After thumbing through some of my "behind the scenes" Godfather books and looking over some of the proposed plots for Part III, I am so glad that we got what we did. We could have gotten something a lot worse than what we got.

I will summarize what the book (I forget what book it is) said.

Apprarently, the studio hired several writers to put together their scripts, and it shocks me that Puzo and Coppola weren't the first ones contacted. Word went out to several Hollywood power players from Don Simpson (Bad Boys, Top Gun) to Michael Eisner. Most of the scripts had to do with getting Anthony into the crime world and most had to do with him working undercover for the CIA and assassinating a Latin dictator. Sounds more like an action movie to me. One script even had the balls to kill off Michael and Tom before the title credits!!!

Eddie Murphy begged for a part in Part III. Sylvester Stallone was at one time interestied in writing, directing and acting in Part III. John Travolta was going to play Anthony at once. Madonna was to play Mary...

Man... I am so glad that the studio held out from all the "Goodfellas" type scripts. No offense to Goodfellas, but the Godfather is a different type of mafia movie. More calculated and more polished. So Puzo and Coppola get back together, hammer out a script and the rest is history.

Some of the endings they were working with was Michael getting killed by accident, Michael going blind and living with his sins, and the one that was filmed. I like that one the best. Although one idea I did like was the one that FFC describes on the commentary at the end of Part III, where Michael is shot, falls down the steps of the Vatican or the Opera House (can't remember) and Kay asks him if he is dying and he says, "no." I liked the irony of him saying his isn't dying, because he died a long time ago and became someone different when he became involved with the family. That was a nice touch.

However, what we got was a solid, somewhat flawed Part III. But even with the absence of Duvall and the inclusion of Sofia, I think it ended up really well.