The Original Plans for Godfather 4 and the Franchise

what if Leonardo DiCaprio started the Godfather Part 4 well he almost did and that's not all the entire Trilogy was almost very different from the one we know today the first film nearly featured an entirely different cast the second was almost directed by Martin soresi with Marlon Brando returning to play Young veto Corleone instead of dairo and the third originally included Tom Hagen and had a completely different ending but what about the fourth film what might that have been like to answer that question let's dive in and explore the original plans for the first three

Godfather films and also take a look at what could have been the Godfather Part 4 in 1968 Paramount was presented with an opportunity to acquire the movie rights to an unfinished manuscript by writer Mario PUO titled the Mafia When Robert Evans the head of production at Paramount met with PUO the writer confided that he owed 11 Grand in gambling debts and feared he'd end up with a broken arm if he couldn't pay moved by his situation Evans gave him the money without any real intention of making the film or even reading the finished novel however

when the novel which shuzo would rename to The Godfather was published it became a massive hit leading Evans to realize that they were sitting on something big unfortunately for Evans his Studio bosses weren't as enthusiastic mob movies at the time generally performed poorly at the box office and they pointed to the recent flop the Brotherhood where Jewish actor Kirk Douglas played a sicilian gangster as a prime example however Evans argued that's exactly why it and other mafia movies typically bombed because of their complete lack of Italian cast and Crews leading him to argue that for

the god F to be a success it would have to be so authentically Italian that audiences would be able to smell the spaghetti on screen Italian director Sergio Leone Who Rose to fame for his dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood was a Top Choice to direct the film but he disliked how the script glorified the mafia and turned it down opting instead to focus on his own crime film an adaptation of Harry Gray's the hoods which would eventually become Once Upon a Time in America however it's interesting to wonder what Leon's Godfather may have been like

with his unique visual style combined with any marone's a of been haunting music Leone could have delivered a version of The Godfather that was both grandiose and dramatically intense marked by a signature sweeping visuals and striking compositions after Leon director after director turned the Godfather down until Francis Fort Copa was approached Copa an Italian director with a few films under his belt but no major hits was seen by Paramount as a potentially inexpensive choice for what they still considered a lowbudget project as an accomplished writer who had just written Paton he was also seen as

someone who they wouldn't have to pay to rewrite the script if he took on the directing gig which the studio felt the script needed to Paramount shock though even copela turned them down fancying himself an artist and preferring to direct personal films that he had written himself however copela needed the money as his independent production company American zoat Trope which he founded with friend George Lucas was on the brink of collapse especially after Warner Brothers asked for the money had invested in their company back after seeing zot trop's first film Lucas's THX 1138 at Lucas's

urging and in order to save the company Copo would reluctantly accept The Godfather other directing gig finding puzo's novel too Sleazy and sensationalist like the Absurd subplot involving Connie's M of Honor who is described as being too big down there with Sunny's pole as the only thing big enough to satisfy her Copa chose to transform the film he decided the film should focus not just on organized crime but also serve as a family Chronicle a metaphor for capitalism in America and a reflection on the Immigrant experience and since Paramount saw the Godfather as a lowbudget

film they plan to set it in present day Kansas City shoot it on the studio Backlot and it with contemporary references like hippies Copa boed at this idea and argued that for the film to be authentic it had to be a period piece set in the 1940s like the novel and filmed on location in New York City and while the studio argued that period costumes and cars would be costly Copus stood firm as he had previously compromised on Fan's rainbow where he shot half of it on location and was forced to shoot the other half

in a studio resulting in a jarring contrast between the realistic outdoor scenes and the fake looking indoor Studio shot scenes luckily for Copa as the book's popularity grew so did the film's budget allowing Copla to realize his vision as he worked with PUO to adapt his novel into a screenplay cop's battles didn't end there though in fact they were just beginning as he began to cast the picture the biggest question was who would play The Godfather Copeland PUO wanted Marlin Brando with PUO even writing to the actor to tell him that he thought he was

the only actor who could play the part Paramount however shot the idea down hard as Not only was Brando considered washed up following a string of box office disappointments but he had developed a reputation of being incredible L difficult to work with after his legendary Antics behind the scenes of mutiny on the Bounty which contributed to the film going over budget instead Paramount wanted Ernest Borgnine Copa boed at this and fought hard for Brando until Paramount agreed to consider the actor on three conditions he would have to work for a considerably lower salary put up

