June 19, 2008 2:21 PM PDT

Puzo to Paramount: 'Don't mess with the family'

Posted by Julie Rivera

Electronic Arts' yet to be determined release of The Godfather II--for the PS3, XBox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PC--may still be undetermined with the recent news of a lawsuit filed by Mario Puzo's (author of The Godfather series) son. That is, if Paramount doesn't make him an offer he can't refuse.

EA is not involved in the lawsuit.

(Credit: EA Store)

On Wednesday, June 18, documents were filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court by Anthony Puzo, who is suing Paramount Pictures for breach of contract for which he is claiming at least $1 million in damages. The document stated Paramount had failed to hand over any of the revenues from the video game based on the book and award-winning movie.

Mario Puzo, being a "relatively unknown author" at the time and "struggling to support his family," sold the film rights to his book to Paramount at an extremely low price. Anthony Puzo claimed in the court document that the deal was struck between Paramount and his father in 1992, also agreeing to give Puzo a substantial share of the revenue of any audiovisual products sold or rented with elements of the Godfather movies.

In 2006, Paramount licensed video-game publisher Electronic Arts to make and distribute a game based on the characters and storylines of the 1972 Godfather movie. Since then, EA has released The Godfather, The Godfather: Mob Wars (PSP), The Godfather: Blackhand Edition (Nintendo Wii), and The Godfather: The Don's Edition (PS3).

According to the court filing, Paramount failed and refused to pay the Puzo estate the sums owed to them in respect to the game, and, therefore, is in material breach of the audiovisual products agreement.

Originally posted at Crave