plunge" Coronda leap-frog Willie?

Speaking of Willie's testimony, I think FFC's (maybe Puzo's) explanation of button origins was almost offensive it was so naive.

Actually being a buton is a big deal....e.g. Carlo was never a button... the button had theo be someone a capo trusted and someone who could rise up through the rnmks

Cicci definitely was going to be in Part III. He is in either the Death of Michael Corleone script or the original Part III script that had Hagen in it too. I read it...it's on line somewhere. I can't remember if they even allude to the committee hearing though, which made it an easy switch to someone else like Zasa.

I don't know how they would have made that plausible but I don't think FFC and Puzo were working on Part II levels of decision making mastery at that time.

Granted,anything is possible in the movie biz,but I think it would have been a stretch to put Cicci in Part III,at least the Part III that we saw.

Mike kills his own brother,kills Hyman Roth,(who was no longer a threat to him),and kills Five Angels (who never testified). I can't believe that a guy who actually took the stand against Mike,and embarrassed him in front of the whole country would get a pass.

Maybe Michael would have been dead by then, or some other major plot twist would have been in the works,but barring that,no way,no how, does Cicci show up in III,except maybe as another Fabrizio scenario.

-take her to the zoo mike-

I'd like to see this GF3 script, I know I've seen a "First Draft" (3/22/79) that has Hagen in it and has some subplot with Tony joining the CIA, and Hagen gets gunned down in his car.

Seems pretty silly to me.

Retards like the zoo.

The Actor who plae Gazza was in Black Sunday if you never saw it see it a good movie. Staring Bruce Dern and the guy from Jaws and Martha keller and the super bowl.

The actor who played Cicci was in the 7 ups, and played Syvester stalones boss in the movie Night Hawks.He might have also been in crusing that Pacino bomb.

If he was to be in godfather three it would make no sense. He had no brains he was just muscle.