a bond to ensure he wouldn't cause any production overruns and most insulting of all submit to a screen test just to put that last one in perspective Brando is considered the greatest actor of all time and making him audition is akin to making Michael Jordan try out for the Chicago Bulls when he came back from playing baseball Copa wisely not wanting to offend Brando just told him that he wanted to shoot a makeup test of him as the Dawn and watched as Brando transformed himself by putting shoe polish in his blonde hair to darken it

and cotton balls in his cheeks to give him the appearance of a bulldog after showing the footage to Paramount they were amazed and agreed to cast him fortunately the only real onset sin Brena would commit would be to occasionally read his lines off Q cards much to the amusement of his co-stars and speaking of his co-stars Paramount still hated the rest of Co casting choices as Copa forgoed using Marquee stars in favor of unknown New York theater actors who he felt would be more believable as real italian-americans from the start cop's top choices were Pacino

as Michael James KH as sunny and Robert Duval as Hagen Paramount hated all three especially Pacino who Not only was a complete unknown at the time but Paramount felt he was too short and Scruffy to become a future Dawn as they forc copet to screen test them and other actors originally Paramount wanted Ryan O'Neal to play Michael after he had started mount's previous hit love story but after seeing James KH screen test for sunny they made copela screen test him as Michael before offering him the part while Carmine kedi who fits Sunny's physical description from

the novel a 6'4 blackhaired Italian-American bull who came from a tough section of New York was cast as sunny and while Copa came to like the idea of Carmine Ked as Sunny he was strongly opposed to the idea of James KH as Michael and continued to fight for alucino in the park eventually Paramount agreed to cast Pino as long as KH played Sunny believing that Khan's height would make him a better pairing alongside Pino Copa reluctantly agreed but felt so bad about cutting kid from the part of Sunny that he cast him in both Godfather

2 and three Robert dairo not only screen tested for sunny but was cast as po gado however after Pacino was finally cast as Michael he had to drop out of the mob comedy The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight resulting in dairo auditioning for Pacino's role in that film and dropping out of The Godfather after getting the part it's intriguing to consider whether dairo would have even been considered for the role of a young veto in The Godfather partk 2 if he had remained as poly G in the first film the connection between these two films

are even stranger though as allegedly before Copo secured the directing job for The Godfather he had expressed interest in writing and directing The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight but was turned down by producer irn Winkler who felt cop didn't have the skills to make a mafia film regardless the entire screen testing experience for The Godfather ended up being a colossal waste of time and money as Copa eventually ended up with his original casting choices while the process did nothing but eat into his prep time however years later Copo would remark that if he hadn't fought

so hard to get his way he would have been stuck making a movie with Ernest Borgnine and Ryan O'Neal said in the 1970s even as shooting began Paramount was unconvinced of Pacino and prepared to fire him only a few weeks into shooting unhappy with his performance not only that but the studio was unhappy with copela too and wanted to replace him with Elia Kazan who directed The notoriously difficult Brando in his two most famous pictures a street card Named Desire and on the waterfront in an effort to save both their jobs Copa moved up to

filming of the Italian restaurant scene where Michael kill solazo and mclusky after seeing Pino's performance and cop's Direction in the scene particularly how Pino hesitated for what felt like an eternity before summoning the nerve to kill solazo and mclusky the studio finally backed off although Copo winning the Oscar for writing patent during this time didn't hurt nor did breno Strat to quit the film if Copo was replaced with Kazan who Brando resented for giving the house on American Activities Committee the names of eight actors who had been members of the American Communist party when The

Godfather finally came out it proved to be an absolutely monster hit that launched Pacino's film career revitalized Brando and cemented Copa as the preeminent filmmaker of his generation however when Paramount commissioned PUO to write a script for a sequel which he titled the death of Michael Corleone Copo wanted no part of it fearing that if the sequel failed critics might credit the success of the first film to Brando ruzo and deem it successful despite him eventually Copo would be persuaded to produce it and was given the power to select the director he'd settle on Friend

