'The Offer' Episode 6: Was Al Ruddy fired from 'The Godfather' after mafia deal?
Paramount+’s limited series 'The Offer' tells the behind-the-scenes story of how classic film 'The Godfather' made it to the big screen from the perspective of producer Al Ruddy (Miles Teller).
In earlier episodes, we saw how Al Ruddy and Robert Evans (Matthew Goode), the head of Paramount Pictures, used to receive death threats from the mafia as they were not in favor of ‘The Godfather’ being made into a movie. Eventually, Ruddy met privately with Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi), the head of Italian American Civil Rights League, and struck a deal: Ruddy would remove all mentions of the words 'mafia' from the script and he would give jobs and parts in the film to League members. Moreover, Paramount would also donate the proceeds from the premier to the League. However after Ruddy’s deal with Colombo became public, Ruddy was fired from the movie.
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Episode 6, 'A Stand Up Guy', begins with a press conference where Joe Colombo invites Al Ruddy to the stage to show Gulf and Western’s support for the Italian American Civil Rights League. Joe also informs the public about his deal with Ruddy in regards to 'The Godfather'. When Ruddy’s deal with Colombo becomes public, he is put in a compromising position and this leads to a crisis.
It was bad press for Paramount, especially because Charlie Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman) was trying to sell Paramount, as they were riding high on the success of their last venture, 'Love Story'. Unfortunately, when Ruddy’s connection to the mafia became public, it ruined the image of the production house. As a result, no one wanted to negotiate any deals with Paramount.
Charlie, who was extremely angry with the recent developments, fired Al Ruddy. He was quite done with 'The Godfather' and he was not ready to deal with another issue that would hamper the image of the company.
When Joseph Colombo comes to know about Al Ruddy’s termination, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He halts the production of 'The Godfather' and doesn’t allow them to film unless Ruddy is taken back. A frantic Francis Coppola (Dan Fogler) calls Charlie to bring Ruddy back on board. Colombo and the League even organize the unions and the Italian American community to get Ruddy reinstated. It worked, and Ruddy was put back on the film.
Charlie brings Ruddy back on board and tells him that he will give him one last chance, but in reality, he just wants to rebuild the crumbling reputation of Paramount. With Ruddy back on the sets, the shooting starts, and everything is back on track.
The new episode of 'The Offer' is available on Paramount+.
