Barry Levinson is set to helm a movie chronicling the production of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, with Oscar Isaac attached to play the legendary director himself, Deadline reports.
The film, titled Francis and The Godfather, is well on its way to being stacked with stars, as Jake Gyllenhaal is attached to play Robert Evans, the iconic former head of Paramount Pictures and a key producer on The Godfather. The drama, which is based on a script by Andrew Farotte and which Levinson himself redeveloped, will be a sprawling deep dive into the notoriously troubled production of what is arguably the greatest films ever made.
Despite its place in the pantheon of American cinema, Coppola was only in his early 30s when he made it, and had the cards stacked against him from the very start. "Out of the madness of production, and against all odds, a classic film happened," Levinson said of The Godfather. No one's been cast to play the actors who starred in the original film, which included Al Pacino, James Caan, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton among others. But when that juicy casting news eventually does get announced, you'll be the first to know.
News of Levinson's film comes shortly after ViacomCBS announced plans for a TV series entitled The Offer, which is also based on the production of The Godfather from the perspective of prodcuer Al Ruddy. There has been no date set for either the TV series or the movie.