Martin Scorsese who Paramount would B at as his only hit at the time was a low-budget film Mean Streets of course Scorsese would go on to create his own legendary mob film with the kinetically paced Goodfellas and unlike The Godfather which is a sweeping epic focusing on the upper echelons of the Corleone crime family Goodfellas captures the exhilaration of the mob lifestyle from the point of view of street level criminals desperate to lure Copa back to the director's chair Paramount offered him $1 million in backend participation which Copla felt would give him the Financial Freedom

to direct his own films like the conversation which Copla also asked Paramount to finance most importantly copela insisted that none of the executives or producers involved with the first film could be involved with the sequel cop's concept for the sequel was to juxtapose the rise of the family under veto corleon with its decline under his son Michael drawing inspiration from an idea he had long wanted to explore telling the parallel stories of a father and son at the same age and just like the first film the question once again arose as to who would played

vetto Corleone perhaps unsurprisingly cop's First Choice was just to bring back Marlin Brando since he had been made to look much older in the first film leading Copa to figure he could still convincingly play a younger version of the character and just like PUO on the first film copela sent Brando a letter asking him to do it but he'd ultimately turn him down due to outstanding disputes with Paramount over how they treated him on the first film leading Copa to castano after seeing his performance in Mean Streets however Brando would agree to cameo in the

last scene of the film during the flashback when Michael reveals to his family that he's listed in the Marines to fight in World War II cop's goal was to bookend the film about a father and son by having them finally come together on screen and that scene would have taken place at Christmas after learning the news about his son veto would have told him not to spoil the holiday by continuing to discuss it and to go his own way but come back to him the way a son should when he's ready as he has high

hopes for him Michael would have responded by saying I won't be a man like you the day before the scene was to be shot though Brando told Copa he wasn't going to show up did is still unresolved issues with Paramount as a result Copo was forced to quickly rewrite the scene turning it from a Christmas celebration to one for veto's birthday who shows up offs screen at the very end in a fortunate twist the scene ended up working better without Brando whose presence nevertheless looms large over the even though he's absent as Michael is left

alone while his siblings leave to surprise veto with a cake the moment highlights the stark contrast between the two Dawn Hawkeye viewers will notice that the last shot of the film with Michael sitting alone outside at the Lake Tahoe estate features the character with gray hair and wrinkles originally there was a scene before the Christmas dinner that would have featured an older diabetic Michael with Connie waiting to eat lunch with Michael's now 18-year-old son Anthony who is visiting from college as Connie would have mentioned that whenever she sees the lake she thinks of how Fredo

drowned after Anthony arrives we would have cut to the Christmas dinner where Michael tells his father he'll be nothing like him before cutting back to an older Michael and his 18-year-old son Anthony on the grounds of the estate allegedly the scene was only partially filmed before Copa lost the light and had to rap for the day and he was never able to return to finish shooting the scene Brando wasn't the only actor who didn't return from the first film originally it was supposed to be clemenza who agrees to testify against the corleon but the actor

who played him Richard castalano allegedly wanted to write his own dialogue after improvising the famous line from the first film leave the gun take the canoli Copa would bck at this and instead pivoted to having Willie CCE be the sole testifier against the coron before creating the character of Frank pentangeli however it's worth noting that Castellano had denied that he wanted to write his own dialogue and claims he turned down the role because he didn't feel clemenza would betray the corle own plus he was being asked to gain and lose weight to portray clemenza different

time periods throughout the film which he felt he would be unable to do because of health reasons one of the most pivotal scenes in the second film is when Kay reveals to Michael that she didn't have a miscarriage but actually had an abortion because she refused to bring another one of Michael's Sons into the world originally though Kay in fact did have a miscarriage but was Talia Shire cop's real life sister and Michael's onscreen sister who suggested that Kay should have an abortion instead not only to break free from the cycle of violence and Corruption

that defines the corleon family but also as a way out for herself allegedly as a way of thanking her for this idea Copla added the scene where Connie tearfully asked Michael to forgive Fredo alucino initially had reservations about reprising his role as Michael Corleone worried that the script didn't give his character enough depth and that Michael might come across as a one-dimensional villain just before production was set to begin Pacino's lawyers informed Copla that he had serious concerns about the script and would not be participating forcing Copa to rewrite it over a weekend and while

the revisions eventually won Pacino over the actor later admitted to Copa that he hadn't actually disliked the first script he just knew it could be better the sequel to The Godfather would become the first major US motion picture to use part two in its title however Paramount was initially opposed to this as they believe believed audiences wouldn't be interested in in addition to a story they had already seen Copa would win the argument though and following the film success Hollywood began what is now the common practice of numbering in sequels after winning Oscars for writing

