Martin Scorsese was offered to direct The Godfather II by Francis Ford Coppola, but he rejected it: ‘I was more street-level’
In fact, it was Francis Ford Coppola who had offered Scorsese to direct The Godfather 2. Speaking to Deadline, the director said, “I don’t think I could have made a film on that level at that time in my life, and who I was at that time. To make a film as elegant and masterful and as historically important as Godfather II, I don’t think… Now, I would’ve made something interesting, but his (Coppola’s) maturity was already there. I still had this kind of edgy thing, the wild kid running around.”
“I didn’t find myself that comfortable with depicting higher-level underworld figures. I was more street-level. There were higher-level guys in the street. I could do that. I did it in Goodfellas particularly. That’s where I grew up. What I saw around me wasn’t guys in a boardroom or sitting around a big table talking. That took another artistic level that Francis had at that point. He didn’t come from that world, the world that I came from. The story of Godfather II is more like Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. It’s wonderful art,” Scorsese added.
When asked why he did not direct Schindler’s List, Martin Scorsese said he had even co-written the screenplay of the movie and was about to direct it, but his reservations regarding the politics of the movie held him back from doing so.
“For Schindler’s List, I hired Steve Zaillian, and Steve and I worked on the script. I was about to direct it. But I had reservations at a certain point. Don’t forget, this is 1990, I’d say. I did The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. The whole point of that movie was to start a dialogue about something which is still important to me, which is the nature — the true nature — of love, which could be god, could be Jesus. I’m not being culturally ambivalent here, it’s what’s in us. Is god in us? I really am that way; I can’t help it. I like to explore that. I wanted a dialogue on that. But I didn’t know about all that yet. So, I did Last Temptation, I did it a certain way, and Schindler’s List was scuttled by its reception. I did the best I could,” the director signed off.
Martin Scorsese is now looking forward to the release of his upcoming movie Killers of the Flower Moon, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
