The behind-the-scenes story of the making of The Godfather, fifty years after the classic film’s original release.
The story of how The Godfather was made is as dramatic, operatic, and entertaining as the film itself. Over the years, many versions of various aspects of the movie’s fiery creation have been told—sometimes conflicting, but always compelling. Mark Seal sifts through the evidence, has extensive new conversations with director Francis Ford Coppola and several heretofore silent sources, and complements them with colorful interviews with key players including actors Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, and others for irresistible insights into how the movie whose success some initially doubted roared to glory.
This title will be released on October 19, 2021.
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Latest Reviews
“Combining extensive research with insightful new interviews, this chronicle of The Godfather could be the definitive look at the making of an American classic.”
— Library Journal, starred review
“If you love The Godfather, or American movies, or American gangsters, or just a truly great read, Mark Seal’s Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli is the book for you. It’s the rollicking inside story behind the making of what may be America’s greatest movie – I couldn’t put it down.”
— Bryan Burrough, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Barbarians at the Gate and Forget the Alamo
“Rollicking and entertaining, Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli lays bare not only the massive executive egos at war during The Godfather’s journey to the screen, and the artistic struggles of the young and despairing Francis Coppola who thought he had a failure on his hands, but also the fascinating tales of how the mob muscled in and protected its production. Mark Seal has chronicled a classic cinematic history that conjures all the alchemy of The Godfather’s magic.”
— Maureen Orth, international bestselling author of Vulgar Favors: The Hunt for Andrew Cunanan, the Man Who Killed Gianni Versace
“A revealing and entertaining look at the behind-the-scenes machinations of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic film. Masterpiece yields masterpiece with this exuberant page-turner.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Mark Seal’s seductive book about the making of The Godfather – often with help of the men it was about – could be a movie itself. He couldn’t have gotten any closer and lived to type about it.”
— Nicholas Pileggi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wise Guy: Life in a Mafia Family and Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas
“As gloriously Homeric and entertaining as The Godfather itself. I learned something new on almost every page.”
— Graydon Carter, editor, Air Mail
“Absorbing and unforgettable. As sweeping and vivid as The Godfather itself, Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli captures moviemaking at its most tumultuous. Mark Seal is a master storyteller, bringing to life the embattled young director Coppola, the unpredictable Brando, and the upstart Pacino with made-for-Hollywood panache.”
— Robert Draper, New York Times bestselling author of
To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took
America into Iraq
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“Zesty biography of wildlife documentarian and conservationist Joan Root Transports readers into the midst of an incandescent, doomed life.”
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About Mark Seal
Veteran author and journalist Mark Seal has been a Vanity Fair contributing editor since 2003, covering stories as varied as the Bernie Madoff scandal, Ghislaine Maxwell, Tiger Woods, the fall of Olympian Oscar Pistorius, the making of classic films such as Pulp Fiction, and many more.