both films alongside Copa Mario PUO who was a novelist and not a trained screenwriter decided to buy a book on screenwriting to learn the craft for potential future Hollywood screenwriting gigs on the first page of the book it read study the god father it's the model screenplay after PUO read that he threw the book away and while Copa had no interest in making Godfather Part 3 that didn't stop Paramount from trying to make it without him as far back as the late '70s Paramount began trying to develop a story for a third film and I

mean that literally as they for went hiring actual writers and instead had top Executives like Paramount President Michael Eisner and even Charles bludorn CEO of Paramount's parent company Golf and Western personally try and crack the story Paramount would make Mario PUO an offer he couldn't refuse giving him $250,000 and 6% of the film's box office gross to write a treatment that combined the ideas from Eiser and blue blor PUO is alleged to have said about turning their ideas into a script if I could just get blor to write it long enough I'll just change a

few words and turn it back in again with my name on it this version of the film would have seen a retired Michael living as a recluse Ella Howard Hughes at the Lake Tahoe compound Michael's son Anthony would have been recruited by the CIA following his graduation from the US Naval Academy to assassinate a South American dictator Tom Hagen who was running the Corleone family agrees to the deal on behalf of Anthony but on the condition that a union leader is freed from prison for securing the union leader release he promises them 100 million from

the Union's pension fund which the corleon plan to use to finance a new casino operation in Atlantic City after Anthony kills the dictator the CIA leaks that the US government used the mafia to conduct the hit in an effort to undermine the president and get him removed from office since the president was planning to disband the CIA as Anthony realizes that he's been upon this whole time the CIA tries to assassinate him so that he can't speak the truth Anthony then turns to his father for help as it's revealed that he's the one really running

the family not Hagen eventually the corleon are able to repel an attack on the compound by CIA forces before being promised by the president that if they eliminate the men who recruited Anthony before they can testify before the senate committee then the corleon will get the Union loan they wanted which is currently in Jeopardy the film ends with Anthony and the corleon carrying out hits as Anthony fully Embraces a life of crime and while John Travolta was the number one choice to play Anthony corleon after he team with Sylvester Stallone for Staying Alive which Stallone

wrote and directed and Paramount produced Paramount presented Ed Stallone with a poster featuring his picture next to the Godfather 3 Logo as they courted him to direct it however while Stallone was initially enthusiastic about making it he soon realized that trying to follow in copela footsteps was a mistake resulting in him leaving to make rhinestone instead over the years several different scripts would be written by a plethora of different writers most of the ideas involved Michael's son Anthony taking over the family business although One features Michael grooming his sister Connie's son to take over instead

resulting in her orchestrating Michael's death at the end of the film for both corrupting her son and for revenge over Michael killing her husband years earlier eventually the latest script was delivered to copela by his sister Talia Shire hoping he'd return to direct it after reading it and voicing his complaints shy suggested he write his own version despite his initial reluctance Copo once again was deeply in debt this time due to the financial disaster of one from the heart a film he largely funded himself the movie's failure forced him to sell off his 23 Acres

studio and spend much of the'80s working to pay off his debts echoing the financial pressures that had driven him to make the first Godfather film cop and PUO requested 6 months to complete a first draft of the script but Paramount would only give them 6 weeks Copla also felt that the story really ended with part two and wanted to treat this new film like more of an epilogue resulting in him titling it the death of Michael Corleone which is what PUO originally titled his unmade Godfather 2 sequel script that he wrote on his own ironically

this time it would be Paramount who insisted the film be called part three much to cop's dismay who believed it would set expectations too high for audiences the climax to copelan puzo's first draft of the script would have seen Michael get shot not his daughter Mary as the film would have ended with Michael's funeral hence why Copo was pushing for that title Vincent notably absent from the proceedings then carries out hits as revenge for his uncle's death before arriving at the funeral just as Michael's casket is lowered into the ground this version of the script

also featured Robert Duval's Tom Hagen in a prominent role just like the two films before it the opening of the film is Tom's birthday in this version as Michael asked him to run the Corleone's new philanthropic organization in Michael's pursuit of going legit however Robert Duval was upset that Pacino was paid three to four times as much as he was and while he didn't want or expect the same amount of money he believed his character was crucial to the story and felt he should be compensated with at least half of what Pino was earning unable

