Authors are still being saught and material is being reviewed. Published and represented authors and screenwriters only have been given consideration of solicited materials. The property is being referred to internally at Random House as "The Corleones" and NOT "Godfather 4." Although guidelines sent in the middle of October to literary agents leave open to the imagination of the prospective authors the plot of the impending novel, the time period of the 1920's and 1930's is the preferred setting, as well the development of the parallel relationships between adoptive brothers Vito Corleone & Genco Abbandando and Tom Hagan & Santino Corleone. It is possible, however, that each writer has been given a different time frame and characters with which to develop a story.

None of the information above is privy or secret, but it has not been mentioned in any of these boards or on Jeff's site. I have additional information that I can share at a later time when I am confident that it will not get me in trouble/fired/sued.

Also, as far as the talk about Paramount pictures scouting for locations in Australia is concerned, I HIGHLY doubt that. Paramount does not have the rights to develop a Godfather sequel - only the Puzo estate did and those rights were sold to Random House. Granted, Jonathon Karp admitted to meetings with Paramount Pictures in which he agreed to provide "First Look Rights." (A deal that made Random House a boatload of cash, no doubt, and not a single word of the book has been written.) All that means is that when the novel is completed, Random House will show the property to Paramount before anyone else and Paramount has the right to either purchase the film rights or pass, in which case Random House can shop to any other film studio they wish.