Acclaimed director Barry Levinson is directing the much anticipated picture ‘Francis and The Godfather’ and the film will focus on the making of one of the best movies ever created of all time. Oscar Isaac has been given the nod to play Francis Ford Coppola, the film director while Jake Gyllenhaal has been cast as Robert Evans, the film production company’s executive.
Back in the 70s amateur era, a 31 year old Coppola was determined to convince Evans and the studio to shoot expensively on the streets of New York. The movie set in the same time period as mentioned in the Mario Puzo Original novel was removed from it’s original contemporary Kansas setting to The Big Apple. The film is set to focus mainly on the interactions between Coppola and Evans.
The greatest film of all time (considered by many) was almost never made due to constant head butting between Coppola and Evans. They argued on nearly every matter such as bringing on an actor like Brando, who hadn’t had a hit in years, and also Al Pacino’s casting for Michael Corleone (who was an unknown at the time). Evans who had the top job, had pressures from all sides – the studios and the director while maintaining the budget and (hopefully) finally landing a hit for the production company.
But out of all the madness and conflict, a classic film was created and that was it.
The script of the film is based on a Black List copy by Andrew Farotte that was redeveloped by Levinson. Mike Marcus, Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding from Echo Lake Entertainment are producing with Kevin Turen, Jon Levin and Baltimore Pictures’ Jason Sosnoff. Everett Endeavor Content is handling worldwide rights with FilmNation.