Origins

‘The Godfather’ is based on the Mario Puzo novel of the same name, and Paramount knew it had the potential to be an amazing movie.

So, before the book was even published in 1969, the studio bought the rights to the story.

This worked out to be a very shrewd move, as the novel would go on to be very popular in its own right, with over nine million copies being sold within its first two years on sale.