His CV before The Godfather included directing a wholesome Fred Astaire musical, Finian’s Rainbow, as well as counter-culture cult The Rain People. Paramount’s last stab at the genre, 1968’s The Brotherhood, had cratered at the box office, and the studio found it difficult to find a director willing to sign on for an adaptation of what was considered by many to be a cheap, pulpy crime novel.įrancis Ford Coppola was a surprise choice, however.
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When the novel hit big, the movie was greenlit faster than you can say ‘Moe Green’.Īuthor Mario Puzo attends the premiere party for "The Godfather" on Ma(Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)Ī sensation the book may have been, but mob pictures weren’t fashionable in 1970. Paramount, in its wisdom, had optioned the book before publication for a bargain price of $12,500 (with an additional $80,000 if it actually went into production). Mario Puzo’s The Godfather was first published in 1969 and was an instant smash, shifting over two million copies in its first two years.
The phenomenon of The Godfather movie has, over half a century, rather overshadowed the fact that it was adapted from a bestseller. That it’s 10 episodes long (it premieres in the US on 28 April) only underlines how uncommonly eventful it was backstage of this classic of American cinema.
The tumult behind the scenes of The Godfather was so great that, 50 years on, Paramount+ is about to unveil a new limited run drama, titled The Offer, about its making, with Fantastic Beasts’ Dan Fogler as Coppola and Matthew Goode as flamboyant studio bigwig Robert Evans.
Read more: The Godfather returning to cinemas for anniversary Salvatore Corsitto as Bonasera, James Caan as Santino 'Sonny' Corleone and Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather', 1972 (Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Įven Francis Ford Coppola wasn’t the studio’s first choice as director, with Peter Bogdanovich ( The Last Picture Show), Sergio Leone ( The Good, The Bad And The Ugly) and Arthur Penn ( Bonnie & Clyde) among those to be made an offer they found it all too easy to refuse.
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