I thought I would post a reply to the invitation to post a GF IV. My topic came off the board last month. Only Pherdy and Greta Von Wal responded. My version is based on the original release of I, II, III. Micheal carries on after overcoming his illness in part III. He has transferred the Corleone fortune into legitimate assets and is now looking for revenge for Mary. GF IV, Vincent, is not a Don. I am not sure where the obsession with that is in the trilogy. He is addressed as Don at Don Tomasino's funeral after he was made a Corleone by Micheal. Micheal is still the Don and in more control then people know. Mary's death was the price for his sin and he achieves a kind of redemption both for himself and Vito. There is also a Vito section. Running molasses into Canada, the making of Los Vegas, the family, the roman empire.

Here is the original promo concept I have already envisioned.

Sequel to "The Godfather"

The Godfather: IV
In the struggle for supreme power some men just don't make it

Stars: Al Pacino as Michael Corleone now famous as an international financier.
Catherine Zeta Jones as the new Corleone heiress, his new wife Karen.

Poster: Main Photographic Promotion
Michael Corleone reclining on the settee on the upper deck on his one hundred eighty foot Ferretti motor cruiser. Monte Carlo is in the background. Clouds are reflected in his mirrored sun glasses. His suit beige, and shirt ruffled relax the blacker funerary godfather image.
Michael recalls the past in flashbacks, "Michael, reclining on the sofa, feels pangs of remorse from memories of his daughter's murder and funeral. Abstractedly and becalmedly he sinks into these past events."

Final scene: Camera: Helicopter Pullback from Roman hilltop, the city bathed in red sunset against the last of the days blue sky.
Scene: Michael's patio at his colonnade, white marble villa, mountaintop with a long winding drive and cast iron perimeter fence.
In Michael's most stirring flashback he recalls his daughters' death in his arms on the steps at the Palermo Opera House twenty-four years before.
The camera pulls back from his eyes and face, shot with the blue sky around his head like a halo. Smoothly , without cuts, the pullback to a pan of Rome begins.
Some of Michael's grandchildren run to him, at play with a ball, Michael kicks it and they run after it.
Note: could use filter on camera lens for good rich red effect and a possible blue intensifier (yellow).

Plot: Anthony; Michael and Kay's son, the one singing the opera performance on the night of their daughter Mary's murder on the steps of the Palermo opera house assumes the role of head of the Corleone family. After Anthony has a successful career as an opera singer he goes back to school and gets his business degree at Harvard like Michael had. Michael appoints Anthony to position of chief executive of the Corleone empire while he retires to be the Chairman of the Board.

Vincent: (Andy Garcia) Vincent fades from the limelight as Michael's top man . The subtleties of the business decision making eventually alienates Vincent from the top circle that runs Michael's and the Corleone families' thirteen billion dollar financial empire. Vincent is eventually assassinated by Corleone family enemies while on a business trip to Venice. He is blown through the balcony doors and into the canal by a shotgun blast. Vincent is last seen floating down the canal on a sunny day, gondolas passing in the background, the pool of dark blood surrounding his body growing ever larger. Vincent's funeral is the second about half way through "The Godfather Part IV". A flashback of Mary's funeral is the first.

Mary: Mary's funeral is the low point of Michael's life. He debates with Kay committing suicide, he holds a 45. caliber automatic pistol to his own head, and says that he is going to pull the trigger if Mary does not come back. Kay runs out of Michael's office in New York; they do not see each other again until a stock brokers meeting years later. Michael is eventually crushed by finding out Mary was killed by the same family of Italian mobsters that bombed his first wife years before. Michael cries tears and swears revenge.