Oscar Isaac will star as director Francis Ford Coppola and Jake Gyllenhaal will play producer Robert Evans in the upcoming film “Francis And The Godfather” about the legendary battles involving the making of “The Godfather”.
The topic of the legendary film’s hard gestation has been discussed before, such as the feature documentary “The Kid Stays in the Picture” which tells the story from Evans’ point of view.
Coppola was 31 at the time, determined to convince Evans and the studio to allow him to film expensively in New York even after the original Mario Puzo script was set in contemporary Kansas.
They took a gamble on Marlon Brando, an eclectic character actor who hadn’t been in a hit film in years. Evans had pressures all his own as the studio was in danger of closing up shop. Then there were the real mobsters upset with the film.
Other likely characters in the feature will be Robert Duvall, James Caan, John Cazale, various major Paramount execs and Puzo himself.
Barry Levinson will direct the feature from a Black List script by Andrew Farotte which was redeveloped by Levinson. Mike Marcus, Doug Mankoff, Kevin Turen, Jon Levin, Jason Sosnoff and Andrew Spaulding are producing.
Coppola has reportedly given his approval for the project with the news hitting just as Coppola’s own recut of the third film in the series, now dubbed “The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone,” will be released on Blu-ray and digital on December 8th.
Source: Deadline
