By For some hitherto unstated reason, director Francis Ford Coppola will be releasing a brand new cut of The Godfather: Part III this December. Worked on during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it seems Coppola turned his eye to the rough and rather sloppy third installment of his gangster saga once work finished on restorations of Apocalypse Now and The Cotton Club.
Because this is 2020 and nothing can have a straightforward name anymore, the film will not be titled The Godfather: Part III or anything making sense. Instead, the new title will be the awfully long-winded Mario Puzo’s THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. I…have no words.
Just in case you think I’m being funny, Coppola gave this statement to press about the new cut. “Mario Puzo’s THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone’ is an acknowledgment of Mario’s and my preferred title and our original intentions for what became The Godfather: Part III. For this version of the finale, I created a new beginning and ending, and rearranged some scenes, shots, and music cues. With these changes and the restored footage and sound, to me, it is a more appropriate conclusion to The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, and I’m thankful to Jim Gianopulos and Paramount for allowing me to revisit it.”
Similar to the Blu-Ray release from a little over a decade ago, Coppola went over each frame of the original negatives and scanned them for native 4K resolution. Spanning over six months, this new version should at least look and sound better than any past installment and may actually redeem the film in the eyes of naysayers.
I’m not sure if the same work is being done to the first two films, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a revised and updated 4K UHD collection of the films. I’ve never cared for Part III (which is an original opinion, I know), but I guess every film deserves a chance at redemption.
Source: The Film Stage
