The Godfather/Trivia

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• A real-life mob-boss was recently apprehended while he was playing the videogame adaptation.
• Breakthrough Hit: Because of the original, you know who Francis Ford Coppola is.
• Dawson Casting: An unusual 'reverse Dawson' - by the third film Mary Corleone should be in her mid to late twenties (she is about 5 in Part II which is 21 years before the start of Part III') but Sophia Coppala was still a teenager when she played her.
• Easter Egg: In the videogame, on the mission where you help protect Vito in the hospital, if you go up to Vito's room while Michael is talking to him and listen in, the conversation is one of Marlon Brando's last recorded performances. A Marlon Brando soundalike was used for Vito's other scenes.
• Enforced Method Acting: In the "Woltz's bedroom" scene, John Marley (who played Woltz) was not told that they would be using an actual horse head for the scene, as they had used various props in rehearsals.
• Executive Meddling:
  • According to Coppola & Puzo, The Godfather Part III was meant to be titled The Death of Michael Corleone to highlight the fact that it did not follow on directly from Part II, but rather was meant to be "an epilogue." They were overruled, with executives saying "You can't make a Godfather movie without 'The Godfather' in the title!" This after Coppola had to demand the second film be titled The Godfather Part II instead of something else.
  • This also occurred during the first film as well. Stanley R. Jaffe, who was then Paramount's executive vice president and chief operations officer, along with producer Robert Evans, frequently fought with Coppola over creative matters during the film, from his decision to cast Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in the main roles, to his editing of the final product. It got so bad, that Coppola had to have the film's on-set physician prescribe him sleeping pills in order to combat his stress related insomnia.
• Refitted for Sequel: Vito's backstory in Part II is taken from scenes left out of the original novel.
• Troubled Production: Paramount was not helpful to Coppola at all.
• What Could Have Been: Supposedly, Winona Ryder was cast as Mary but she opted instead to film Mermaids. Rebecca Schaeffer had an audition for the part of Mary scheduled for the day she was murdered.
  • Robert Redford and Ryan O'Neal were considered for the part of Michael Corleone
    • Actually not as crazy as thought, in the book Michael is described as looking rather un-Italian with fair hair.
  • Coppola wanted to make a fourth movie similar to Part II but focusing on the Corleones' rise to power under Vito and Sonny's leadership, and the fall of the Corleone empire under Vincent, but many of the actors were disinterested and it was abandoned with the death of Mario Puzo.