Francis Ford Coppola initially wanted Martin Scorsese to direct ‘Godfather II’
It’s a debate that will wage for eternity: which is the best gangster film out of The Godfather, The Godfather II or Goodfellas? The answer tells you a lot about a person. However, one thing that isn’t up for debate is that the directors behind them, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, clearly know their way around a tale from the darker side of life.
As it happens, their kinship was once set to materialise in an even more literal sense as Coppola wanted Scorsese to direct the follow-up to his 1972 mafia triumph. Scorsese had just finished his first feature, Boxcar Bartha, when Coppola’s gambit was sweeping up accolades. He’d soon prise his own praise from the critics with the release of Mean Streets in 1973—resplendent with sequences shot in the same St Patrick’s Old Cathedral where iconic Godfather scenes were filmed.
This grisly masterpiece placed Scorsese firmly on the radar of his fellow filmmakers, and Coppola wanted to take his admiration a step further. He had already helped to fund Mean Streets after being impressed by Scorsese’s shorts. And after the arduous task of getting the first epic over the line, Coppola wanted to slink back into a producer role and let someone else take the reins for the sequel. His suggestion to executives was Scorsese. As we all know, they rejected the little maestro, so Coppola begrudgingly had to step back into the hot seat.
Part of his reasoning was to give Scorsese a helpful leg-up in the industry, but he also had his own selfish reasons too. Directing The Godfather had been such a hellfire that he was riddled with fear about setting foot in the flames once more. Furthermore, it instilled in him a desire to never work with meddling producers ever again, so he figured he’d afford Scorsese the liberty of having to deal with a fellow filmmaker and ease the burden.
The executives simply weren’t having it. So, after the struggles of the first film, Coppola didn’t want to just hand over his project to anyone these loathed bigwigs wanted to pick, so he begrudgingly signed up to direct once again. As it happens, it probably worked out for everyone for the best.
Scorsese definitely seems to think so. The Goodfellas director revealed that his top pick in Coppola’s cannon was the sequel to The Godfather which was equally acclaimed. While describing it, he wrote: “Constructed like a symphony and directed by a master as a great conductor directs his orchestra, it reaches its highest points of lyricism, for me, in The Godfather, Part II—my favourite of Francis Ford Coppola’s pictures.”
