{"id":716412,"date":"2026-03-12T17:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/last-kings-of-hollywood-book-excerpt-coppola-evans-godfather-feud\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T17:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:45:12","slug":"last-kings-of-hollywood-book-excerpt-coppola-evans-godfather-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/last-kings-of-hollywood-book-excerpt-coppola-evans-godfather-feud\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Last Kings of Hollywood Book Excerpt\u2019: Coppola-Evans \u2018Godfather\u2019 Feud"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThe Godfather<\/em> shot in New York <\/strong>from late March to early July. From virtually the first week, director Francis Ford Coppola feared he\u2019d lose his job. Paramount expected a cheap little crime picture, just the kind of job Francis couldn\u2019t bring himself to perform. The studio hovered over him. They hadn\u2019t liked his cast, and they didn\u2019t like what they saw in the dailies. Allegations that the film was anti-Italian, encouraged by the New York mob, made them nervous.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was 29,\u201d Francis remembered later. \u201cI had no power. They could easily push me around, which they did and tried to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Thursday, April 15, 1971, Francis sat at home with his wife, Ellie, who was nine months pregnant, and Marty Scorsese, back in New York to visit family, and turned the TV to NBC to watch the Academy Awards. Two hours into the show, the actors Sarah Miles and George Segal walked to the dais and announced the winners for best original screenplay: for Patton<\/em>, Francis Coppola and Edmund North. It was Francis\u2019 first Oscar. He hadn\u2019t gone to the ceremony because he thought, if he left New York, someone else would be directing The Godfather <\/em>by the time he came back.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tGeorge C. Scott in Patton<\/em>, for which Coppola won best screenplay in 1971.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t20th Century Fox Film Corp.\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cHow are they going to fire you now?\u201d Marty asked, beaming.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrancis started believing in his film. He wanted so badly for it to be great, it was like his life depended on it. When The Godfather <\/em>wrapp<\/a>ed in August, after three and a half months in New York and a brief stint in Sicily, Francis dove straight into cutting, with Peter Zinner and William Reynolds as his editors, and Walter Murch, with whom he\u2019d grown close, as his sound mixer. Even then, Murch says, \u201cthere was a big trough period where it looked like the film was not going to work. The studio kept hammering, and Francis was resisting \u2026 The feeling on The Godfather<\/em> was: This is long and dark and self-indulgent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount head Robert Evans, meanwhile, was pushing Francis not to give up on The Godfather<\/em>. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got, Francis,\u201d Evans told him enthusiastically in the final days. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a shot at being remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tCoppola with his father, Carmine Coppola; his sister, Talia Shire; and wife, Eleanor Coppola, at the Governors Ball in 1975. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLong Photography\/The Academy\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tBy now, Francis was exhausted.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m tired of listening to your hype, Evans,\u201d he moaned.<\/p>\n

\n\tEvans stood his ground. He thought The Godfather <\/em>could be one of the biggest films ever, make over $50 million.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOnly Gone With the Wind <\/em>and The Sound of Music <\/em>hit those numbers,\u201d Francis argued.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah, and we will too,\u201d Evans said, \u201cif you don\u2019t fuck it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd you\u2019ll buy me a Mercedes, too, if it does, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRaise or fold. Evans looked into Francis\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re damn right I will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tCoppola on the NYC set of The Godfather Part II. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGerald Israel\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe Godfather <\/em>turned out to be far bigger than even Evans had predicted. The five cinemas first showing the film in New York were so overwhelmed by demand that they ran the picture around the clock. Local businesses complained to the press about long lines blocking access to their storefronts. By the time it opened in L.A. on March 22, 1972, the movie had already grossed $13 million \u2014 twice its shooting budget \u2014 in a single week, in a single city. On March 24, The Godfather <\/em>\u201cwent wide,\u201d opening in cinemas across the rest of the U.S., and the pattern repeated itself. It packed every house. It had legs. And over and over, critics, writers, columnists and scholars praised Francis: for his seeming control of every frame, for turning popular entertainment into great tragedy, for blurring the boundary between genre picture and work of art. Francis had done what no other American director of his generation had yet managed: He had made a film that excited and titillated as entertainment but also pushed the bounds of the medium. His picture had \u201ctouched greatness\u201d \u2014 as Henry Kissinger put it \u2014 and also outgrossed every entertainment picture in memory.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHenry Kissinger, producer Robert Evans and his wife, Ali MacGraw, at the New York premiere of The Godfather<\/em>, in 1972. <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArchive Photoes\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIn the summer, on the exact day The Godfather <\/em>passed $50 million in revenue, Francis and George Lucas went down to the nearest Mercedes dealership and bought a dark blue 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman \u2014 the same model, Francis boasted, as the pope\u2019s. The car cost roughly $38,000 \u2014 about $200,000 in 2025 dollars. Francis told the salesman to send the bill to Robert Evans at Paramount Pictures.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrancis directed The<\/em> Conversation<\/em>, released in April 1974, then turned around The Godfather Part II \u2014 <\/em>his sequel to the original \u2014 so quickly it came out at Christmas. It didn\u2019t match the record take of the first installment, though it still became Paramount\u2019s biggest moneymaker of the year. When Oscar nominations were announced in late February 1975, Francis was nominated for best director, for The Godfather Part II<\/em>; for both best original screenplay, for The Conversation,<\/em> and best adapted screenplay, for The Godfather Part II<\/em>; and for best picture twice, for both The Conversation<\/em> and The Godfather Part II<\/em>. Altogether, his two films garnered 14 nominations. His sister, Talia Shire, was nominated for best supporting actress. His father, Carmine, with Nino Rota, was nominated for best original score. Three of the five nominations for best supporting actor went to actors from The Godfather Part II.