:43:00
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your
esoteric bullshit coming out.
:43:03
Let's face it, Bart.
This genius has made three pictures:
:43:06
You're a Big Boy Now, some artsy-fartsy
kind of picture, did no business.
:43:11
Finian's Rainbow, which was a top Broadway
musical. He made it into a disaster.
:43:16
And now he's got The Rain People out there,
which everyone's rained on.
:43:19
There's gotta be someone else, come on.
:43:21
There wasn't.
But then there was another problem.
:43:25
Coppola didn't wanna do it.
:43:27
This guy couldn't get
a cartoon made in town.
:43:30
Yet he didn't wanna make The Godfather.
:43:32
I gotta give the guy credit.
His convictions were strong.
:43:36
He didn't want to immortalize the families
that blackened his Italian heritage.
:43:39
After three long days of discussion with
this guy, Peter's on the horn.
:43:45
"Coppola will make the picture.
On one condition.
:43:47
That it's not a film
about organized gangsters."
:43:50
It's not about organized gangsters?
It ain't a musical, Peter.
:43:54
I told you the guy's nuts.
:43:56
"He has an idea, Evans.
It's not bad.
:43:59
He wants to make it as a family chronicle,
a metaphor for capitalism in America."
:44:03
Fuck him and the horse he rode in on!
He is nuts. Now get him out of here.
:44:07
"Bob, I will if you want me to,
but take 10 steps first.
:44:10
Let's not forget, he's Italian."
:44:12
I had less than 48 hours
to make the decision.
:44:15
Sell it, or shake hands with the devil.
:44:18
Coppola was announced
as The Godfather's maestro.
:44:24
The shooting of The Godfather
should take several months.
:44:27
And the picture's scheduled for release
sometime around Christmas, 1971.
:44:31
So if in the next few months, you see some
old cars dashing around or about New York...
:44:36
...or see a gentleman taking
another gentleman somewhere...
:44:39
...at the point of a loaded gun,
don't raise a hue and cry...
:44:43
...because it's only the filming
of The Godfather.
:44:46
But then, New Yorkers don't raise
a hue and cry...
:44:49
...about that sort of thing anyway, do they?
:44:52
This is Gene Huebert,
Fifth Avenue and 31 st Street.
:44:56
It was the unveiling
of Francis' cut of The Godfather.
:44:59
In the theater sat Francis with his quadrille
of assistants, editors and ass-kissers.