From Sergio Leone to Peter Bogdanovich, some legendary directors were offeredThe Godfatherbefore Francis Ford Coppola agreed to do it. Coppola was initially hesitant to directThe Godfather, because he found Mario Puzo’s source novel to be a shallow and dimensionless portrayal of the mafia. However, upon revisiting the book, he found more thematic depth in the story and figured out what his approach would be. Rather thanmakingThe Godfatheras a typical gangster movie, Coppola made it as a family drama about the tensions and conflicts within a tight-knit Italian-American family, which he knew all about.
This is what madeThe Godfatherso special, andwhyThe Godfatherstill holds up today. Coppola’s approach transcended the crime genre and presented a universal family dynamic that everybody could relate to, whether they were affiliated with the mob or not. But Coppola almost didn’t direct the film — he was far from Paramount’s first choice. At least eight other filmmakers were offered the job before Coppola, but they all turned it down, either due to scheduling conflicts or objections to the violent material.The Godfatherwould’ve turned out very differently if one of these directors had done it.
8Sergio Leone
Italian Maestro Almost Helmed The Godfather
Paramount’s first choice to directThe Godfatherwas Sergio Leone (via theNew York Times).The studio executives were convinced that their last mafia movie,The Brotherhood, had failed at the box office because none of its cast and crew were of Italian descent, so they were determined to get an Italian filmmaker to helmThe Godfather. Leone is best known as a pioneer ofthe spaghetti western genre, having helmed such trailblazing classics asA Fistful of Dollars,For a Few Dollars More,The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, andOnce Upon a Time in the West.
5 Sergio Leone Trademarks In The Dollars Trilogy
Sergio Leone pioneered the spaghetti western with the stylized violence, morally ambiguous antihero, and Morricone music of the Dollars trilogy.
However, Leone turned down the offer, because he was working on his own gangster movie,Once Upon a Time in America. Leone wanted to deconstruct the Hollywood gangster myth in a way he wouldn’t have been able to do withThe Godfather. Unfortunately, Leone’s passion project languished in development hell for over a decade andOnce Upon a Time in Americadidn’t see the light of day until 1984, a full 12 years afterThe Godfatherarrived in theaters.Leone’s take onThe Godfatherprobably would’ve been very extravagant and operatic, and even bloodier than Coppola’s version.
7Peter Bogdanovich
New Hollywood Icon Considered For Mafia Epic
After Leone turned down the job, Paramount offeredThe Godfatherto Peter Bogdanovich, but Bogdanovich had even less interest than Leone (viaThe Guardian).Bogdanovich said that he was “so flippant” in rejecting the project that he didn’t even realize it wasThe Godfatheruntil a decade later. As soon as he heard that it was about the mafia, he turned it down, because he had no proclivity to make a gangster movie. Bogdanovich said that if he did take the job, hisGodfatherwould’ve been “a whole different picture” — he would’ve cast Edward G. Robinson asDon Vito Corleone.
At the time, Bogdanovich had burst onto the scene with his low-budget debut featureTargetsand was getting a lot of buzz for his sophomore directorial effort,The Last Picture Show, which would ultimately earn him Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.Instead of makingThe Godfather, Bogdanovich directed the old-school screwball comedyWhat’s Up, Doc?and the heartfelt father-daughter road moviePaper Moon, now considered to be two of the finest films of the 1970s. It was much better to get that double whammy than a half-hearted version ofThe Godfatherfor a paycheck.
6Peter Yates
British Director Eyed For Iconic Gangster Film
After Leone and Bogdanovich turned it down,The Godfatherwas offered to at least eight more filmmakers (viaCBS News) before Coppola finally agreed to direct it.One of the directors who turned it down was Peter Yates, best known for directing the Steve McQueen police thrillerBullitt.Yates also helmed the heist filmRobbery, which marked his big break (and led to him getting the job directingBullitt), the coming-of-age dramedyBreaking Away, and the science fantasy cult classicKrull.
Yates likely would’ve directedThe Godfathermore as a straightforward action movie.His approach to scenes like Michael killing McCluskey in the restaurant and Sonny getting gunned down at the toll booth would’ve been a sensationalist spectacle likeBullitt’s iconic car chase. Coppola’s grounded, realistic approach to the violence was much more unnerving and impactful.
5Otto Preminger
Veteran Filmmaker Nearly Directed Mafia Classic
Otto Preminger similarly turned downThe Godfatherafter being offered the job. Preminger is one of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood history, particularly in the film noir genre.While Bogdanovich was relatively new to the scene whenThe Godfatherwas in development, Preminger had been a renowned filmmaker for decades. After emigrating to the U.S. in the mid-1930s, Preminger first earned widespread acclaim for his iconic 1944 noirLaura.
