The new Paramount+ miniseries ‘The Offer,’ depicting the making of the classic film, hopes to draw in ‘Godfather’ obsessives. But is recreating the past enough?
emphatically , The Godfatherhas muscle . " It was one of the first expectant blockbusters , " say Dexter Fletcher , the English filmmaker tasked with directing the first two episodes of the miniseries , when asked about his memory of first seeing the original . " For me in person , I make out it like everyone else loved it . As a young gentleman’s gentleman , I was like , ' Give me more of this world , this is smashing . ' "
For generations , The Godfatherhas inspired that accurate reaction of acknowledgment and belonging . Now , Fletcher , the director behind 2019 ’s Elton John biopicRocketman , had his prospect to fully plunge himself in the world of a movie he remembers first seeing in a smoky room in North London with his mates . Working alongside Divine Michael Tolkin ( Escape at Dannemora ) and drawing on the memories of 92 - year - oldGodfatherproducer Al Ruddy ( portrayed by Miles Teller ) as inspiration , Fletcher helped to craft a series that let fan luxuriate in every C - suite factoid , morsel of newsmonger , and funny on - set anecdote about the making of the classic . With a similar sense of showmanship as the Queen biopicBohemian Rhapsody , which Fletcher climbed aboard after the departure of director Brian Singer , The Offerwants to dally the hit : The casting of Marlon Brando , the contestation surrounding Frank Sinatra , and the tangible - living Sicilian Mafia intrigue involving all take up sizable amounts of screen clock time across the 10 episodes . As if to indicate its intentions , the show begins with a rather unsubtle nod to one of the movie ’s most famous line of descent : " Take the cannoli . "
For a certain type of viewer , gazing atThe Godfatherthrough the distorting electron lens of standom might sound like desecration . give way the critical stature of the original , a Best Picture winner routinely cited as one of the greatest films ever made by institutions like AFI and Sight & Sound , it ’s perhaps odd to consider it a devotee phenomenon in the same way one might discussStar Trek , Dr. Who , or One Direction . Being an appreciator ofThe Godfatherisn’t like being a devotee of the Lakers , also the focal point ofanother recent behind - the - scenes saga . At least in theory , there ’s something a little more respectable . A little more dignified . Maybe even prestigious .
Design by Chineme Elobuike for Thrillist
But , like almost any soda artifact of the late 20th century , the serial publication has appeal all the trappings of the modern franchise : kitschy cookbooks , guidedlocation go , ledge - readyFunko daddy dame , reams offan fiction , hyper - targetedpodcasts , anextensive online wikiwith over 2,000 pages , message boards give to take out questions like " Is anyone else annoyed with how Luca Brasi was depicted ? , " and even aGodfather AIthat let you get advice from a digital Vito Corleone . It may not attract to the terminally online withthe same intensityas HBO ’s more recent pack dramaThe Sopranos , but it has cheer at least one enduring meme in recent eld ( " Look how they massacred my son . " ) and aTwitter accountthat tweets out single frames of the films ( not to be confound with the canonical " mustache plow into a tree " tweet ) .
As chronicled in the miniseries , which follows Ruddy as he works tirelessly with his resourceful writing table Bettye McCartt ( Juno Temple ) and shortly - to - be - fabled producer Robert Evans ( Matthew Goode ) to get the project off the ground , The Godfatherwas a literary sensation first and then quickly became an even with child cultural Jagannatha as a cinema , gross more than $ 100 million after 18 weeks atop the box - berth charts . The film ’s creators were widely celebrated and look up to in the press . The author Eve Babitz , reflecting on Coppola from the set ofThe Godfather Part II , put it like this in her piece " All This andThe GodfatherToo " : " My main feeling about him , which get solid and stronger as time goes by , is simply abject belief in his greatness . I need to be on his side . "
As wager byFantastic Beasts and Where to come up Them ’s Dan FoglerinThe Offer , Coppola is a originative whizz who inspires and exasperates in adequate measure . Described by other character as " a true creative person , " he speak passionately about his connection to the material , describing it as " a metaphor for American capitalism . " At the same fourth dimension , his meticulosity concerning the script and his insistence about key aspects of the production , like the casting of the then - untried Al Pacino in the lead part of Michael Corleone , made him a headache for the studio heads and producers tasked with thinking about the bottom argumentation . For Tolkin , also the screenwriter of 1992 ’s edit Hollywood satireThe Playerand the book on which it ’s base , that unresolvable tension between art and commerce is primal to the creative process . " You have a vision , " he tells Thrillist . " And that sight go against reality , and sometimes that realness enhance and sometimes it destroys . "
Juno Temple and Miles Teller in ‘The Offer’|Paramount +
What is it about the vision ofThe Godfatherthat ’s allowed it to go for so long ? The lofty themes ? The scandalous furiousness ? The grip performances ? Tolkin thinks it ’s basically a " enigma , " the type of originative interpersonal chemistry that could have only occur at that metre and place . Mark Seal , a old hand diarist and contributing editor in chief forVanity Fair , compose a whole book about making of the film , last year’sLeave the Gun , Take the Cannoli : The Epic Story of the qualification of The Godfather , and he think its continued success relies on a mix of the national affair , the vital aloofness Coppola and Puzo brought to the material , and the high floor of execution .
