A "Godfather" reunion over the weekend reunited the cast of the iconic 1972 film and its 1974 sequel to hear Director Francis Ford Coppola say he didn't think the movie could be made today.
Coppola and Al Pacino, who played Michael Corleone in both films, led the star-studded gathering Saturday at the close of the Tribeca Film Festival at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It included Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, James Caan, and Robert Duvall, reported the New York Daily News.
De Niro, founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, won his first Academy Award playing the young Vito Corleone in "the Godfather: Part II. He mostly stood back and let other cast members discuss the legendary films.
"It was dizzying, the whole thing," Pacino said of filming, per the Daily News. "… A lot of chaos going on there. We got back, and we started drinking and we were just talking about 'where do we go from here?'"
In 2007, "The Godfather" was ranked by the American Film Institute as the second greatest American movie of all time behind 1941's "Citizen Kane," while "The Godfather, Part II" was ranked No. 32 on the same list.
Coppola said at the gathering, though, that he did not think the movie could be made today with Hollywood's search for films with already loyal, built-in audiences like comic superheroes, wrote The Hollywood Reporter.
"The first 'Godfather' cost $6.5 million, the second Godfather cost $11-12 million, which if you convert that for [what that would be today], it would take a major studio. But it would never get through the process of getting an OK or what they now call a green light," said Coppola. "Nothing will get a green light today unless it's a movie where they can have a whole series of them and a Marvel comics type of thing."
Coppola said it was struggle casting Pacino, who was originally more interested in role of brother Sonny, which went to James Caan, reported Variety. Paramount also initially hedged on Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone.
"It seemed like I was always testing," Pacino complained about what he called "countless screen tests," said Variety. "I was still testing after I got the part."
The Hollywood Reporter said while many of the stories shared Saturday were well-known by fans, newcomers had not heard how Pacino, Brando and De Niro got into their respective characters and some tales of the on-set antics.
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