<\/em> The last film to have achieved that feat had been the first Godfather<\/em>; no film has received three actor nominations in the same category since. No director in 32 years had had two movies<\/a> nominated for best picture in the same year. It was the third year in a row that at least one picture Francis had produced was nominated for best picture, after Lucas\u2019 American Graffiti <\/em>the year before and The Godfather <\/em>the year before that, and the second time in three years that he had also been nominated for both writing and directing. No filmmaker in history had ever had such a run, let alone one who refused to even live in L.A.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tSalvatore Corsitto, James Caan and Marlon Brando in 1972\u2019s The Godfather. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tAl Pacino in The Godfather Part II<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tFrancis turned 36 on April 7, 1975. The Oscar ceremony took place the next day at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown L.A. Before the event began, Francis, waiting at the back of the auditorium, unexpectedly found himself standing alongside Robert Evans. In his last year as head of Paramount \u2014 he was stepping down to become an independent producer \u2014 Evans had earned the studio a total of 43 nods, more than any one studio had ever received in a single year. He was nominated for best picture personally, for producing Roman Polanski\u2019s Chinatown<\/em>, tied with Godfather Part II <\/em>for most nominations at 11 apiece, putting him in direct competition with Francis, who had humiliated him when he had asked, and received, the right to ban Evans from his set. Francis said it was a question of creative freedom. Evans, to the end of his days, said Francis just wanted to hog the acclaim to himself.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey stood awkwardly side by side in their tuxedos.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s your night,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo, Francis, it\u2019s yours,\u201d Evans answered.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey hated each other\u2019s guts.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tUnfriendly telegrams from 1983 attesting to the bad blood between Evans and Coppola over credit for The Godfather.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFREDERIC J. BROWN\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tRobert De Niro won the first award of the evening \u2014 best supporting actor, for his portrayal of the young Vito Corleone. Francis took the stage to accept it on the actor\u2019s behalf. In his seat, Evans smiled politely. Halfway through the night, Francis\u2019 father accepted his statuette for best score, shared with Rota, soon followed by Dean Tavoularis, winner for best art direction. Entering the final stretch, The Godfather Part II <\/em>had collected three awards; Chinatown,<\/em> none. Goldie Hawn and filmmaker Robert Wise took to the stage and announced Francis as the winner for best director. Then writer James Michener immedia<\/a>tely called Francis\u2019 name again, alongside Mario Puzo\u2019s, as winner for best adapted screenplay. Robert Towne, who had written Chinatown<\/em>, collected the award for best original screenplay. Jack Nicholson, star of Polanski\u2019s film, and Al Pacino, star of Coppola\u2019s, split the vote for best actor and lost to Art Carney, winner for the minor dramedy Harry and Tonto<\/em>. Scorsese was onstage next, accepting the best actress statuette on behalf of Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tCoppola on the set of The Godfather,<\/em> on the bed in which film producer Jack Woltz finds a severed horse head.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAll that was left was best picture. Evans still held out hope. His good friend Warren Beatty, who had never presented a prize at the event before, had accepted to hand out the final statuette, in the certainty his pal Evans would be the winner. Beatty was as well-connected as anyone. He was never wrong. Smiling, Beatty walked up to the podium and opened his envelope.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrancis Ford Coppola,\u201d he said, \u201cThe Godfather Part II.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n

\n\tEvans, stony-faced, didn\u2019t applaud.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrancis hopped to the stage and motioned to his co-producers, Fred Roos and Gray Frederickson, to give their speeches first. Then Francis took his turn. \u201cThank you again,\u201d he said. \u201cWe tried to make a film that would be a really good film, and, uh, and thank you very much.\u201d He burst into a huge, incredulous smile and shook the golden statuette by the side of his head. \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the show, he made sure to find Evans. \u201cI\u2019ve lost all the joy of winning,\u201d Francis told the man who had, technically, greenlit his movie. He set his face into a disingenuously pained expression and apologized for \u201cforgetting\u201d to mention Evans in his speech. And then he walked away, his three gleaming Oscars clutched tightly in his large hands.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tEvans, who as Paramount studio head had championed Coppola, had become his rival by 1975, when Chinatown<\/em> (which Evans produced) lost best picture to Godfather Part II.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tFrom The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg \u2014 and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema<\/em>, by Paul Fischer. Copyright \u00a9 2026 by the author and reprinted with permission of Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan Publishing Group LLC.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the March 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Godfather shot in New York from late March to early July. From virtually the first week, director Francis Ford Coppola feared he\u2019d lose his job. Paramount expected a cheap little crime picture, just the kind of job Francis couldn\u2019t bring himself to perform. The studio hovered over him. They hadn\u2019t liked his cast, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":716413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-562765819-SPLASH-2026.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[5519,17209,73817,25023,161070,64102],"class_list":["post-716412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-awards","tag-books","tag-francis-ford-coppola","tag-oscars","tag-robert-evans","tag-the-godfather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}