The Godfather: the best anecdotes from the trilogy

Francis Ford Coppola suffered a lot to give birth to his fantastic mafia saga. Première tells you about a wildly chaotic production.

While Arte broadcasts this evening The Godfather in short, we tell you the exciting little stories around the creation of Francis Ford Coppola’s cult trilogy.

Paramount (really) didn’t want Pacino…

Al Pacino was still a very young actor at the time of Godfatherwith only two films to his credit. His performance in Panic in Needle Park had caught Coppola’s eye, but the studio was not at all convinced by this choice.

“Al Pacino was not a star, and that bothered people at the studios a lot, he didn’t look like the stars of the time.” as summarized by producer and casting director Fred Roos. “They were suggesting that Ryan O’Neal or Robert Redford would make good Northern Italians, Al was already engraved in my head” remembers Coppola.

But, even once filming begins, this mistrust will continue. Paramount, hardly any more excited about……