Eddie Murphy’s audacious pitch to become the new face of ‘The Godfather’: “Everybody loved it”
There comes a time in every comedy actor’s life when they decide to try their hand at drama. It’s become something of a rite of passage for anyone who makes their name splitting audiences at the side, but Eddie Murphy decided to aim higher than anyone else when he first cast his eyes on serious cinema.
From Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show and Adam Sandler’s Punch-Drunk Love to Will Ferrell’s Stranger Than Fiction and Robin Williams’ The World According to Garp, history has shown that comedic performers regularly double as seriously talented dramatists, and Murphy was confident he could make the jump.
At the time, he was arguably the single biggest star in the industry and undoubtedly its biggest draw, having spent the formative years of his career experiencing almost nothing but success through the likes of 48 Hrs, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, and Coming to America. Still, The Godfather?
Francis Ford Coppola directed one of the greatest and most influential movies of all time with his 1972 masterpiece, and he somehow conspired to make lightning strike twice when its 1974 sequel also became known as one of the greatest and most influential movies of all time.
The third time wasn’t quite the charm, with the filmmaker admitting his heart was never really in Part III and the main reason he made it was because he needed the money, but there’s no shame in being the weakest entry in a trilogy when the other two comfortably rank among celluloid’s finest achievements.
Where does Murphy fit in? In the late 1980s, he was looking to diversify away from the fast-talking and wisecracking motormouths that launched him to the top of the A-list, so he decided to go straight to the three most important sources and suggest himself as the latest addition to the Corleone saga.
“I pitched a story to Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, and Al Pacino,” he told Playboy in 1990. “Everybody loved it, and then Pacino said, ‘You know something? ‘Everybody loves it’ means it’ll never happen.'” He wasn’t only thinking of himself, though, and his idea also included a role for another megastar with whom he hadn’t always been on the best of terms.
“My idea was for me, Stallone, and Pacino to be in it together,” he continued. “Paramount thought it would be too expensive to do it; it would have cost $80million. So before we could even shoot a roll of film, we’d be $40 or $50m below the line.”
Reports emerging during pre-production suggested that Thomas Lee Wright, one of the many scribes tasked with trying to crack the story before Coppola and Puzo ultimately penned the script for The Godfather Part III, had written a plum role for Murphy inspired by the real-life gangster Nicky Barnes.
Obviously, it never came to fruition, but it’s fascinating to think about. It might have been a Godfather movie, but based on his status as Hollywood’s hottest act at the time, Murphy would have been positioned as the focal point and drawing card to lure modern audiences into the theatre who otherwise may not have been interested in first new instalment in over a decade and a half.
