Released nearly over thirty years ago, The Godfather Part III served as the final chapter in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy. Although it was nominated for several awards and won over a few fans from the series, critics and audiences still found the third film to be weaker than its two predecessors. Detailing the power struggles of an aging Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the film delves into the gangster’s self-introspection and his pursuit of giving his family a safe life, away from the bloodshed that surrounds him.
Despite its lukewarm response, Paramount green-lit a re-release of The Godfather Part III, that’s expected to be out by this December.
A New Title
The first two films of the trilogy were mostly based on Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather. Even though Puzo co-wrote the screenplay for the third film, The Godfather Part III follows a largely original story. To set it apart from the predecessors, both Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola wished to christen the film, The Death Of Michael Corleone.
Paramount Pictures had rejected this tile but for the re-release, Coppola has finally got to keep a title that encapsulates the film’s themes. The new title reads as Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone.
An Epilogue
The ‘coda’ in the new title is an Italian word that roughly translates to an epilogue. As mentioned before, the third installment was significantly darker and touched upon Michael Corleone’s redemption rather than his rise in the crime ladder.
The new title makes sense as Coppola states that he never conceived Part III as Part III. He had considered the first two films to form a duology, with the third chapter serving as the epilogue.
Redemption For Sofia Coppola
One of the most panned elements from the film was Sofia Coppola’s role as Mary Corleone, a performance that was seen as flat and emotionless. She was even nominated for two Razzie awards. Now, she has found acclaim as a leading screenwriter and director with her latest release being 2020’s On The Rocks.
Francis Ford Coppola hopes that the new re-release would offer redemption for his daughter’s debut acting performance. As stated in an interview with Deadline, “I want to show Sofia a new version, because she is so beautiful in it and so touching. She wasn’t an actress. But she was the real thing, playing that 19-year-old Italian girl in love with her own cousin.”
Release Dates And Platforms
Despite the COVID pandemic affecting the reach of theatres, the edited and restored version would be screened at select theatres this December.
Following the theatrical release, the film will also be available on DVD and streaming from December 8th onwards.
A Heartbreaking Ending
Coppola states that the re-release would have an updated beginning and ending, along with the shuffling of a few scenes and movie cues. “With these changes and the restored footage and sound, to me, it is a more appropriate conclusion to The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II,” he said, in a press statement.
As for the aforementioned 2019 Deadline interview, Coppola also added that the cut would be 14 minutes shorter, even though most of his films’ director cuts are notably longer in duration. He added that the new ending would “break your heart.”
The Restoration Process
The restoration for the new theatrical cut was undertaken by American Zoetrope, a production company founded by Coppola and George Lucas. This was a painstaking process that involved a frame-by-frame restoration of the original theatre release as well as the deleted scenes.
Paramount and Zoetrope took over six months to search for nearly 50 original takes in order to replace lower resolution opticals in the original negative. Enhancements were also made to the original 5.1 audio mix.
Restoration Continued Through The Pandemic
The production for the restoration process carried on despite the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting the workings of major studios. Restoration had to shift in the middle though, with the restoration shifting from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The editing was finally completed by American Zoetrope and Paramount remotely.
“Mr. Coppola oversaw every aspect of the restoration while working on the new edit, ensuring that the film not only looks and sounds pristine, but also meets his personal standards and directorial vision,” says Andreas Kalas who serves as the senior vice president of Paramount Archives.
Inspiration From Puzo For Rewrites
The late Mario Puzo had been a co-writer, a friend, and a constant inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola when it came to rewriting his own screenplays.
As the director candidly stated in the foreword for the 50th anniversary edition of The Godfather, “I learned so much from Mario, perhaps most importantly the need to rewrite and keep rewriting and not be daunted with more and more drafts.”
Not The First Coppola Film To Get A Re-Release
Francis Ford Coppola is no stranger to high profile directors’ cuts and re-releases. For instance, his Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now was first re-released in 1987, and then an extended cut called Apocalypse Now: Redux released in 2001, adding 49 minutes of extended footage. Another edit titled Apocalypse Now Final Cut graced theatres and film festivals last year; this version being Coppola’s personal favorite.
A restored extended cut of his period crime drama The Cotton Club was also released in theatres and on DVD in 2019.
A Potential Fourth Film
Even though Coppola and Puzo wrote The Godfather Part III as an epilogue, they also harbored plans for a fourth Godfather film. Before the latter’s passing away in 1999, Coppola had drafted a screenplay and was very avid on continuing the series. Just like The Godfather Part II‘s alternating timelines, this fourth part was planned to shift between Vincent Corleone (Andy Garcia) continuing the troubled legacy of the family while tracing the rise of a young Sonny Corleone in the 1930s. (Leonardo DiCaprio was considered to play the role).
Coppola revisited the concept in a GQ interview. “I talked about it but Paramount wouldn’t hear of it. Mario knew he was sick and wanted to leave his kids some money. So I said to Paramount, ‘Give Mario a million dollars to write it and I’ll work with him for free.’ And at that time, Paramount had a very low-budget mentality and didn’t do it.”
