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The ‘Godfather House’ for sale: Make ‘em an offer they can’t refuse
11.13.2014
09:28 am
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The home made famous in Francis Ford Coppola’s movie The Godfather as the country retreat of the fictional Corleone family is up for sale. This “beautiful English Tudor” house offers a “chic but classy interior with 5 bedrooms, 7 NAT stone bathrooms and 6,248 square feet on a sprawling 24,000 square foot grounds” all for the asking price of $2,895,000.

Though the interior of this Staten Island home was not used in the film, fans of The Godfather will recognise its exterior which and part of the lawn, which was used as a backdrop when Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone celebrated the wedding of his daughter Connie, played by Talia Shire.

The house was built in 1930 was home to the Norton family for six decades, who first put the house up for sale in 2010. It was then renovated and is now back on the market through the New Dorp-based Connie Profaci Realty. Estate agent Joseph R Profaci told the Staten Island Advance:

“The current owners have done an amazing job renovating the home, including a first-floor office they remodeled to try to make look like the office in the ‘Godfather’ movie,” he said, noting the current owner bought the home in March 2012.

“The house has sprawling grounds that make you feel like you’re on the English countryside, with big, old trees, a nice yard and a pool… It’s fantastic,” he added.

The house was chosen as the Corleone home for Coppola’s movie after being suggested by actor and Staten Island-native Gianni Russo, who played the Godfather’s son-in-law Carlo Rizzi. In the spring of 1971, cast and crew arrived at the Longfellow Avenue home for a full-on two month’s of filming. The house was converted into the estate of Don Corleone and “surrounded by a fake brick wall and wrought-iron gate, turning the street leading up to the house into part of a sprawling well-guarded retreat.”

If you want to make an offer that can’t be refused then check details here....horse’s head is optional.
 
 
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More of the ‘Godafther’ house, after the jump….
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.13.2014
09:28 am
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Francis Ford Coppola’s original cast list for ‘The Godfather’

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Francis Ford Coppola was not the first choice to direct The Godfather, Paramount Studios wanted Sergio Leone, but he turned it down to concentrate on his own gangster movie Once Upon A Time in America. Next up was Peter Bogdanovich but he also knocked it back as he was working on What’s Up, Doc?. Coppola was eventually approached by producer Robert Evans, who wanted an Italian-American to direct the film.

As Coppola later recalled in an interview:

The Godfather was a very unappreciated movie when we were making it. They were very unhappy with it. They didn’t like the cast. They didn’t like the way I was shooting it. I was always on the verge of getting fired. So it was an extremely nightmarish experience. I had two little kids, and the third one was born during that. We lived in a little apartment, and I was basically frightened that they didn’t like it. They had as much as said that, so when it was all over I wasn’t at all confident that it was going to be successful, and that I’d ever get another job.

 
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Coppola was considered a risk. He had made five movies, only one of which was a hit. He was also in debt to Warner Brothers from an overspend while producing THX 1138.

Paramount were still skeptical about Coppola’s ability and kept a standby director ready to replace him. The first argument between director and studio came over casting. Coppola had drawn up his own list of possible contenders, which the studio was also set against, in particular they did not like Coppola’s suggestion of Marlon Brando or Laurence Olivier for Vito Corleone.
 
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Coppola wanted the world’s greatest actors for the main role, but the studio didn’t want Brando because he had a bad reputation for delaying film productions; while Olivier was supposedly too ill to film and turned the offer down.

Who the studio wanted was Ernest Borgnine, as he had the mix of rough-and-ready, and seemed like the kind of “family man” an audience would identify with.
 
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For Michael Corleone, Coppola wanted (then mainly unknown) Al Pacino, but the studio wanted a name, a hit name like Robert Redford or Ryan O’Neal.

Michael was a good, strong role, and it attracted Martin Sheen, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman and James Caan to audition for the role, but Coppola threatened to quit unless Pacino was given it. The studio eventually conceded on the agreement that James Caan was cast as Sonny Corleone.

Again the lure of box office names led to considering Paul Newman and Steve McQueen for the role of lawyer Tom Hagen, but that eventually went to Robert Duvall.
 
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Other stars who went up for roles include Anthony Perkins who auditioned for Sonny, while Mia Farrow auditioned for Kay. Meanwhile, Robert De Niro tried out for Michael, Sonny, Carlo, and Paulie. He eventually played the young Vito in The Godfather Part II.

This is Coppola’s original cast list, which contains many of the names who eventually appeared in the film.
 
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Via Retronaut, FuckyeahDonCorleone and Julia Segal

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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06.20.2014
03:38 pm
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Francis Ford Coppola’s potential cast list for ‘The Godfather’
01.09.2013
01:26 pm
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Laurence Olivier as Don Corleone might have been interesting.

Click here to see larger image

Below, Robert De Niro’s audition tape for the role of “Sonny”:

 
Via reddit

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.09.2013
01:26 pm
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‘The Godfather’: Robert De Niro’s audition tape for the role of ‘Sonny’
01.30.2012
03:03 pm
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As you all know, the role for “Sonny Corleone” went to James Caan. I think Robert De Niro might have made a better “Sonny” IMHO. At least he’s part Italian.
 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Robert De Niro’s real taxicab driver’s license from 1975
 

 
(via Cynical-C)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.30.2012
03:03 pm
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