Originally published April 2006
I’ve been doing some reading on Howard Hughes recently, spurred by a blog post from Mark Evanier’s News From Me> site, and I stumbled upon some interesting facts about Hughes stint in Las Vegas (besides the fact that he was crazy as a loon).
Seems that Hughes purchase of (or majority stake in) several Vegas Casinos and hotels in the late 60s helped “legitimized” Vegas and made it more of a respectable place for a family to vacation. He purchased these interests from, of course, the mafia.
Reading that, my mind instantly flashed on scenes and premises from the Godfather films. As you may know, Michael Corleone moved his business interests from New York to Vegas in the mid-fifties (and, later, moved back to New York as seen in the unfortunate Godfather III).
I could not help but think that this would have been a ripe premise for the third film. Instead of all the Catholic conspiracies and that love story between Michael’s daughter and Sonny’s illegitimate son, you could have had Michael trying to keep his family together and become “legitimate” by convincing Hughes to buy his interest. A deal that could get complicated if Hughes caught wind of what happened to Moe Green and Fredo in the previous films… Just the scene where the two met, if written and acted well, would have been a site to behold, equaling anything that was in the two first films.
An interim sequel to Godfather I and II (and prequel to III), The Godfather Returns, was written and published last year (without original author Mario Puzo’s involvement, as he died several years ago). The book was – serviceable. The writer had a fairly firm grasp on the characters – with some exceptions, primarily Michael – but it was generally disappointing to fans of the original films or book. Like Godfather III, it did not really cover how or when Michael shed his interests in the Vegas casinos.
At any rate, you continually see every few months another rumor that there will be a fourth film, but Francis Ford Coppola is the one who has the final say and he has stated “there will not be a Godfather IV“. Interestingly, for a while in the early part of this new century the hot rumor was Leonardo DiCaprio would star as a young Sonny (originally played by James Caan) but that never panned out – DiCaprio instead went on to play the lead in Gangs of New York… and then portray Howard Hughes in The Aviator.