There’s nothing trivial about the epic saga of the Corleone crime family. Part of the Hollywood new wave, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, released in 1972, changed the face of American cinema and its follow-up, The Godfather Part II, is still hailed as one of the greatest sequels ever made. The Godfather Part III, however, did not receive such adulation. Until now. With Coppola’s revamped, re-edited and re-jigged version of the third instalment, the trilogy can now be given the send-off it deserves. So, to celebrate its 30th anniversary and release of the newly-titled The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, we give you these brilliant behind-the-scenes film facts. It’s an offer you can’t refuse…
“Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is an acknowledgement of Mario’s and my preferred title and our original intentions for what became The Godfather: Part III,” explains Francis Ford Coppola. “For this version of the finale, I created a new beginning and ending, and rearranged some scenes, shots and music 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.”
The original Godfather Part III concludes the first of only two trilogies to have all three films nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. The other is Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Al Pacino demanded $2million over his offered salary plus a percentage of the gross to reprise the pivotal role of Michael Corleone. Aghast at the huge amount, Coppola threatened to kill off Michael, and open the film with the character’s funeral. Seeing sense, Pacino made do with the $5million lump sum being offered.
After Julia Roberts declined, due to Pretty Woman scheduling conflicts, the role of Michael Corleone’s daughter Mary was given to Winona Ryder. However, arriving in Rome to work on the gangster epic, Ryder was diagnosed with nervous exhaustion and immediately sent home. Having passed on Madonna, the director looked closer to home and went with his daughter Sofia.
Alec Baldwin, Charlie Sheen, Val Kilmer, Nicolas Cage, Matt Dillon and Billy Zane
all competed for the much sort after role of Michael Corleone’s hot-headed successor Vincent Mancini which eventually went to Andy Garcia.
Mickey Rourke was any early choice to play Michael Corleone’s rival Joey Zasa but was eventually deemed “not Italian enough” for the part. Actors Dennis Farina, John Turturro and Sylvester Stallone were considered before Three Amigos star Joe Mantegna won the role.
Speaking of Sly Stallone, he almost wrote, directed and starred in The Godfather Part III joining Warren Beatty, Martin Scorsese, and Michael Mann in a heavyweight list of directing talent who almost took over the project when Coppola was initially reticent to return for a third time.
Like the first two films, oranges are the harbinger of death. Keep your eyes peeled for the citrus fruit rolling across the table as the air explodes with bullets, blood and zest during a shocking helicopter bound machine gun attack or the market stall during an assassination attempt at a packed street festival.
When Vincent Mancini takes a bloody chomp of Joey Zasa’s ear after Zasa calls Mancini a bastard it might seem like an over-reaction but in Sicilian custom, if blood issues from the wound when an ear is bitten, a duel to the death must follow.
The filmmakers were refused access to Vatican City in Rome when the church learned that The Godfather Part III fictionalised the real-life scandals that blighted the Vatican Bank in the late ’70s and early ’80s including the murder of Pope John Paul I.
Before his death in 1999, author Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola were planning a fourth film. Robert De Niro was to reprise his role as a younger Vito Corleone in the 1930, Leonardo DiCaprio was slated to portray a young Santino Corleone gaining the Corleone family’s political power and Andy García reprising his role as Don Vincent Corleone during the ’80s running the family business. ■
The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is out now on Blu-ray™ and Digital
By DAVID MICHAEL BROWN
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