'Godfather' goes to DVD ... finally
Trilogy parts won't be sold individually
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You may not wake up with a pool of blood on your sheets from the decapitated head of a horse if you turn it down, but Paramount is betting that the lure of the long-awaited digital version of the only trilogy of movies to receive the top Academy Award for the first two installments and a nomination for the third will be enough to get consumers to stores on Oct. 9. The movies, each presented in widescreen format with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, will not be sold individually.
At an elaborate news event on the streets of Brooklyn on Monday to announce the release of one of the most-requested movie franchises, Coppola and Paramount said the five-disc "The Godfather DVD Collection" will include each movie as originally edited and released theatrically on a separate DVD disc, with the three-hour-and-20-minute 1974 sequel "The Godfather Part II" covering two discs.
The 1972 original starring Marlon Brando and the 1990 chapter with Al Pacino and Andy Garcia each run nearly three hours.
Coppola commentary
Coppola recorded an audio commentary for each film. "I personally didn't enjoy sitting in a dark room and watching something I worked on 30 years ago," he said Monday of the commentary recording process. "But you get into it and I'm glad I did it."
Among the extras on the fifth disc will be additional scenes that have been added and removed from various incarnations of the trilogy for TV and video, a 73-minute documentary called "The Godfather Family: A Look Inside," featuring original screen tests and rehearsals, and a 1971 behind-the-scenes featurette.
The studio will mount an extensive marketing campaign in support of the box set, including TV advertising on network and cable outlets.
Eric Doctorow, president of Paramount Home Entertainment Worldwide, whose studio released the record-setting "Titanic" and is preparing the DVD release of Paramount's second biggest grosser later this year, "Forrest Gump," said he is sure that "The Godfather" will be "the most important event in the history of DVD."
Print ads are slated for People, Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, Playboy, TV Guide and Sports Illustrated, among others, with outdoor advertising planned in select markets.
O'seas bow
Paramount will release the DVD set in at least 20 additional countries throughout October, including a simultaneous release with the U.S. in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
Other featurettes included in the supplemental material cover Coppola's conversion of Mario Puzo's best-seller for the screen, Academy Award-winning production designer Dean Tavoularis returning to New York's Lower East Side for a look at some of the original locations, the contributions of composers Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola, the cinematography of Gordon Willis, and Oscar acceptance speeches.
(Wendy Wilson and Laurence Lerman are reporters for Variety sister publication Video Business.)
