I saw a great interview with Francis Ford Coppola on AMC's Shootout talk show which airs every Sunday at 11AM.

Coppola was first asked about doing sequels, "I am not a fan of sequels, cause essentially it is the same movie, and the studio want's the same movie. It is OK to keep reproducing a can of Coke on the assembly line, but that is not good for movies, cause each movie should be original.

Coppola was then asked about why he did Godfather III. "I never wanted to do Godfather II, cause shooting Part 1 was so hard, I never envisioned doing a sequel to it and wanted to be as far away from gangster movies after that. I did Godfather III because I was having financial problems with my businesses (wines, etc.) and Godfather III came along, and I figured it could bail me out of my bankruptcy in the late 80's."

It is pretty telling and pretty honest for Coppola to say he didn't even want to make Godfather II, or never envisioning a sequel to Godfather I, since the second turned out to be a classic. Then to pretty much say he did Part III for the money cause he was broke really shows that he knew he didn't have great material and if you watch his expression talking about Part III, you can see he regrets the movie and knows it doesn't hold up as well today.

Just makes me laugh when Lucas does an interview and how he says he had all 6 episodes planned out in the mid 70's and says it is the fans fault that they didnt' like the Prequels. Makes me yearn for George Lucas just to be honest and candid in an interview today like Coppola cause it would be interesting to hear his take on his misteps he has made in his career.