Francis Ford Coppola gives "The Godfather III" a new ending and brings the conclusion of his gangster trilogy back to the cinema.
With his 163-minute "The Godfather III", Francis Ford Coppola (81) may have written film history and brought the gangster epic about the Corleone family to a close. But he was not completely satisfied with the version published in 1990, in which he and screenwriter Mario Puzo were massively talked into by the producers. And so a revised version, which will hit theaters in December this year, is supposed to correct this error exactly 30 years after it was originally released. According to Coppola, this also includes a completely revised ending of the film.
The US site "Variety" quotes Coppola in this regard from a press release by the film studio Paramount Pictures: "With these changes and the restored film and sound material, it is for me a more appropriate ending to 'The Godfather' and 'The Godfather Part II'." Coppola has developed "a new beginning and a new end" and "rearranged some scenes, recordings and soundtrack elements", it continues.
Scoured never-before-published material
For this purpose, around 300 boxes with negatives of the film have been viewed in the past few months and errors in the images, such as stains or scratches, have been corrected in meticulous detail. "Mr. Coppola oversaw every aspect of the restoration as he worked on the new version. In doing so, he not only ensured that the film looked and sounded flawless, but also that it lived up to his personal standards and his version as a filmmaker." However, it is doubtful whether the main character Michael Corleone (Al Pacino, 80) and his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola, 49) will have a "better" ending.
Despite the hitherto unseen footage, the film, which is slated to come back to theaters under the awkward name of "Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone", will no longer be. On the contrary, the new version is around 14 minutes shorter than the 1990 version. However, this is not uncommon with Francis Ford Coppola. He recently brought his anti-war film "Apocalypse Now" to the cinema again under the nickname "Final Cut". At a proud 183 minutes, however, it was almost 20 minutes shorter than the "Redux" version previously released.
With regard to "The Godfather III" there is only talk of a theatrical release in December in the USA, an exact date has not yet been set. Nor whether the new version will be shown again in Germany. It should definitely be available shortly after the cinema comeback as a digital version or on common data carriers.