This year marks the golden anniversary for arguably the greatest movie ever made, The Godfather. You can celebrate 50 years of Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic saga in a traditional way if you like. A first-ever, fully restored 4K HD version of the film is now in stores. But if you’re looking for a truly new way to experience the film you can instead celebrate by watching Paramount+‘s series about how the movie almost didn’t get made at all. Because the new trailer for The Offer shows that the film had more than production problems. It had its own mobsters to deal with.
The Offer is based on what Paramount+ calls “producer Albert S. Ruddy’s extraordinary, never-revealed experiences” making the film. This trailer teases the many reasons it almost remained in permanent Hollywood purgatory. A desperate studio looking for a hit was willing to do what no one else in Tinsel Town would. But the difficulties in bringing Mario Puzo’s novel to the screen went well beyond debates over casting Al Pacino or Marlon Brando. It also meant hearing from actual mafioso who did not want to see a movie about their affairs. Not just because it might make the government focus on the mob, though. But because it might also make them look bad.
Hey, no one wants to look bad onscreen, right? Not even actual criminals.
The series stars Miles Teller as Ruddy. Matthew Goode plays the legendary Robert Evans. Juno Temple joins them as Bettye McCartt. With Giovanni Ribisi as Joe Colombo, Burn Gorman as Charles Bluhdorn, and Colin Hanks as Barry Lapidus. And Dan Fogler, in a role he looks like he was born to play, stars as Francis Ford Coppola.
The limited series debuts at Paramount+ April 28, the same day the original Godfather movies arrive on the platform as well. And who knows, maybe in 50 years there will be a movie about this show. Especially if it makes the mob look bad.
Originally published on March 23, 2022.
