Publishers Random House are reviewing pitches for a follow-up to Mario Puzo's 1969 saga about an the Corleone crime family, which it proposes to call The Godfather Returns.

Puzo, the son of Italian immigrants to the US, died at the age of 78 in 1999.

The public is fascinated with it, and personally I want to read more about the Corleone family. It's a great story. Great stories should continue

Jonathan Karp Random House

His original novel sold more than 21 million copies and inspired a trilogy of films - often cited as being among moviegoers' all-time favourites.

Jonathan Karp, a vice-president and executive editor at Random House, said: "I'm delighted by the submissions we've received. There are many good choices."

But in keeping with the famed Sicilian code of silence - Omerta (the title of Puzo's last book) - Mr Karp declined to name any of the authors interested in the project or proposed plotlines.

"This is a wide and uncategorisable group of authors who are interested in this," he said.

Mario Puzo was involved in screenplays for the three Godfather films

"Some of them are well-known. Some of them are totally obscure."

Mr Karp had earlier sent an e-mail to literary agents looking for a writer to pen a Godfather sequel.

He asked for someone "who is in roughly the same place" in life that Puzo was when he wrote the novel in mid-career.

Mr Karp said he thought the Corleone clan deserved to live on.

Oscars

"These characters just keep pulling you back in," he said.

Random House, working with Puzo's estate, will choose the winning writer. No publication date has been set.

Puzo wrote the screenplays for the three Godfather films with director Francis Ford Coppola, winning two Oscars.

The first film, released three years after the novel, is widely considered the greatest film made to date.

The follow-up became the only sequel to win the Oscar for best picture.

There have already been reports that a film studio is lined up to buy movie rights to the planned novel.