Why Paramount Did Not Refuse ‘The Offer’ of Series About Making of ‘The Godfather’
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business EditorFrom the day Nicole Clemens took the reins of Paramount Television Studios in 2018, she fielded calls about whether “The Godfather” was available for development as a TV series.The answer was always no. “The Godfather” — Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece that begat 1974’s “The Godfather: Part II” and 1990’s “The Godfather: Part III” — is among the most valuable assets in the Paramount Pictures vault.Clemens couldn’t help thinking about all of those inquiries a year later when she took a general meeting with nonagenarian producer Albert S.
Ruddy, whose quirky résumé ranges from “The Godfather” to “Hogan’s Heroes” to “Walker, Texas Ranger.” As he regaled her with tales of his transformation in the late 1960s from a computer programmer for Rand Corp.
to Hollywood producer, she began to think that Ruddy’s story of breaking in as an outsider could be the POV for a series about the making of “The Godfather.” That concept became the 10-episode limited series “The Offer,” which bows April 28 on Paramount+. “I thought we had this moment to do an event series that would honor the ‘Godfather’ legacy but not walk into the challenge of continuing it,” Clemens says. “You don’t want to be the person that messes up ‘The Godfather.’”Clemens enlisted novelist and screenwriter Michael Tolkin to the world of the series.
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