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Paramount and the estate of Mario Puzo announced in a NYC court today that they’ve made a deal to allow a new Godfather prequel. Its profits will be put in escrow while they fight over who owns the publishing rights for a book that’s already out. The Depression-era The Family Corleone hit bookstores and online retailers on Tuesday. A source tells Deadline the son of Godfather author Mario Puzo agreed to the escrow arrangement “several weeks ago”. Anthony Puzo made the decision so Paramount wouldn’t prevent the book from coming out. It’s written by Ed Falco and “based on a screenplay by Mario Puzo” it says on the cover. Things could get more complicated if, as Paramount’s lawyer Richard Kendall noted today in Manhattan court, the book does well and “there’s an attraction to do a movie.”
In February, Paramount sued the Puzo estate to stop the publication of an “unauthorized” third Godfather sequel/prequel. The studio claimed the book tarnished the legacy of the studio’s films. In March, the Puzo estate countersued, claiming that the contract between Mario and the studio distinctly excluded book rights. The countersuit also claims that Paramount is in material breach of its contract with Mario Puzo. “We’re seeking cancellation of the contract,” Puzo lawyer Bert Fields reiterated to the judge today. Both lawyers have agreed to mediation to try to settle the matter. Judge Nathan said she may hold a hearing on Paramount’s motion to dismiss the countersuit later this year. The Godfather came out as in 1969 and became an instant bestseller. On the first of three Godfather movies, Puzo shared screenwriting credit with director Francis Ford Coppola for its release by Paramount in 1972.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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The Puzos need to send some mafia gunsels to visit Brad Grey late at night early in the morning around 3 AM and the boys will give him a friendly ultimatum. He puts his signature on a new contract that restricts Paramount and gives Puzo everything he wants or they put his blood on the contract in place of ink. That’s the Sicilian way of taking care of problems like this and it always works.
I don’t get this? Is nothing sacred? I thought Godfather 2 was the prequel to Godfather?
G 2 was a sequel with flashbacks that were a prequel. They never should have made G 3 it was terrible but Coppola needed a movie so they let him do it and he wrecked the franchise.
The Godfather is NOT a franchise.
It has soul. Franchises don’t. They are pure business products.
“It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”
Paramount is claiming the books are tarnishing the legacy of the movies? Sorry, but ”The Godfather Part III” already took care of that.
I’m with Paramount on this, and I hope they will go to the mattresses for this.
Is nothing sacred? Will we see a sequel to Casablanca next, with digitized Robo-Bogart trying to win a robo-Bergman back?
It’s the typical behavior of lazy heirs. They have done nothing, cannot do anything, and in their parasitic existence try to squeeze as much money out of Mario Puzo’s work. How about them working something. And if they have no talent and no ability: come on, clean something!
But leave the Godfather alone.
Paramount has done nothing with Godfather since 1990 when the third one was released. They have no plans to do anything with the title. This is a sour grapes lawsuit on their part and they deserve to lose all rights to it. At least the Puzo heirs are continuing the stories in print.
Bravo! And I’m sure the millions of Godfather fans would agree.
Yes! Please Paramount, do NOT make the movie. Hollywood needs to learn how to leave shit alone.
IMO, Part III is better than most award winning pics today but definitely horrible compared to I and II.
Completely agree.
If, as Fields claims, the original Paramount contract “distinctly excluded book rights” on what grounds would he be “seeking cancellation of the contract?” Because they made a claim to the contrary? Either they didn’t have the right to seek blocking publication of the book. Or they did. Typically for Fields, completely contradictory histrionic claims made for effect exclusively and specifically designed to force settlement. He’s beating the bushes looking for a loophole to move the Corleone brand somewhere else. The copyright for the Puzo book themselves would have virtually no value – and would probably have been out of print for years – without Coppola and Paramount and the films. He claims it’s all spelled out in the contract. If that were the case there would be no grounds for mediation even. Bert. Babe. Pack it in you old coot.
Well, I must be in the minority because there were parts of GIII that were brilliant. It was not as good as GII, but it still is a fitting ending to the series.
I’m reading The Family Corelone and it’s good. It’s a lot better than the Mark Winegardner novels, which no one is mentioning. How is that different than Falco’s new novel? Those books didn’t do well, yet there was no lawsuit by Paramount to stop them.
As for a movie, I might be into it. As long as Brett Ratner or Joel Schumacher doesn’t get to direct it. Maybe Christopher Nolan could take a whack at it. I hear he’ll be looking for something to do next.
This is the business we’ve chosen.
Mark. Babe. You don’t really know what you’re talking about. Whether Paramount can stop sequel books from being written is a separate issue from the other (alleged) breaches that the article mentions, which would be the basis for cancelling the contract (“The countersuit also claims that Paramount is in material breach of its contract with Mario Puzo”). And in case you hadn’t noticed, the “old coot” has been right far more often than wrong through his career.
I would suggest that people not comment on what they plainly don’t understand, but then that would kill discourse on the innerwebz entirely.
This sounds like a great idea.
I hope Brett Ratner is available to direct.
Well, Puzo HIMSELF pushed at the boundries of that contract when he was alive, and sort of got away with it: his novel THE SICILIAN featured Michael Corleone as a character, and Paramount allowed another studio to do a film version as long as they changed the name.
BE. Babe. “The countersuit also claims that Paramount is in material breach of its contract with Mario Puzo.” How else would you break the contract? Plus Paramount obviously felt that Falco was in material breach hence suing in the first place. This isn’t the first “Godfather-”related suit that Fields has put together. He’s been chipping away at breaking Puzo’s original contract with Paramount for years. As for “right” maybe that’s not so hard when you rely on stalking and wiretapping in order to “litigate.” The old coot is lucky the whole town hasn’t lynched him.
“Innerwebz.” Is that like a joke or supposed to be clever? Liza? Are you there? Or are you at a spelling bee?
What I would love to know is if Fields did the original Puzo contract with Paramount. If so he would be attacking his own handiwork while at the same time following up on the messy language he got through (or didn’t bother to address) in order to do exactly what he’s doing now – trying to break the contract. The contractor was really a demolitions expert all along and he’s showing up in the wiggle room in order sell to the sympathetic judge (or more) incrementally through public record the reasons why the house should be blown up. But again – this is only if he did Puzo’s original contract. I don’t know if that’s the case. This would be using public record as waves in a groomed narrative that’s supposed to add up to a potential watershed moment in reference to rights as interpreted by some judge in some other “Godfather” related suit at some potential unknown point in the future. Don’t think Brad Grey doesn’t have something to do with this. Fields operates like a mobster settling scores a big part of his modus. Is this about some piece of crap Corleone book? Or about provoking Paramount…regarding Tom Cruise/Pellicano?
Does anyone actually believe that Paramount would have brought a suit in the first place if they didn’t have a case??! They are hardly the most litigious studio out there. Fields is notorious for getting his own name in the ‘papers’, as they used to say — he’s been angling for a settlement from the beginning. He can’t win in court.