Director troubles

After watching his previous film ‘The Rain People’, Paramount Pictures were keen to hire Francis Ford Coppola for ‘The Godfather’, but soon found that the director wasn’t entirely what they wanted.

Once production was underway, the studio decided Coppola’s dark, dialogue-driven narrative wasn’t exactly what they were looking for, as they were hoping the flick would be a more salacious gangster film.

Tensions rose between the two parties to the extent that Paramount consistently threatened to fire the director, and looked for a replacement.

However, once executives saw Coppola shoot the scene where Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and Mark McCluskey (Sterling Hayden) kick the bucket at the hands of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) they realised the director had what it took so left him alone to realise his vision.