to come to terms Copo wrote Hagen out of the script suggesting that he died between the second and third movie and replaced him with a new character BJ Harrison Copo would later admit that he always felt the movie was incomplete without Robert Duval although Duval has no regrets over turning it down saying it wasn't as good as the other two to play Michael's daughter Mary Copa Cass when own a rider however she was still filming mermaids when production Godfather 3 began resulting in delays on The Godfather 3 shoot as they waited for her to wrap

up when she finally arrived she was diagnosed with nervous exhaustion and forced to leave the production Copla already over budget and behind schedule needed to find a replacement immediately Julia Roberts was interested but not available to shoot right away but Donna was eager to do it but Copa felt she was 10 years too old for the part desperate to find a replacement Copa chose his own daughter Sophia who while not a professional actor was already on set and ready to fill in for Ryder allowing production to continue in defense of the decision Copo would argue

that the character of Mary was based on Sophia anyway and while shooting resumed after 5 months Copo was still struggling to decide on an ending dissatisfied with the idea of Michael going out in a hail of bullets which he felt was too easy and out for him Sophia ultimately inspired him to mirror the real life tragedy of losing his son Gio in a speedboat accident a few years earlier leading Coba to have Mary shot at the end with a bullet intended for Michael as Mary's death became a fictional representation of cop's own loss and suffering

and while that was Art imitating life things came full circle as life imitated art when the press's harsh criticism of Sophia's performance as Mary mirrored how Mary pays the ultimate price for her father's sins in the film when the film was finally released it was criticized for Hagen's absence a convoluted plot Sophia's poor acting and an incest angle between cousins Vincent and Mary even Pacino's haircut was a point of controversy as makeup Legend Dick Smith famous for transforming Brando into Don corleon resigned over it as he preferred Michael with long flowing hair as a natural

evolution of his look from the first two films films whereas Copa saw him with a crew cut reminiscent of powerful ex-military men moreover Pacino was also criticized for playing a loud caricature of himself instead of the cold softspoken and calculated Michael Corleone we all knew and finally a point that is rarely brought up is that while the film is supposed to take place in 1979 it looks incredibly contemporary especially the costumes and haircuts which is striking given cop's dedication to making the original godfa reflect the period it takes place in however Andy Garcia's electric performance

as Vincent received near Universal praise as many expected the franchise to continue on with him as the focus in fact it nearly did as copel and PUO began writing the script to win back disappointed fans of the third film this time they worked at their own pace free from the six-month deadline that Paramount had imposed on part three the film would have had a similar structure to Godfather part two with parallel storylines set during different time periods the first would take place in the 1980s and focus on Vincent's new responsibilities as the next Godfather as

he leads the corleon family head first into the emerging cocaine drug trade which devolves into a drug war haunted by the death of Mary he also would have been out for revenge against those who orchestrated the hit albino's Michael would have made an appearance in a single scene to and it would have taken place before he dies at the end of Godfather 3 in the scene Vincent would visit Michael for advice and after leaving Michael would pass away mirroring the iconic moment in the first film where veto gives Michael guidance before his own death shortly

after the other storyline would have been set in the 193s during the end of prohibition and followed Vincent's father Sunny Corleone creating the same link between Father and Son that anchored The Godfather Park 2 Sunny after learning that his father's olive oil business is a cover for his Mafia activities lobbies to join his father's growing criminal Empire like Pacino Robert dairo would have reprised his role as veto while Leonardo DiCaprio was ey to play a Young Sunny DiCaprio was recommended by Andy Garcia who shared the same agent as a young actor the goal of the

film was to contrast the Golden Age of the corleon family in the 1930s as it gains more political influence with its eventual downfall in the80s as the film would have ended with Vincent being hunted down and killed and while the 1930s portion of the script was finished and eventually expanded into a novel Mario PUO died before he and Copa could complete the 1980s portion of the script and while Copa has stated that it didn't feel right to finish writing the script without Mario PUO that never stopped PUO from writing abandoned scripts to Godfather 2 and

three over the years without Copla regardless all of the actors who would have appeared in a fourth film have now aged out of their respective roles as Copa has stated the only reason to do it would be for the money then again that's the reason he made each of the previous three films as he's also suggested that a fourth film might just be great thanks for watching everybody and don't forget to like And subscribe to bullets and Blockbusters for more great content