A Gift That Keeps on Giving
Hollywood loves a great script and a marvelous cast. Bring in the stars: De Niro, Pacino, Keaton, Sarandon, DiCaprio, Phoenix, McDormand, Streep, or Roberts.
What Hollywood likes more is a sequel. A dynasty. The Godfather is a dynasty. A threepeat.
We all thought the Godfather was over in the nineties. The orange dropping and Pacino doubling over on his chair in Sicily put a period at the end of the last sentence of a wonderful series. There could have been a glimmer of hope with Andy Garcia. However, Francis Ford Coppola earned his halo and lost interest. He must have been tired - trying to get out. After all, this is not Star Wars - a gift that keeps on giving with a story that keeps repeating. The Godfather series is neither a Marvel comic sprouting new characters and story lines every week.
So we all thought that was it for the Corleone family.
Not so fast, said Paramount. There is more water to be squeezed from this stone. How about a prequel? Is there a side story? And thus, The Offer was born.
The Offer tells the story of the making of the Godfather. It is the story of Al Ruddy, Bob Evans, Mario Puzzo, and Francis Ford Coppola, with - of course - a mafia subplot. It is addictive, especially if you are Godfather fascionado. Even more, don’t watch it if you have not watched the Godfather. There are plenty of references to scenes in the movie - all which will be lost on you. I am eight episodes into the series and have to restrain myself to finish the rest in one sitting. My only hope is that it culminates with the release of the first Godfather movie, and not some drawn out series.
The cast is stellar. Miles Teller is amazing and much more convincing than Goose-Minor in Top Gun Maverick. Juno Temple continues her streak and brand as a female badass. Matthew Goode is quite convincing and got me interested to learn more about Bob Evans.
The Offer is simply … an offer you can not refuse.