We Should Thank George Lucas for ‘The Godfather’ Existence, Here’s Why
Coppola’s greatest movie yet was abandoned by several more filmmakers before George Lucas somehow saw its potential.
Many cult classic movies were always meant to stunt the audiences and become its creators’ pride and joy, but the biggest surprise is that this wasn’t the case for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.
Based on Mario Puzo’s 1969 bestselling novel of the same name, the movie was pronounced modern classics right after hitting the screens back in 1972, eventually winning several Academy awards and spawning two more sequels.
That’s why it’s hard to imagine The Godfather being rejected by Coppola or just anyone else — this, according to the director, was about to happen when George Lucas saw no other option but to pick it up.
Francis Ford Coppola Says “All the Wonderful Directors of the Time” Refused to Make ‘The Godfather’
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It might be shocking to hear someone deliberately saying “no” to one of the most influential movies of all time, but back then Coppola’s fellow directors didn’t really see anything special behind the same old story about Italian mafia fighting each other for power.
“Everyone turned ‘The Godfather’ down, all the wonderful directors of the time. So they tried to hire me”, Coppola said during his recent appearance at the Palace of Fine Arts.
He then explained that the movie studios wanted him for the job for very particular reasons: first, Coppola is an American of Italian descent, so that would make the story look more credible with a helmer that can relate to the culture.
He also has just got his first Oscar for the script he wrote for the 1969 war drama Patton.
Lastly, Coppola was young and needed to provide for the family, so the studios could easily manipulate his creative decisions.
George Lucas Wanted to Do ‘The Godfather’ Because There Were “No Other Alternatives”
As Coppola revealed further, he was working closely with Star Wars’ father George Lucas at the time as both were running their production company American Zoetrope that would later produce The Godfather.
When Coppola told Lucas he wouldn’t be directing the criminal drama either, the latter became convinced they would need to do it anyway — just for the sake of their company.
“He said, ‘We can’t turn it down, we have no money, the sheriff is going to chain our door because we haven’t made the taxes on the thing. You have to do it, we have no other alternatives.’ I said, ‘You’re right George’”, Coppola stated.
A year after The Godfather’s immense success with both critics and viewers, Lucas went on to direct American Graffiti that would foreshadow an even bigger impact of the Star Wars franchise started in 1977.
