Everyone knows thatThe Godfather: Part IIis therare sequel that matches (if not exceeds) the greatnessofFrancis Ford Coppola’sThe Godfather. Then there isThe Godfather Part III, the quintessential misbegotten sequel that avid fans prefer to erase from their memory. Besides a 2006 video game and a Paramount+ series,The Offer, about the making of the original film,The Godfatherhas been devoid of IP exploitation. BetweenPart IIandPart III,an unknown quasi-sequel toThe Godfatherwas released with little fanfare,and most people today are completely oblivious to its connection toMario Puzo’s source material.The Sicilian, a 1984 novel by Puzo, takes place in the Corleone universe. However, the film adaptation of the book, directed byMichael Cimino, makes little effort toconnect the crime epic toThe Godfathersaga.
Mario Puzo’s ‘The Sicilian’ Picks Up After Events in ‘The Godfather’
Following Coppola’s film adaptation ofThe Godfather, the 1969 bestseller about the Corleone crime family, Mario Puzo was on top of the world. Puzo, who won an Academy Award with Coppola for his screenplay, continued to write with Coppola on the Godfathersequels andThe Cotton Club. While he never wrote a direct follow-up toThe Godfatheras a book (Part II’s present-day storyline is original), Puzoreturned to the mafia milieuin 1984 withThe Sicilian, which follows a fictional account ofSalvatore Giuliano, the notorious bandit and smuggler who led an independence movement in Sicily during World War II. The story takes place in the Godfather universe,picking up from when Michael (Al Pacino) flees to Italy after assassinating Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and McClusky (Sterling Hayden).As Michael prepares to return to America, he is ordered to bring Giuliano with him, but the Robin Hood figure is entangled in a bloody web of violence for betraying local families.
Given the monumental success ofThe Godfather,The Sicilianwas primed for a big-screen adaptation as quickly as possible. Puzo was paid $1 million for the film rights to his book by Gladden Entertainment and producerBruce McNall, who outlines the production of the film in his book,Fun While It Lasted. Its director was Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director ofThe Deer Hunter,who was still reeling following the disastrous folly inHeaven’s Gate. Cast in the lead role as Salvatore Giuliano wasChristopher Lambert, an unconventional selection due to his French nationality. The film exclusively follows the fictional account of Giuliano’s power struggles against wealthy landowners, the church, and the mafia. He leads a populist movement with his closest advisor, Aspanu Pisciotta (John Turturro). Presumably due to rights issues,all references toThe Godfatherwere removed in the film adaptation ofThe Sicilian, causing this film to be even more forgettable than it already was.
The demons ofHeaven’s Gate’s woeful production followed Cimino for years. While not as catastrophic as his ambitious Western epic,The Sicilianwas marked by aproduction filled with headaches and setbacks. A tell-tale sign of a troubled shoot, the film went over budget and behind schedule. Producers found a more grave problem on their hands upon the discovery that low-level mobsters controlled certain locations and union workers, with some of the mafiosos requesting to star in the movie. Post-production became a fiasco unto itself,as Cimino refused to share his progress in the editing room with the studios, 20th Century Fox and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Disputes over runtime and creative freedom became so hotly contested that Cimino, Fox, andDino De Laurentiisended up in court.
We Demand Justice for Diane Keaton in ‘The Godfather’
Francis Ford Coppola left Kay incomplete.
Although the film had to cut ties with Godfatherproperties,The Sicilianhad a similarly troubled production like the 1972 classic. What it matched in contentious battles between its director and studio lacked in artistic quality, as, unlikeThe Godfather,The Sicilianquickly faded into obscurity. With negative reviews andtepid box office returns, Cimino’s film had minimal cultural impact, despite its tangential connections to one of the most beloved films in history. It was a film too ambitious for its own good.
While impressive in its period set design, the film’s grandeur and demand for an epic tale undermines any semblance of compelling character drama.Heaven’s Gatestill haunted Michael Cimino’s legacy at this time, withRoger Ebertwriting in his scathing reviewthat the director has a knack for, except forThe Deer HunterandYear of the Dragon, “making an incomprehensible mess out of every other film he directs.” The failure ofThe Sicilianmakes you appreciate Francis Ford Coppola’sremarkable adaptation of Puzo’s novel, which is entertaining but ultimately trashy. WhereThe Godfatherrevolutionized crime dramas,The Sicilianresorted to hackneyed tropes.
‘The Godfather’ Is Part of a Weird World of Extended Intellectual Property
In an age of relentless IP extension and revivals of old properties, it’s refreshing thatThe Godfatherstands on its own as a cinematic trilogy. Even then, the films are not soulless sequels, but instead, additional chapters in the Corleone saga, withPart IIbeing the downfall andPart IIIbeing the coda, which is now reinforced in Francis Ford Coppola’s 2020 re-edit of the controversial final chapter. Luckily, there’s enough respect for the legendary series and protective curation by Coppola to prevent any unwarranted prequels or reboots. Still, with a film as culturally omnipresent asThe Godfather, off-shoots looking to cash in on the popularity are unavoidable. Perhaps ifThe Sicilianhad received the proper rights to useGodfathercharacters and iconography, then the studio could have capitalized on the brand recognition, leading to more profits and opportunities to exploit Mario Puzo’s book.
For those who want to further explore the mafia milieu, theGodfathervideo game has you covered. Released in 2006 by Electronic Arts, the game follows a non-canon character as he traverses through notable plot points in the 1972 film. With a creative artistic direction, the game, released on all the major consoles, has you playing as Aldo Trapani,who executes various tasks that occur off-screen,such as avenging the undertaker’s daughter, killing Luca Brasi’s assassin, and planting the gun that killed Solozzo and McClusky in the bathroom for Michael to obtain. Interestingly enough,Marlon Brando’s final performancebefore his death was for a voice acting performance in theGodfathervideo game, but because of his poor health, his recordings were unusable.
Although it featured other voice contributions from stars James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Abe Vigoda, Coppola publiclycondemned the game’s creation.“I knew nothing about it. [Paramount Pictures] never asked me if I thought it was a good idea,” the director said, criticizing the studio for allegedly authorizing the game without his approval, referring to it as a “misuse of film.” While Coppola did take some bold artistic swings when adapting Puzo’s book, he certainly never envisioned turning the Corleone saga into an open-world sandbox game a laGrand Theft Auto. In a similar boat to Coppola,Al Pacino declined to lend his voice and likenessto EA’s game, forcing them toalter Michael’s voice and appearancefrom the film. However, Pacino permitted the use of his likeness for theScarface-based video game also released in 2006.
If you can’t obtain support forGodfatherIP, the next best thing would be toexplore the periphery of the world, such as the behind-the-scenes drama that permeated the set and production of the film. The Paramount+ series,The Offer, dramatized the chaotic creative power struggle between Coppola,Robert Evans, andAlbert S. Ruddy, as well as the real-life mafia’s influence. Additionally, afilm about the making ofThe Godfatherstarring Jake Gyllenhaal and Oscar Isaac and directed by Barry Levinson was announced in 2020, but it is still stuck in early development.
The Sicilianis available to buy on Amazon in the U.S.
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The Sicilian
In post-World War II Sicily, charismatic bandit Salvatore Giuliano leads a populist movement against oppressive landowners, the Church, and the Mafia, aiming for Sicilian independence.
