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Heirs of ‘Godfather’ author Mario Puzo battling studio over rights to new novel

Mario Puzo

Mario Puzo (Bolivar Arellano)

IT’S BUSINESS! Paramount Pictures is locked in a copyright war over Don Corleone and other characters. (
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It was an offer he should have refused.

A lawyer for the heirs of “Godfather” author Mario Puzo yesterday urged a judge to consider the “pittance” Puzo got for selling the movie rights.

Lawyer Bert Fields said Paramount Pictures made “$1 billion, approximately,” off the fictional Mafia saga after cutting a 1969 deal that paid Puzo no more than $75,000.

Fields said the movie rights were worth at least $100 million, which he called “one of the factors” in an ongoing legal drama that pits the late author’s family against Paramount.

The Hollywood studio is suing Puzo’s son, Anthony, the executor of his dad’s estate, over this year’s publication of “The Family Corleone.”

Paramount claims the novel, based on an unpublished screenplay by the late author that covers the storyline gap between the first two “Godfather” movies, violates its copyright on the fictional Mafia clan.

Puzo’s heirs are countersuing, saying that they retained all publishing rights under his contract, and that Paramount’s efforts to block publication of Ed Falco’s book violated terms of the deal.

Proceeds from sales of the book are being held in escrow pending resolution of the case.

During a court hearing yesterday over Paramount’s efforts to toss the countersuit, Fields said the studio’s “actual breach” of Puzo’s contract freed his heirs to sell the movie rights to “The Family Corleone.”

Paramount lawyer Richard Kendall countered that there’s nothing in Puzo’s contract that requires Paramount “not to interfere” with the prequel novel, and that it was simply trying to protect its copyright.

Manhattan federal Judge Alison Nathan reserved decision.

Outside court, Fields said he didn’t think Puzo, who died in 1999, had a lawyer when he signed away the rights.

Fields said the resulting 1972 Francis Ford Coppola-directed film — which earned Marlon Brando an Oscar for his portrayal of Don Vito Corleone, as well as Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay — “saved” Paramount from going under, “which seems to us so reprehensible that they are now suing Mario’s kids for punitive and treble damages.”

Fields also said Puzo, who went on to make “tens of millions” as a screenwriter for the second and third “Godfather” movies, “hated the Mafia” and warned friends not to get involved with the mob.

As an example, Fields recalled Puzo warning that if ever Fields’ dog should die, a stranger might appear at his door bearing a puppy from “Don So-and-So.”

Puzo predicted that five years later, a call would come instructing Fields to lose a court case and reminding him of the gift he had accepted.

“Mario said don’t take the puppy,” Fields recalled.