Coppola recuts Godfather to reveal that Sollazzo shot first

Director Francis Ford Coppola has recut The Godfather to reveal that Sollazzo shot first.

The change comes in the restaurant scene. We see Michael excuse himself to go to the bathroom, as in the original, but as he comes back we see Sollazzo stand and shoot before the scene continues as usual and Michael shoots the capo and police chief.

“I was inspired by what George did with Star Wars,” explained Coppola.

“By making Greedo shoot at Han first, Han becomes a more heroic figure. He’s not a cold-blooded killer, he’s a good guy.

“I’ve always seen Michael as the Han Solo of The Godfather. He’s a bit of a charming rogue, he gets the girl, maybe he’d have been a pirate in olden times.

“It worried me that people saw him as this morally corrupt, empty-eyed horror and I think that, with this change, we can start to see Michael as I originally saw him and, of course, bring in a sense of fun and humour that should always have been in the film.”

Other changes Coppola plans to lighten the mood of the film include Sonny getting up after the Tollbooth shooting, taking a trashcan lid from under his shirt and driving off. In the final scene of the door closing on Kay, we’ll now hear Michael shout ‘love you babe.’

There are also plans for Coppola to reshoot Part 2, with Vito’s murder by his bodyguard while fishing transformed to Vito being handed a bag of sweets by his bodyguard.

“Everything’s a bit bleak at the moment,” continued the directing legend.

“If I can make a classic film a bit nicer then, surely, that can only help.”

After recutting the Godfather films, Coppola plans to move on to Apocalypse Now.

“To be honest, it was always my intention to have Kurtz come back with Willard and have them get into all sorts of crazy scrapes on the boat. Much more fun.”