Actor Nicolas Cage, born Nicolas Coppola, chose a new last name to avoid comparisons to his uncle, director Francis Ford Coppola, who gave him his big break in the movie Peggy Sue Got Married.

There was disagreement between Paramount and Coppola on the issue of casting ; Coppola stuck to his plan of casting Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, though Paramount wanted either Ernest Borgnine or Danny Thomas.

At one point, Coppola was told by the then-president of Paramount that " Marlon Brando will never appear in this motion picture ".

After pleading with the executives, Coppola was allowed to cast Brando only if he appeared in the film for much less salary than his previous films, perform a screen-test, and put up a bond saying that he would not cause a delay in the production ( as he had done on previous film sets ).

The production of the film was plagued by numerous problems, including typhoons, nervous breakdowns, the firing of Harvey Keitel, Martin Sheen's heart attack, extras from the Philippine military leaving in the middle of scenes to go fight rebels, and an unprepared Brando with a bloated appearance ( which Coppola attempted to hide by shooting him in the shadows ).

A biopic based on the life of Preston Tucker and his attempt to produce and market the Tucker ' 48, Coppola had originally conceived the project as a musical with Marlon Brando after the release of The Godfather Part II.

Director Francis Ford Coppola convinced Brando to submit to a " make-up " test, in which Brando did his own makeup ( he used cotton balls to simulate the puffed-cheek look ).

Thomas declined the role and urged the studio to cast Brando at the behest of Coppola and others who had witnessed the screen test.

In 1972, a film adaptation of the novel was released, starring Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

* Marlon Brando initially agreed to return for the birthday flashback sequence, but the actor, feeling mistreated by the board at Paramount, failed to show up for the single day's shooting ; Coppola rewrote the scene that same day.

Francis Ford Coppola is making the film for which he will always be remembered — an adaptation of Dracula starring Marlon Brando as Dracula and Martin Sheen as Jonathan Harker.

Francis Ford Coppola ’ s Apocalypse Now ( 1979 ) went so far as to not feature the title at all, except briefly as graffiti in Colonel Kurtz ’ ( Brando ) compound.

In 1973, Coppola began development of a film based on the life of Tucker, originally with Marlon Brando in the lead role.

The same year, she landed the role of Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone in American motion picture The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan and Diane Keaton.

While on location in Ireland for The Young Racers in 1963, Corman, ever alert for an opportunity to produce a decent movie on a shoestring budget, persuaded Coppola to make a low-budget horror movie with funds left over from that movie.

Coppola successfully managed to get Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire to return to the franchise, but Robert Duvall refused to reprise his role as Tom Hagen over salary disagreements.

However, in mid-1991 Coppola and Warner came to disagreement over the compensation to be paid to Coppola for his directing services on Pinocchio.

Studio executives there disliked the film, and insisted that Coppola turn over the negative to an in-house Warners editor, who cut approximately 4 minutes of the film prior to release.

Unlike with the first film, Coppola was given near-complete control over production.

However, his reputation was restored over the years, and by the time of his death, he and Pressburger were recognised as one of the foremost film partnerships of all time-and cited as a key influence by many noted filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.

In 1990, Eleanor Coppola turned her material over to two young filmmakers George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr who then shot new interviews with the original cast and crew and intercut them with her existing material.

Katsu left the production, however, before the first day of shooting was over ; in an interview for the Criterion Collection DVD, executive producer Coppola states that Katsu angered Kurosawa by arriving with his own camera crew to record Kurosawa's filmmaking methods.

In the opening sketch of an episode hosted by George Wendt, the cast is informed that NBC is turning the show over to respected director Francis Ford Coppola, in a bid for greater artistic merit.

In 1979, director Francis Ford Coppola, in the grip of clinical manic depression and anxiety over his incomplete opus Apocalypse Now, and while purportedly under the influence of his girlfriend, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, proposed making a " ten-hour film version of Goethe's Elective Affinities, in 3D ".

Eventually Nathaniel determines to propose to Olimpia, but when he arrives at her rooms he finds an argument in progress between Spalanzani and Coppola, who are fighting over the body of Olimpia and arguing over who made the eyes and who made the clockwork.

The young director Francis Ford Coppola had no prior experience with musical films, and proceeded to ride roughshod over Astaire and Pan's plans for the film's dance routines, reintroducing the style of dancing camera of the early 1930s which Astaire had done so much to banish from the Hollywood musical.

: Many Italian Americans actors became well known in movies and TV, such as: Don Ameche, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anne Bancroft ( Anna Italiano ), Ernest Borgnine ( Ermes Borgnino ), Robert Alda, Alan Alda, Lou Costello, Frank Langella, Frankie Avalon ( Avallone ), Annette Funicello, James Darren ( Ercolani ), Jimmy Durante, Anthony Franciosa, Sal Mineo, Ben Gazzara, Harry Guardino, Aldo Ray ( DaRe ), Richard Conte, Bernadette Peters ( Lazzara ), Connie Stevens ( Concetta Ingoglia ), Richard Crenna, Dom DeLuise, Armand Assante, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Joe Mantegna, John Travolta, Tony Danza, Alyssa Milano, Paul Sorvino, Mira Sorvino, Al Pacino, Liza Minnelli, Rene Russo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Nicolas Cage ( Coppola ), Stanley Tucci, Marissa Tomei, John Turturro and Sylvester Stallone.

According to Robert Evans, head of Paramount Pictures at the time, Coppola also did not initially want to direct the film because he feared it would glorify the Mafia and violence, and thus reflect poorly on his Sicilian and Italian heritage ; on the other hand, Evans specifically wanted an Italian-American to direct the film because his research had shown that previous films about the Mafia that were directed by non-Italians had fared dismally at the box office, and he wanted to, in his own words, " smell the spaghetti ".

It went on to win multiple awards, including Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Coppola.

George Lucas commented on the film after its five-hour-long preview, telling Coppola: " You have two films.

In the director's commentary on the DVD edition of the film ( released in 2002 ), Coppola states that this film was the first major motion picture to use " Part II " in its title.

When Williams was offered the screenplay for Jack he said he would only agree to do it if Coppola agreed to sign on as director.

The last film Coppola directed in the 90s, The Rainmaker was based on the 1995 novel of the same name by John Grisham.

Warner demanded that Coppola repay the $ 300, 000 they had loaned him for the Zoetrope studio, and insisted on cutting five minutes from the film.

The debt nearly closed Zoetrope, and forced Coppola to ( reluctantly ) focus on The Godfather.

In February 1963, Coppola married Eleanor Neil, whom he met on the set of Dementia 13.

George Lucas said that he based the Han Solo character in Star Wars on Coppola.

" The character of John, a career-driven photographer ( Giovanni Ribisi ) in Coppola's Lost In Translation ( 2003 ), was rumored to be based on Jonze, though Coppola has vehemently denied this.

In August 1980, Waits married Kathleen Brennan, a screenwriter, whom he had met while working on the set of the Francis Ford Coppola movie One from the Heart.

Lucas wrote the initial script draft himself based on his earlier short film, but Coppola and Lucas agreed it was unsatisfactory, and Murch assisted Lucas to write an improved, final draft.

Screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North wrote most of the film based on two biographies, General Bradley's A Soldier's Story and Ladislas Farago's Patton: Ordeal and Triumph.

Despite his reliance on homage to bygone cinema, Bogdanovich solidified his status as one of a new breed of A-list directors that included Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin, with whom he formed The Directors Company.