The Godfather directed by Sergio Leone

I think it would be much darker and portray a grittier realism.

Clint Eastwood would make a killer Michael Corleone.

I'm not so sure about Lee Van Cleef as the Godfather or Eli Wallach as Salazzo though.

Actual Italians playing some of the supporting roles would be great, especially if there's a Godfather Part II.

If Sergio can get Ennio Morricone to do the soundtrack, I'd certainly buy a copy!
 
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I can see him casting De Niro as Michael, since he loved working with him on "Once Upon A Time In America"

Maybe Terrence Hill as young VIto?
 
Considering Leone turned it down to make his own gangster movie would him directing it take different focus? Not so much 1940s-1950s but Vito's rise to power. So in sense what GF2 was with Vito's flashbacks and shortened Michael's story from GF1.
 
aktarian said:
Considering Leone turned it down to make his own gangster movie would him directing it take different focus? Not so much 1940s-1950s but Vito's rise to power. So in sense what GF2 was with Vito's flashbacks and shortened Michael's story from GF1.
Doesn't that depend on the script & how close it is to the book? IDK if "GF2" is from the book or not...
 
Doesn't that depend on the script & how close it is to the book? IDK if "GF2" is from the book or not...

It does. But book is GF1 + Vito flashbacks from GF2 so if you shorten GF1 and add flashbacks you get something very close to book.
 
The films Godfather Part I & II are a somewhat disjointed version of the novel. It's been a while since I read the book, but IIRC, the films are pretty faithful to it.

The two films essentially distill the good parts of the book and leave out the pointless filler/
 
A True Godfather Trilogy?

Part one would pretty much be what the OTL is

Part two about young vito in New York and his rise to power

Part three about Michael in Vegas
 
Man, I remember talking about this a few years back -- one thing I'll add is that a grittier Godfather would have plenty of grisly novel material to draw on (Luca Brasi on page very different from the guy we got on screen).
 
I can see him casting De Niro as Michael, since he loved working with him on "Once Upon A Time In America"
Considering Leone turned it down to make his own gangster movie

Without getting into speculation about where Leone takes the storyline (we could be here forever doing that), I have a couple of broader questions in my mind:

The easiest one to answer: did the active gestation period for OUATIA really begin in the same timeframe?

Much more difficult: how capable was Leone of doing The Godfather to order, on schedule, for a major Hollywood studio? The book was a serious commercial property, and it wasn't at all obvious that it could be adapted into a movie by an auteur.

Also, as I've mentioned before in another Leone thread, I think he was burned by the critical reaction to Once Upon A Time In The West.
 
Would him making the Godfather movies butterflies Once Upon A Time In America away? I can see him making "In America" as the Anti-Godfather movie because he feels GF Glorified the Mob too much.
 
Would him making the Godfather movies butterflies Once Upon A Time In America away? I can see him making "In America" as the Anti-Godfather movie because he feels GF Glorified the Mob too much.

Well Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather didn't come out until 1969 and Once Upon a Time in the West was released in 1968 so this probably wouldn't happen. Now if you can make it so the studio doesn't offer up Henry Fonda for Once Upon a Time in the West, then that film probably doesn't get made as Sergio Leone really didn't want to make any more westerns.
 
Well Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather didn't come out until 1969 and Once Upon a Time in the West was released in 1968 so this probably wouldn't happen. Now if you can make it so the studio doesn't offer up Henry Fonda for Once Upon a Time in the West, then that film probably doesn't get made as Sergio Leone really didn't want to make any more westerns.

I think you got confuse with a different movie
 
Apologies for being confused, Maverick.

You make a good point. If Leone had made the Godfather Parts 1 & 2, would he want to make another mob film like Once Upon a Time in America? Perhaps not. I imagine the source material from the Godfather would've satisfied him in terms of story-telling.
 
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With no "Once Upon a Time" could Leone have made his Leningrad movie? And seriously, would it have been the greatest movie of all time?

(Me and my brother have had many discussions , based off the amazingness of "Duck You Sucker" and "Once Upon" that it would have. If only :()
 
his Leningrad movie? And seriously, would it have been the greatest movie of all time?

Not to be snarky, but I instantly got an image of another Eastern Front war movie made by a guy who was famous for his exploitation-ish Westerns; Cross of Iron by Sam Peckinpah.

Not a bad movie, but not the greatest film on the subject.

Though if Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is Peckinpah's Once Upon a Time in America (somebody must have made that analogy before) then when he made that war movie he was on the career downslide in a way quite unlike anything Leone ever ended up as.
 
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