The estate of Mario Puzo, who wrote the novel that was adapted into the classic Francis Ford Coppola film, The Godfather, has fired back at Paramount Pictures’ attempts to stop a new licensed literary sequel. On Monday, the Puzo estate filed an answer and counterclaim in New York federal court that alleges Paramount doesn’t have as much hold on the Godfather franchise as the studio asserts. In fact, the Puzo estate now wishes to terminate its original 1969 rights grant to Paramount, which would have huge implications well beyond mere books.
Paramount filed its own lawsuit last month that sought an injunction to prevent the publishing of a book reportedly titled The Family Corleone, about Vito Corleone’s rise to power in Depression-era New York, scheduled to be released in July.
The studio alleged in its lawsuit that the previous Godfather book sequel had tarnished the legacy of the famous mafia story and that it had agreements with the Puzo heirs not to come out with any more new sequels.
Full story: Mario Puzo estate wants to cancel ‘The Godfather’ contract with Paramount in countersuit