Francis Ford Coppola with his Academy Award in 1972
Stories about Francis Ford Coppola nearly being fired from the film are too numerous to mention. After he co-wrote the screenplay, Coppola went 10 rounds with the studio executives over nearly every casting decision. Then after filming started, the studio execs saw the scene in the olive oil company and were unhappy. Just a few weeks into filming, some of Coppola’s friends told him it looked like he would be fired. Knowing that movie companies rarely fire directors midweek, Coppola took advantage of what he thought could be his last few days. In his own act of godfather-like power, Coppola fired the assistant director and others he considered traitors in his midst. Then he reshot the scenes that had made the execs unhappy. It also didn’t hurt that around that time, Coppola won an Oscar for writing Patton. “I think I just squeaked by,” Coppola said. “I survived.”