If I hadn't, he'd never have been allowed to do The Godfather." Bregman explained that they agreed that Pacino would do a later film for MGM (he then bragged that Pacino never actually did do a film for MGM). He had two shots before he got on the plane, then became a little tipsy on the way. I went to pick him up on the morning of the flight. He didn't understand why he had to go he'd never personally agreed to do the film he found the whole thing insane. He was uncomfortable about the whole deal. Al did not want to go out there to settle the matter. Martin Bregman, Pacino's longtime manager, recalled the situation to Andrew Yule for Al Pacino: A Life on the Wire, "It was being settled in Los Angeles and was all very high-powered. However, I think that that is a bit of a stretch. His agent did so without Pacino's express permission. So his agent decides that enough is enough and cuts a deal with MGM that Pacino will co-star in the comedic gangster film, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.
#THE GODFATHER 2 ROBERT DE NIRO MOVIE#
Okay, so time is passing and Pacino is getting impatient that he's screen tested THREE times for this movie and they still won't commit to him.
#THE GODFATHER 2 ROBERT DE NIRO DRIVER#
De Niro did not get either major role, but Coppola liked him enough that he cast him as Paulie, Vito Corleone's personal driver (who later betrays Vito and is then killed for his betrayal). One actor they tried out for the role (and for Sonny, as well) was an even more unknown actor named Robert De Niro. Since they couldn't just settle on Pacino, they auditioned many other actors (one actor, James Caan, ended up in the role of Michael's hot-headed brother, Sonny). They already had a major star in Marlon Brando for Vito Corleone, they wanted a star who could match Brando. Pacino was a relatively unknown performer and the role was so good that Evans (and other executives at Paramount Studios) believed that a star should play the role. Both films won the Academy Award for Best Movie (a very rare achievement for a sequel).Īnyhow, Coppola and Evans fought a lot over Pacino getting the role. Pacino would later reprise the role in The Godfather II, which was the rare sequel to be possibly even MORE acclaimed than the original.
The role went to Al Pacino, who was brilliant in it. Of course, things never work out the way you plan them and instead, Michael is forced to take over as the "Godfather" of the Corleone family, while "taking care of all family business" in a shocking day of violence (I guess I'm technically spoiling The Godfather for you, but, I mean, it's The Godfather, right? You know what happens in The Godfather, right?). Heck, even BEFORE they started filming, the two men clashed over a number of things, including the casting of perhaps the most pivotal roles in the film, that of Michael Corleone, the youngest son of Don Vito Corleone, whose place in the birth order allowed him to avoid the pressure of having to follow in his father's footsteps, so Michael was the Corleone who was destined to go legit. However, the road to success was a tricky one, as the production of the film was troubled right from the start, as producer Robert Evans and director Francis Ford Coppola clashed throughout the filming of the movie (I once did a legend about how one scene was cut from the first Godfather and then re-done in the second Godfather and was cut there, too!). When it was released, The Godfather became one of those rare films that was a commercial blockbuster while being considered a masterpiece, critically, as well. MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Robert De Niro was "traded" from Paramount to MGM so that Al Pacino could be allowed to star in The Godfather.
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