As we noted in a feature in 2020, titled, “Welcome The New Trend Of ‘Prestige IP’: Studios Are Mining Their Vaults To Keep Franchises Going,” Hollywood is ravenous to make sure all their intellectual property is not sitting idling. Of course, there’s the endless cycle of storytelling regarding lucrative superhero, sci-fi, and fantasy properties. Still, as that feature suggests, studios have now started mining what we call “Prestige IP.” The first of this new trend, with many more in development and in the works in “The Offer,” a Paramount+ series based on making “The Godfather.” I.e., Paramount owns the rights to the still-lucrative ‘Godfather’ saga and has created a new way to continue telling ‘Godfather’ stories: by telling the tale of the legendary behind-the-scenes battle to make the movie which contains real-life characters like director Francis Ford Coppola, superproducer Robert Evans, producer Albert S. Ruddy, and then-Paramount studios chief Charles Bluhdorn on top of the entire superstar cast.
But this is a behind-the-scenes look at “The Godfather” in mini-series form, so the big stars cast are all these aforementioned players. Top of the billing is Miles Teller as the lesser-known producer Albert S. Ruddy, Matthew Goode plays the more notorious, playboy-ish producer Robert Evans and Francis Ford Coppola is played by Dan Fogler. There’s more Giovanni Ribisi stars as Joe Colombo, boss of the Colombo crime family and head of the Italian-American Civil Rights League that helped the movie get made, Colin Hanks as Barry Lapidus, a Gulf & Western executive with a lot of power over Paramount Pictures, Juno Temple as Bettye McCartt, assistant to The Godfather producer Al Ruddy, and Burn Gorman as the aforementioned Bluhdorn, the colorful head of Paramount at the time who was said to be incredibly tight-fisted and didn’t really understand or care about movies.
And yeah, that’s not even including the rest of the cast, those that play Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, and more. However, as the first look photos of “The Offer” via Vanity Fair show, this limited series is all about the makers of the film and the behind-the-scenes struggle Coppola had in getting it made at all.
The show’s first episodes are directed by “Rocketman” filmmaker Dexter Fletcher, and the series takes its name from the iconic ‘Godfather’ line, given by the head of the Corleone family (Brando) “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” “The Offer” was created by Michael Tolkin, known for 1991’s “The Rapture” and the recent prison mini-series “Escape at Dannemora.”
How difficult was making ‘The Godfather’? Tokin interviewed Ruddy, the lead producer played by Teller, for five days straight. One of the main sentiments he gave was, “‘Every day of making The Godfather was the worst day in my life,’ and that told me we had a show,” Tolkin says. “For every character in the film, getting it made or stopping it from being made was at the core of their actions, and it was a matter of life and death to them. So that’s not a gangster story, that’s a human story. That’s what gave the book and the movie so much power. Everyone is fighting for their existence.”
Sounds pretty damn appealing, frankly. “The Offer” is set to premiere on April 28, 2022, on Paramount+, and maybe this Prestige IP thing isn’t as cynical as it sounds when you can find a great story behind an iconic film. Check out the first look images below and some fun context from YouTube with many great stories.
