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Oscar Isaac & Jake Gyllenhaal to Star In Godfather Making Of Movie
Oscar Isaac and Jake Gyllenhaal are set to star in a new movie about the making of The Godfather. An iconic American film, Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic starring screen legends Marlon Brando and Al Pacino was a huge box office hit with $134 million in grosses ($722 million adjusted for inflation) and went on to win 3 Oscars including Best Picture (Coppola himself infamously did not claim the Best Director prize, but did nab the honor two years later for the sequel The Godfather Part II).
Though The Godfather was undoubtedly one of ‘70s cinema’s most successful and influential works and is now considered an essential film, there amazingly was a time when it was thought to be a massive gamble that most believed was sure to flop at the box office and ruin the career of then-emerging filmmaker Coppola. The director indeed famously fought a number of epic battles with Paramount over the movie, the biggest of all coming over the studio’s aversion to casting the notoriously difficult Brando as Don Corleone. Indeed, the making of The Godfather is almost as compelling a story as the one told by the movie itself, including as it does a number of film history’s most important figures.
The fascinating making-of story of The Godfather has of course already led to loads of books and documentaries, and now the movie’s origins will be recounted in a feature film entitled Francis and the Godfather from director Barry Levinson. As reported by Deadline, Levinson has already begun putting together a cast worthy of a movie about one of cinema’s great masterpieces, with Isaac tapped to play legendary writer-director Coppola and Gyllenhaal to play notorious film producer Bob Evans. Indeed, Coppola himself has given his seal of approval to the project, saying “Any movie that Barry Levinson makes about anything, will be interesting and worthwhile!”
Levinson of course is an Oscar-winning director just like Coppola, with credits including Diner, Avalon, Bugsy and the multi-Academy Award winner Rain Man (for which Levinson received his one career Best Director win). Gyllenhaal has himself also received some love from the Academy, snagging a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Brokeback Mountain. Though Isaac has yet to receive his own Oscar nomination, he has gotten plenty of acclaim for his acting work, snagging a Golden Globe for his performance in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero.
Given that Levinson came up in movies in the years just after the great 1970s Golden Age fostered by filmmakers like Coppola, it’s unsurprising to see him wanting to create a movie about the making of arguably the most important film of that era. Both Isaac and Gyllenhaal are of course solid choices to head up the cast, and it will be fascinating to see how both actors take on the task of transforming themselves to play their respective roles. Gyllenhaal in particular will have an interesting challenge given how distinctive the famously eccentric Evans was in appearance and voice (Gyllenhaal obviously is no stranger to playing oddballs). It will also be incredibly intriguing watching Levinson fill out his cast with other actors to play key figures in the making of The Godfather, particularly Brando and Pacino themselves.
