As ludicrous as it sounds, directing The Godfather, based on the novel by Mario Puzo, was not a creatively inspiring prospect for Coppola, who found its content to be "sleazy." He didn't want to direct the film for Paramount,

Coppola, the director of all-timers including "The Godfather' and 'Apocalypse Now,' put $120 million of his own money into the ambitious oddity of a project.

Francis Ford Coppola waged war with studio heads throughout the making of “The Godfather.” Production on his 1979 Vietnam War epic, “Apocalypse Now,” was so troubled — there was a typhoon and a near-fatal heart attack — that it was chronicled in a documentary.