Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures have released the first details of The Godfather II, the video game.
(Credit: Electronic Arts)Update (10:52 a.m.): This story has been corrected to reflect that the suit filed in June against Paramount Pictures was filed by Anthony Puzo, Mario Puzo's son. Mario Puzo died in 1999.
It looks like Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures have gotten the don's blessing, after all.
EA on Friday announced the first real details of Godfather II, the video game, that it will be making in conjunction with Paramount Pictures.
And that seems to mean that the movie studio has been able to work out a deal with Godfather author Mario Puzo's son, Anthony Puzo, after he sued Paramount in June, alleging that he had not been paid more than $1 million he was owed, based on the first version of the game.
The new game expands on the story line spelled out in that earlier game. This time around, according to a release from EA, "After being promoted by Michael Corleone to don of New York, players expand to new cities, as they build up their families through extorting businesses, monopolizing illegal-crime rings, and defeating new families in an effort to become the most powerful mob family in America."
EA did not announce a release date for the game.
One notable element of the first Godfather game was that EA put a significant amount of resources into reverse-engineering the art from the films.
That is, because Paramount wasn't able to provide the game's producers with the original high-resolution digital assets for dozens of characters from the films, EA put several artists on the job watching the films over and over again, in order to re-create much of its look and feel.
It's not known whether EA will employ the same methods this time around, or if it will be able to take advantage of the assets it created last time around.
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.
Nokia N73, Godfather edition
(Credit: Nokia)You know, as much as I'm tempted to pepper this blog with all sorts of wacky Godfather references and lines, I'll spare you the pain and just give it to you straight. Nokia has released a special edition of its N73 multimedia smart phone to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece, The Godfather. The Nokia N73 Godfather edition is dressed in a chic black package and ships with a 256MB mini SD card that's preloaded with the original, full-length movie to watch on your phone. Know what else is cool? You can tell Nokia which movie you'd like to see on the next N series device. Head on over to the Nokia site for more information. No official details on exact pricing and availability of the N73 Godfather edition, but we're trying to hunt that down for you.
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