Anyone who loves The Godfather knows the scene where a beautiful bouquet of flowers arrives for Marlon Brando’s protagonist, Don Vito Corleone. They’re dispatched by Frank Sinatra-model crooner Johnny Fontane, who plays the coveted role in a new movie thanks to the Corleone family’s muscles (and a severed horse’s head in a movie boss’s bed).
There’s a nod to this scene in The Offer, a gripping 10-part drama about the creation of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece at Paramount+. Check it out now, with reviews describing it as “absolutely excellent” and “great series.”
In the first episode, funeral wreath-shaped flowers come for real New York mobster Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi), sent by Sinatra (Frank John Hughes) with a note: “I hope we can get this thing out of the way.”
Sinatra recognized himself in the character of Fontane and hated Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather. That’s why Sinatra was furious when Paramount Pictures announced that they would be a movie for which Puzo would write the script.
Left to right: Ruddy, McCartt, Evans, Coppola and Puzo in The Offer, a gripping 10-part drama chronicling the creation of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 Paramount + masterpiece
One night, two Italian Americans had an argument at a Los Angeles restaurant, and as a result, Ol’ Blue Eyes turned red, shouting that Puzo was a “pimp” and threatening to beat him.
This story has always fascinated screenwriter Michael Tolkin and inspired him to write The Offer. “I had written five minutes of the show and now needed another nine hours and 55 minutes to fill it up,” says Tolkin, denouncing Hollywood’s handling of 1992’s The Player.
There was no shortage of material, beginning with the famous line of dialogue that inspired its title: Don Corleone’s menacing death threat: “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” The proposal compellingly portrays the mob threat and the intrigues of the filmmakers, but finds it barely ethical in either area.
It also pours beautifully. Miles Teller plays industry outsider Albert S Ruddy, who was a computer programmer before helping create the hit television comedy Hogan’s Heroes.
Later, Puzo was asked to film The Godfather, which he recommended to Paramount’s head of production Robert Evans (British actor Matthew Goode) in 1967, while the book (temporarily called Mafia) was still largely unfinished.
The proposal perfectly dramatizes Puzo’s predicament. He was a writer working in New York, but he was not well known, and any financial success he achieved was tainted by his gambling habit.
When he met Evans, he had a wife and five children to support, but he owed $10,000. He badly needed Evans to pick the rights to the movie.
In the end, Evans did it and paid $12,500, but paid more than almost anything to get rid of it.
Old Blue Eyes saw red, shouted at Puzo that he was a “pimp” and threatened to beat him
Over time, the book became a major bestseller. Evans had an interesting article, but wasn’t sure yet if it would be translated to the screen.
However, he had the backing of Paramount’s eccentric owner, Charles Bluhdorn, an Austrian cigar-chewing tycoon. Bluhdorn wanted The Godfather done, but for that to happen, Ruddy had to placate the mob for months, at least by agreeing to their request to never use the word “mafia.”
He also succumbed to his arrogance by choosing real gangsters as extras. When the movie was finally over, Ruddy arranged a secret screening for them.
It’s not because he’s reticent when dozens of flashy limousines pop up in front of the movie theater and spit out articles and their friends.
Ruddy, now 92, is an executive producer on The Offer, and Teller often writes during filming to tell him how fun it was to play him. And don’t worry.
Before signing up with Joe Colombo, Ruddy received frequent death threats and even appeared in public as Groucho Marx. “You want to make a movie that makes my people look like animals and it’s not going to happen,” Colombo tells Ruddy in-game.
The story behind the making of The Godfather is as dramatic as Puzo’s original. Pictured: Marlon Brando as Don Corleone
Like Splendid as Teller Al Ruddy comes Goode’s outstanding performance before the British audience, silky smooth as an urbanite but unstable Evans maneuvered by Ruddy to sign Coppola (Dan Fogler, also excellent). Coppola, though not yet thirty, was fiercely determined.
Evans feared that the unknown (and certainly rather short) Al Pacino would play Michael, Vito’s youngest son, who was rumored to call him “the scoundrel” and “that little dwarf”. But Coppola won, just as he did when studio bosses resented his plan to release “washed out” Brando.
The director resorted to alarming histrions, even pretending to have an epileptic seizure until he gave up.
Supply remains tied to it, but surprisingly, production isn’t in trouble. Armie Hammer was first hired to play Ruddy, but was forced to retire over sexual harassment allegations.
A more routine challenge was finding actors to play movie stars who were or would become famous. “It was incredibly intimidating,” said executive producer Nikki Toscano.
When studio bosses resent his plan to cast Brando as “washed out”, Coppola phoned ph an offensive
“How can you compete with Marlon Brando and Al Pacino?” In fact, Anthony Ippolito makes a very reasonable Pacino, and while Justin Chambers is much more difficult to play Brando as Don Corleone (a transformation where he rubs his blonde hair with shoe polish and Kleenex fills his cheeks), he gives it a shot.
Casting Lou Ferrigno, made famous by the 1970s TV series The Incredible Hulk, was an easier task to play Lenny Montana. The 6 foot 6 in Montana was a fighter who turned into the mob.
His specialty was arson, and he ended up in Rikers Island prison. But when Ruddy and Coppola chose The Godfather, he was the bodyguard of the Colombo family.
Choosing him to play the Corleones giant hitman Luca Brasi was another way to win them over. Montana itself was happy. While Montana didn’t really bother her, she was hopelessly nervous about being cast alongside Brando in the wedding scene at the beginning of the photo.
Coppola had the bright idea of bringing Montana’s fear into the story, so it’s the turn where he rehearses his lines for Don first, then shuffles them. The tension was real.
Montana was an extremely popular presence on set. When Ruddy’s assistant, Bettye McCartt (played in Juno Temple’s The Sacrifice) broke her watch, she gave it an antique, diamond-encrusted spare and said it was a “gift from men.” She didn’t say how she got it, but she suggested she never wear it in Florida.
So while there are fewer bodies, the story of making The Godfather is just as dramatic as Puzo’s original. For the fans, it was an offer they couldn’t refuse.
- The offer will be streamed on Paramount+. You can get the service via Sky Box or as an add-on via Amazon Prime Video. Or download the Paramount+ app on smart TVs and streaming sticks. It costs £6.99 per month or £69.90 per year. Free if you have a Sky Cinema subscription
Source: Daily Mail