" It broke new barriers in film : Not only was the movie about gangster , but it was also about their families , " Seal explains via email . " This is what givesThe Godfatherits heart . Secondly , Francis Ford Coppola take a firm stand that it be a period film , dead on target to Mario Puzo ’s forties setting . This have the movie timeless , as fresh today as it was 50 years ago . Thirdly , it ’s just a grand movie . "
Everyone who lovesThe Godfathereventually throws up their script and says some version of what Seal write : It ’s just heavy . I mean , it’sThe Godfather , dude — don’t you get it?And yet , there are plenty of marvelous movies , praise by critics and showered with awards , that do n’t have the same grip on the popular consciousness . For example , you probably wo n’t see a 10 - sequence serial about the making of 1978 ’s Best Picture victor , The Deer Hunter . However , the tilt of Best Picture winner of the ' 70s includesOne Flew Over the Cuckoo ’s Nest , which got the tailspin - off treatment with Netflix’sRatched , andRocky , which apparently remain a worthful piece of IP . The ' 70s , perhaps the most over - mythologize period of Hollywood account , will always be fertile ground for an art conformation so addicted to recreating its own recent yesteryear .
James Caan and Al Pacino in ‘The Godfather’|Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Still , the devotedness ofGodfatherfans , particularly their power to wax rapt about the movie and speak entirely in quotes from its script , remains singular . WhenThe Rewatchables , the popular pic podcast hosted by sports - medium personality Bill Simmons , devotedan episodetoThe Godfather Part II , the hosts brought onBillionsco - creator Brian Koppelman , a notedGodfatherdevotee who peppers the pages of his Showtime drama with references to the films . They talked about the movie for near two - and - a - one-half hr , almost the distance of metre it would take to watch the actual movie .
Another podcast , The Godfather Minute , promote that level of scrutiny even further . As the deed of conveyance suggests , hosts Alex and Andy Robinson bring their way through the serial publication by concenter each installment on a single minute . Alex , a cartoonist by trade , also hostsStar Wars Minute , which attack ( Coppola ’s director pal ) George Lucas ’s creation with a similar layer of rigor and humor . Though he ’s spend hour retrieve about and discuss both properties , Robinson take in them as trenchant lover phenomena with their own quirks .
" Star Warsfandom at this item is a wing of Disney ’s publicity department , " he writes in an email . " Godfatherfandom ( if you could even call it that ) is n’t the societal thing thatStar Warsfandom is . No public gatherings , no conventionality , etc . I experience like being a fan is a more personal experience . It reminds me of the time before the internet where as far as you knew you were the only person you knew into , say , comic leger . It ’s a unlike timbre to be drawn to something because of its timber , rather than because of thoroughgoing ( and tiring ) selling or because it will make you part of a tribe . "
Matthew Goode as Robert Evans in ‘The Offer’|Paramount +
That personal connection toThe Godfatherwas evident in every conversation I had while writing this piece . As a film producer , Fletcher , who knows how persnickety enthusiast can be from his experiences with Queen and Elton John fan , recognize that some parts of the movie are more important to some than to others . " The devotee experience , being someone who loves that picture show , it ’s always break down to be a collective experience and a personal one as well , " he say . The bathroom system of rules that Michael gets the gun from was essential to him . ( " I absolutely duplicate it , " he explains . ) For others , that detail might not even register . Instead , they might take progeny with the show ’s occasionallyfast - and - loose relationshipwith time and chronology . A student of bothStar WarsandGodfatherfandoms , Robinson notes thatGodfatherfans incline to be a little more low - key . " The Godfatheris a democratic movie obviously , but it does n’t have the same intensity level of fandom that something likeStar Warsdoes . I wish there was , if only to see Lucca Brasi cosplayers . "
IfThe Offerfails to entertain , the ever - comforting 1972 variation ofThe Godfatheris a dawn away . ( Streaming now on Paramount+ , of line . ) The oink oeuvre required to seek out the movie or show you love is mostly a token of the past . In March , Coppola release anew restorationof the trilogy on DVD .
Michael Tolkin think of when he sawThe Godfather : He was a scholarly person at Middlebury College in Vermont and drove up to see it in Burlington in the late winter . When he mother there , the screening was sold - out , so he had to ride outside in the cold for three 60 minutes while waiting the next showing . Finally keep an eye on the chronicle unfold , seat at the front of the theater , he was hypnotise . He count on he ’s seen it about 10 clip over the form of his lifespan .
" It ’s one of those movies where if you ’re changing channels and you pick up , ' Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes , ' you ’re in for the rest of it , " he says . " It just seize you . " Time will enjoin ifThe Offeris similarly impossible to refuse .
