The Godfather Is Getting A Surprising New Installment
There's a strong chance the Corleone family might make a return to the big screen.
Even when the Hays Code had a stranglehold on Hollywood and the kinds of content that could be depicted on-screen, cinema has always had a love/hate relationship with crime. Classic film noir was birthed as a reflection of the desperation of the American Great Depression, and criminals were given a surprising amount of humanity due to circumstance. In subtle ways, the genre gave rise to the crime thriller and the police procedural and the gangster film, because even the most morally upstanding citizens are curious enough to peek behind the curtain to see why people are driven to break the law. Movies give us the ability to live vicariously through characters who aren’t required to resemble the average audience member, so what better way to explore the hierarchy of criminal enterprises and the psychology of those who commit crimes?
One of the most popular subgenres is easily the gangster film, which focuses specifically on the phenomenon of organized crime. And within that niche is another subgenre that has captured attention for generations: the mafia movie. Some of the most celebrated movies ever belong within that group, such as Goodfellas and Once Upon a Time in America. But it’s inarguably Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy that cemented the genre’s popularity in the mainstream — and now there’s another installment on the way to add to the sordid Corleone family legacy.
Marlon Brando’s performance as Vito Corleone helped establish the cultural misrepresentation of the Mafia as an enterprise for noble “gentleman” criminals.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, there’s a new Godfather novel arriving in 2027: Connie, a retelling of the story of The Godfather from the perspective of Vito Corleone’s only daughter. The book, which was authorized by the estate of original author Mario Puzo, is written by Italian-American author Adriana Trigiani, who alongside writing novels has also written plays, screenplays, and is an accomplished filmmaker in her own right. There’s no confirmation as of right now that a film will follow the book, but considering that Paramount already has the film rights (courtesy of them purchasing the rights to Puzo’s original book and the entire franchise, past and future, back in 1969), it seems like it’s only a matter of time before one is announced.
According to Mario Puzo’s son Anthony, Don Vito Corleone was originally based on his grandmother, running the family from behind the scenes. Despite this, the original Godfather trilogy focuses almost exclusively on the men (and there’s a point to be made about that focus being a critique of a certain kind of misogynistic “provider” attitude), with Connie’s character, played by Coppola’s younger sister Talia Shire, relegated mostly to the sidelines as a victim of an abusive relationship. Unlike a traditional sequel, the opportunity to see the events of the story from Connie’s perspective offers new depth to the characters and a new lens by which to view certain key events, and most importantly, it also provides a necessary, direct feminine perspective on the male ego posturing that drives so much of the Corleone family’s affairs.
Across all three films, Connie goes from being trapped in a violent marriage to becoming one of her brother Michael’s most trusted confidants and a ruthless mafiosa in her own right.
It seems unlikely that 87-year-old Francis Ford Coppola will return to direct a new Godfather movie despite being the architect of the entire trilogy, considering that he’s already working on his next film after Megalopolis, an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s 1922 novel Glimpses of the Moon. If Paramount does decide to direct an adaptation of Connie, whoever steps in (perhaps Trigiani herself) will have big shoes to fill. But with Part 1 and Part 2 widely considered to be some of the greatest films ever, there’s no doubt that there will be an audience hungry to see more of Hollywood’s favorite mafia family.
