No, they’re not making a new ‘Godfather’ movie
The Hollywood Reporter had what sounded like big news last week: There’s going to be a new book set in the universe of The Godfather.The book, coming out in 2027, was awarded to Random House after an “eight-way auction” — who knew there were even eight publishing companies left? — is being written by Adriana Trigiani. The original Godfather author, Mario Puzo, is long dead, but his estate has an arrangement with a publisher to publish books set in that universe, and a few have appeared over the years. The new book, the trade pub says, is called Connie, and tells the story of the Corleones through Constanzia “Connie” Corleone, the sister of Michael, Sonny, and Fredo Corleone, who was played in all three Godfather movies by Talia Shire, the sister of director Francis Ford Coppola.“‘Connie’ is a novel about how a woman works to forge her own way in a world that’s already decided who she is, what she’s about, and how she should be treated,” Trigiani said in a statement Wednesday. “People underestimated Don Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone at their peril. The same will be true for Connie Corleone.”Paramount, the report says, holds the film rights, just as it did for the three previous Godfather movies. Therefore, some misunderstandings and aggregations gave the impression that this means a new movie is in active development.But the news of the book doesn’t mean a movie is going to be made- in fact, it’s pretty unlikely, at least in the short term. In fact, there’s been no solid reporting that a new Godfather movie is anything close to happening.As indicated by the Hollywood Reporter, it’s more of a formality:When Paramount bought the rights to Puzo’s original novel in 1969, it claimed ownership of the entire franchise, future books included. Puzo died in 1999, and after his heirs published two more Godfather novels over the studio’s objections, they ended up in court. The eventual settlement gave the family the freedom to publish new books, as long as Paramount gets first crack at the film rights. It wasn’t personal. It was strictly business.In other words, there have been multiple in-universe Godfather novels already, none of which resulted in movie adaptations, or even serious talk of them.