He was notorious for tackling taboo subject matter in mainstream movies under the strict regulations of the Hays Code.
If he’d actually taken an interest in the project, Preminger would’ve been a great choice forThe Godfather.He was notorious for tackling taboo subject matter in mainstream movies under the strict regulations of the Hays Code. He depicted drug addiction in 1955’sThe Man with the Golden Arm, sexual assault in 1959’sAnatomy of a Murder, and homosexuality in 1962’sAdvise & Consent. It would’ve been interesting to see what he’d do with the grim subject matter and uncompromising plot twists ofThe Godfather.
4Richard Brooks
Hollywood Veteran Almost Took The Godfather Reigns
Paramount asked Richard Brooks to directThe Godfather, but he also turned it down.Brooks dabbled in various genres throughout his career — he directed the classic westernThe Professionals, he wrote the iconic film noirThe Killers, and he turned Truman Capote’s true-crime bookIn Cold Bloodinto a chilling cinematic thriller — but he was primarily known for directing straightforward character-driven dramas. He adaptedBlackboard Jungle,The Brothers Karamazov, andCat on a Hot Tin Rooffor the screen.
What made Coppola’s direction ofThe Godfatherso effective and subversive is that he approached the characters as real, relatable,three-dimensional human beings, not as genre archetypes. Brooks’ past work suggests he would’ve taken a similar approach and focused on the people behind the tropes.Coppola’s version ofThe Godfatheris perfect, but Brooks’ would’ve been great, too.
3Franklin J. Schaffner
Sci-Fi Maestro Considered For Mafia Epic
Franklin J. Schaffner is another director who was offeredThe Godfatherand turned it down.Schaffner was a versatile filmmaker who helmed all kinds of movies: he directedPlanet of the Apes, the bonkers sci-fi adventure about astronauts stranded on a mysterious world full of talking monkeys;Nicholas and Alexandra, a romantic drama about the last ruling Russian monarch and his wife;Papillon, chronicling a real-life prison break; andThe Boys from Brazil, a conspiracy thriller about a Nazi hunter.
The Godfatherwould’ve seen him explore yet another genre.
Schaffner won the Academy Award for Best Director for helming the military biopicPatton(which, coincidentally enough, was co-written by Coppola right before he tackledThe Godfather). He clearly had the filmmaking chops to do Puzo’s crime saga justice on the big screen. But Schaffner’s take onThe Godfathermight have turned out pretty dry and slow-paced, likePatton. Coppola’s film isn’t the most rapidly paced movie, but it moves a lot quicker than Schaffner’s war epic.
2Costa-Gavras
Political Thriller Director Eyed For Godfather
Paramount offeredThe Godfatherto Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras, but he turned it down.At the time, Costa-Gavras was best known for his 1969 political thrillerZ, a thinly veiled dramatization of the 1963 assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1982, he won the Palme d’Or forMissing, a cinematic chronicle of the disappearance of American journalist Charles Horman following the Chilean coup of 1973. Costa-Gavras has only made six movies in English; if he’d madeThe Godfather, it would’ve been seven.
Where Coppola focused on the family dynamics, Costa-Gavras would’ve focused more on capitalism and police corruption and the politics of organized crime.
If Costa-Gavras had directedThe Godfather, he probably would’ve leaned more into the political elements.Where Coppola focused on the family dynamics, Costa-Gavras would’ve focused more on capitalism and police corruption and the politics of organized crime. It would’ve been just as interesting, but it would’ve been a very different movie.
1Arthur Penn
Bonnie & Clyde Director Almost Made The Godfather
Arthur Penn also turned down the chance to directThe Godfatherafter being offered the job.Penn was one of the founding fathers of the American New Wave, a movement that alloweda film likeThe Godfatherto get made in the first place. Throughout his career, Penn directed such films as the prison dramaThe Chase, the Arlo Guthrie comedyAlice’s Restaurant, and the revisionist westernLittle Big Man. He also directed one of the earliest New Hollywood movies, 1967’sBonnie and Clyde, which is surely the reason he was offeredThe Godfather.
By making a pair of bank robbers the protagonists,Bonnie and Clydeestablished the New Hollywood trend of blurring the line between heroes and villains. This would’ve made Penn a great choice to directThe Godfather, a story that relies on the audience empathizing with despicable criminals. Penn could’ve gotten audiences to understand Michael Corleone the same way he got them invested in the ill-fated love story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Coppola ended up being the best choice forThe Godfather, but it’s interesting to imagine how the movie would’ve turned out with someone else at the helm.
