Just thinking... this was originally conceived as a trilogy correct?
I'm ready for a sequel!! Am I the only one??
...though I suppose Spy Game and Syriana work pretty well as proxy sequels.
i think if coppola did it (like he was supposed to)...it would be an all time classic.
Key to winning baseball games? Pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.-Earl Weaver
De Niro used to mention the sequel from time to time at junkets for other, lesser films he starred in, calling it THE MAIN ENEMY. He even went around with writer Eric Roth taking meetings to try and get it on Showtime as a mini-series when he couldn't close the gap in financing for a feature version.
It was meant to cover Edward's life from the Cuban Missile Crisis and the JFK Assassination to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
For all the crummy stuff he's been attaching himself to, De Niro put his ass on the line to see this movie through. It will never be the sublime thing it might have been in Coppola's hands, but the money men would never see fit to give Coppola such a budget for such a complex, sprawling, adult storyline.
De Niro, on the other hand, by taking role after role to prop up the studio slop had enough leverage for a brief moment to really go for it and I'm glad he did.