Francis Ford Coppola has revealed that The Godfather is coming back to theaters in 2022 with a new 4K remaster that enhances the sound and image quality of one of the greatest movies in the history of cinema. The film will return to theaters for the film's 50th anniversary, giving fans the perfect opportunity to celebrate The Godfather in grand style. He mentioned this during the Paramount panel at CCXP Worlds 2021.

In 2020, Coppola recut the third chapter of The Godfather trilogy, taking it back to theaters in 4K with a new mouthful of a name: Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Fans wondered if a disc version of the restoration would also be released, but Paramount underlined how the latest recut would only be available in 2022 as part of a new Blu-Ray box containing 4K versions of the entire trilogy.

While the Ultra HD Blu-Ray set of The Godfather trilogy would already be the perfect gift to celebrate the franchise’s anniversary, the commemoration will be even better now that the beloved first chapter of the franchise will also be available in theaters. While other directors have altered their films before they returned to theaters, Coppola confirmed at CCXP Worlds 2021 that he did not change the film.

First released in 1972, The Godfather follows the Corleone’s mob family, as the youngest son Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) goes from a reluctant outsider to the ruthless mob leader. Based on Mario Puzo 1969’s novel of the same name, The Godfather won praise from the public and critics alike, being nominated for eleven Academy Awards. The Godfather took three Oscars home, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Marlon Brandon.

The success of The Godfather led Copolla and Puzo to start the production of a sequel immediately. The Godfather Part II was released in 1974, surpassing all expectations. Just like the first movie, Part II was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, but it ended up winning six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The Godfather Part III would only be released in 1990, bringing a definitive end to the saga of Michael Corleone. Unfortunately, the third movie was not as well-received as the first two parts of the trilogy, getting only seven Academy Awards nominations and losing in all categories.

There are no details yet about when The Godfather 4K restoration will hit theaters. However, since the first movie was released on March 14, the chances are good that we’ll be watching the classic in Ultra HD at the beginning of 2022. In addition, the disc release of the trilogy will likely arrive as the film returns to theaters.

In a few cases, a shot was salvaged by using pieces of camera negative that hadn’t actually been used in the movie. For example, there was a very badly damaged shot of Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) in his hospital bed, with the camera looking up at him from the foot of the bed. Using camera reports and the editor’s line script, Harris was able to find the trims of the take that contained the footage used in the movie. He had the remainder of the take scanned, and with Yarbrough’s help, he found a portion in which Brando’s chest was rising and falling in sync with the clip that was used in the movie, and replaced the original clip with the new one.

“There are occasional shots in the first two films, maybe a dozen in 175-200 minutes, where the Premier grabs the blacks and drags them down a little too much. But I feel the sins of Premier were far outweighed by its positives.” After a pause, he adds wryly, “To be honest, I would have liked to print on Vision 2391 — which doesn’t exist.”