Brando's voice not in Godfather?

By Games Industry.biz Published 13 July, 2005

So says the New York Times.

The much-hyped vocal performance by the late Marlon Brando in EA's forthcoming The Godfather: The Game may not be used in the title after all, according to a New York Times report this week.

The newspaper reports that the recording session with Brando - claimed to be the last professional work he did before his death last year - were hampered by the actor's "fragile condition," which meant that he could only breathe with the aid of an oxygen tank.

As a result, EA has been forced to turn to a sound-alike to record the dialogue of Vito Corleone for the game - although the company says that it may still be able to use some of Brando's recording in some context.

"It's still to be determined how the development team will choose to use what was recorded with Mr. Brando," an EA representative told US website GameSpot. The recordings are reportedly marred by the loud noise of Brando breathing through a tube.

Speaking to us earlier this year about Brando's recording session with the development team, creative director Philip Campbell described the experience as "one of the best moments of my life."

"It was enlightening," he said, "because he gave us some great inside information about the role. He really gets it - he really got computer games, and what they were about, which was really surprising."

Fellow actors Robert Duvall and James Caan have recorded dialogue to reprise their roles in the classic movie for the game, although the key character of Michael, played by Al Pacino, will not feature Pacino's voice or likeness as he declined to be involved.

The Godfather, one of EA's key releases both on current-generation platforms and as an early next-generation title, ran into controversy earlier in the year when Francis Ford Coppola, director of the movie trilogy, publicly disassociated himself from the project.

"I knew nothing about it," he told US TV show Sunday Morning ShootOut. "I had absolutely nothing to do with the game and I disapprove. I think it's a misuse of film."

"They use the characters everyone knows, and they hire those actors to be there, and only to introduce minor characters," he continued. "And then for the next hour they shoot and kill each other."

His statements, however, directly contradicted claims by EA's producer on the product, David De Martini, who told us that "we've met with [Coppola] on one occasion and we shared with him what our vision was for the game, and where we were going to go... He isn't choosing to participate in the project, but he did invite us up to the Coppola winery where he has his own private library."

The title is due for launch on PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, PSP and Xbox 360 later this year.

Picture of Games.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • sturgeon #1 7 years ago

    there's no way I'm buying the game now.

  • k_khalil76 #2 7 years ago

    Either way it'll be an amazing game... It's almost inconceivable that it took this long for someone to figure out that it'll be a big hit. Maybe 'Mafia' was the wake-up call.

  • Teeth #3 7 years ago

    You were going to buy the game?

  • Wrobel #4 7 years ago

    The recordings are reportedly marred by the loud noise of Brando breathing through a tube

    Don Vito Darth Vader

  • KingOfSpain #5 7 years ago

    ROFL

  • abigsmurf #6 7 years ago

    such a brilliant scam, they pay for image rights, get him to record some brief lines then get a no-name immitator to do the rest and they get all the "STARING MARLON BRANDO IN HIS LAST EVER ROLE" hype at a bargain price (I doubt brando really cared about money much at this point).

    The worrying thing is, were it not that it was a Universal picture, I could see them doing a similar thing for MJ Fox for a GTA styled Back to the Future (GTA style BTTF, now there's an interesting concept)...

  • asphaltcowboy #7 7 years ago

    "Either way it'll be an amazing game... It's almost inconceivable that it took this long for someone to figure out that it'll be a big hit. Maybe 'Mafia' was the wake-up call."

    Are you joking? Perhaps it'll be a hit: but only because it's the Godfather and only because it'll be marketed (and made) by EA. That really isn't the same thing as it'll be an "amazing game"

  • wizbob #8 7 years ago

    That EA producer sounds like a fucking hyena; the 'best moment of his life' was forcing a dying actor off his life support equipment in order to do second rate dialog for an identikit computer game. I bet he was frothing at the mouth when he discovered the recording were marred by Brando's desperate gasps. Maybe they can use the recordings for a posthumous episode of 'Assisted-living Dracula'.

    I hope that EA pay rapists to stalk the producer when this or his next project crashes and burns.

  • oceanmotion #9 7 years ago

    Game looks ridiculously bad from gameplay videos. No chance I'm buying this.

  • valli #10 7 years ago

    All the turns around "Godfather - The Game" show how f*cked up the gaming industry has become and what a bunch of parasites EA are.

  • Mr_Brown #11 7 years ago

    I was never going to buy this game. But this makes me sick. I'm shocked that its possible...but EA have reached a whole new low...

    Makes you wonder why the richest (by far) comapany in the game industry, can't take a few risks...whats the point of having all that money if your not going to do anything with it? EA are fools. In everyway.

  • Stoned_Immaculate #12 7 years ago

    It was hard enough to understand Brando in the film because mumbling makes you a great actor, so god knows what the recordings sound like

  • wattoo #13 7 years ago

    I'm sure EA don't think they're fools as they lie back on their yachts in the caribbean smoking cigars made out of 100 quid notes rolled on the thighs of pert virgins.
    They're just laughing at the idiots who buy their games.

    They are the fools

  • Tyronne #14 7 years ago

    Hey they had marlon connected upto a breathing machine, could they not use his last days to make a piss take of revenge of the sith with him shouting out `oranges!! noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo`as they would not of had to add on the breathing effect.

  • Royal Fool #15 7 years ago

    I eagerly await the Penny-Arcade strip on this subject matter.

  • kgthatsme #16 7 years ago

    *Looks PS2 games rack*


    Sheesh I didnt realise how many EA games I own. Im so ashamed : (

  • yautja #17 7 years ago


    Will there be a blowjob mod?

  • jack_klugman #18 7 years ago

    Will there be a blowjob mod?

    Will there be a Last Tango butter mod?

  • Hunam85 #19 7 years ago

    *Looks PS2 games rack*

    doesnt own a EA game there

    unfortuantly, i own some EA games, infact, i own every battlefield game and addons, then sim city 4 and thats every EA game i own
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/05 @ 01:32

  • wattoo #20 7 years ago

    I haven't bought an EA game for nigh on 3 years. They're not getting MY money.

  • RobDonald #21 7 years ago

    "GTA style BTTF, now there's an interesting concept)..."

    Isn't this the same forum that always goes "meh" when there is even a hint of GTA about a game ;)

  • Feanor #22 7 years ago

    "I never buy EA sports titles, or movie licenses.

    The only decent games by EA are those taken over from other companies, like Burnout 3 et"

    Yeah, the SSX games all sucked. Madden's always terrible. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 was god-awful. Hmm, hang on, all those games were good to great.

  • sadat #23 7 years ago

    proud to say that i haven't bought one for several generations - not a single 128/64/32 bit EA game on my shelves! Remember when they made PROPER games like Desert Strike? What happened between then and now?

  • wattoo #24 7 years ago

    It's not a quality of game decision (although god knows they produce enough shite)

    It's a political decision. They're destroying my industry by producing tat that joe public 'thinks' he wants.

  • glenda #25 7 years ago

    As that would co$t mega bucks >;)