Back in September, Francis Ford Coppola announced that he had cut together a new edit of The Godfather: Part III—now with the excellently long-winded title Mario Puzo’s The Godfather Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone—for theatrical and home video release in December. It’s now almost December, and sure enough, Coppola and Paramount have released a new trailer for the film. It’s all very operatic, making a point to highlight the remastered visuals and audio, to the point where it just kind of glosses over the fact that Coppola apparently made some pretty big changes to the original film on paper. As we heard earlier this year, it has new beginning and ending sequences, some scenes have been rearranged, and there are new music cues, all of which were evidently enough for Coppola to consider this the true expression of his vision for how to end this trilogy (or, as indicated by the new title, two movies and a coda).
Coppola has also released a little preview featurette in which he explains what a “coda” is and notes that this “new” title is actually what he and Mario Puzo had wanted to call it all along, and he says that the changes he’s made have given the story a “new life.” You’ll be able to see for yourself on December 4 when Mario Puzo’s The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone comes out in theaters. Or, if you don’t want to go to a theater right now because of the global pandemic, you only have to wait a few extra days: Mario Puzo’s The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone will be available on DVD and digital on December 8.
