Don’t miss Mark Seal’s wonderful Vanity Fair piece on the making — and particularly the war over casting — of The Godfather:

With The Godfather, the era of the $100 million blockbuster had begun, and its creator was the last to know.

“I had been so conditioned to think the film was bad—too dark, too long, too boring—that I didn’t think it would have any success,” says Francis Ford Coppola.

“In fact, the reason I took the job to write [a screenplay for the 1974 remake of] The Great Gatsby was because I had no money and three kids and was sure I’d need the money. I heard about the success of The Godfather from my wife, who called me while I was writing Gatsby. I wasn’t even there."

"Masterpiece, ha! I was not even confident it would be a mild success.”