A full 30 years after its release, Francis Ford Coppola is recutting The Godfather: Part III for its 30th anniversary.

Being given the greenlight by Paramount, the new cut of the film, titled The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, will get a limited theatrical release before heading to digital and Blu-ray.

Coppola says it’s the movie he and The Godfather author and screenwriter Mario Puzo originally wanted to make three decades ago. And according to the statement he released with the news, the changes are considerable:

“Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is an acknowledgment of Mario’s and my preferred title and our original intentions for what became The Godfather: Part III. For this version of the finale, I created a new beginning and ending, and rearranged some scenes, shots, and music cues. With these changes and the restored footage and sound, to me, it is a more appropriate conclusion to The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II and I’m thankful to Jim Gianopulos and Paramount for allowing me to revisit it.”

Though Godfather III made quite a bit of money at the box office when released in 1990 and was nominated for multiple Oscars, it’s still largely considered a huge disappointment and an enormous step down from the first two Godfather movies, which were released in 1972 and sequel in 1974. In fact, so acclaimed was The Godfather: Part II that it became the first sequel ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Yet upon its release 16 years after Part II, the third Godfather film was incredibly divisive. For starters, Coppola never even wanted to make the movie in the first place, feeling he’d told the story he wanted to tell with the first two movies. Paramount kept begging, Coppola kept refusing, and it was only after a decade of his movies underperforming or outright flopping that Coppola realized he had no choice but to do it.

From the start, pre-production was a tumult of conflicting visions: Coppola wanted $6 million to write, direct and produce; the studio gave him $1 million as he was in no position to argue. Coppola wanted six months to work on a script; the studio gave him six weeks – you can see where this is going.

Casting also proved to be a nightmare. Contract negotiations with Robert Duvall fell apart and Coppola made the decision to cut his character of Tom Hagen from the film, replacing him with a new character played by George Hamilton. Actor Joe Spinell unexpectedly died and his character of Will Cicci also had to be cut. And the role of Mary Corleone, one of the most pivotal of the movie, was cursed. First, actress Rebecca Schaeffer, who was auditioning for the role, was murdered. She opened the door upon hearing her doorbell ring, believing it to be a delivery of the Godfather III script. Instead, Robert John Bardo, who had stalked her for years, pulled out a gun and murdered her. Then, 18-year-old Winona Ryder was cast in the role but had to drop out after being diagnosed with nervous exhaustion after breaking down from the pressures of shooting a marathon three movies in the same year. At the 11th hour and desperate to cast someone in the role, Coppola convinced his then-19-year-old daughter Sofia Coppola to fill in. Sofia, who had no acting experience, didn’t want the role but agreed to help her father out. It did not go well.

Losing so many key characters even before production began meant that the character of Michael Corleone, who needed other characters to be his mirror, had no other characters left from the first two movies to really balance him out. It showed. Al Pacino at times didn’t seem comfortable fitting back into the skin of Michael Corleone and the spirit of the movies seemed to have been lost.

Clearly, all of this has been bothering Coppola for three decades. I’ve often wondered why more filmmakers don’t ask to remake or at least recut movies from earlier in their careers, particularly the ones they’re not happy with. It’s rare that directors get to go back and redo their movies, but Paramount clearly feels it’s worth it.

In any case, it will be really fascinating to watch the recut in comparison to the original theatrical version.