Despite an on-going rights battle between Paramount Pictures and the estate of The Godfather author, Mario Puzo, the two parties have come to an agreement on the release of a new Godfather-based book. And it didn’t even end with a horse head in the bed.
The Family Corleone is a new novel written by Ed Falco and is based on a screenplay Puzo left behind when he died in 1999. The book, which is a prequel to The Godfather, details Vito Corleone’s rise to power in New York mob world, beginning in 1933 with Vito in his early 40s.
For fans of the award-winning films, the novel fills in the gap between Godfather I (where Marlon Brando plays the already-established Don in his 60s) and Godfather II (where Robert DeNiro plays Vito as a young adult). Even more tantalizing for fans is the prospect of a film based on the novel — and who would get the plum role. But first the long-standing legal battle between the movie studio and Puzo’s estate would need to be resolved. For now the two sides have agreed to put the money made from the new book into escrow until they can resolve who has the rights to literary sequels.
