Francis Ford Coppola: Winery Godfather to MegaFlopolis, Part 1 - The Godfather (1972)

Today is the first of THREE PARTS (well, two main parts + a bonus companion "Vinterview"!)

In this episode we cover the Alpha of Coppola's career, THE GODFATHER (1972).

In PART TWO we'll cover the Omega, MEGALOPOLIS (2024). And then taste two well-aged Coppola wines and say which wine pairs best with which film.

Along the way, we'll also chronicle the rise and fall of Coppola's wine empire, from its humble beginnings in Napa, to it's almost dissolution in the early 90's, to its massive expansion to Sonoma and Oregon in the 2000's, to its sale in 2021 in order to finance his lifelong ambition - to film his 40-years-in-the-making Megalopolis. And then take stock of what still exists today.

Then in our companion Vinterview, we'll be interviewing one of the actresses from the Megalopolis movie! And whoever you think it might be - no, it's not her. (It's gonna be a wacky surprise.)

LINKS TO THINGS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

How Dracula (1992) Rescued Coppola's Winery - Our own article about how Coppola almost lost it all in the early 90's, only to have his Bram Stoker's Dracula film turn it all around. There would have been nothing to sell to finance Megalopolis if there had been no Dracula. 

What Went Wrong (Podcast) - Our fave movie podcast that has  2-part chronicle of how The Godfather was made, and it's the best version of this story out there in podcast form. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Winebid  - The site where we snagged our well-aged Niebaum-Coppola wines! One for $60 and the other for an astounding $25 (!!!) This is a treasure trove for wines if you look for stuff collectors don't care (too much) about.

Curated Wine Shop - The shop we drank the wines at, met the Megalopolis Production Designer in, and got connected to the actress we'll be interviewing later! If you live in LA, you gotta check this place out. We love them.

Chapters

• 4:32 This 3-Part Coppola Series
• 6:47 Two Well-Aged Coppola Wines (And How to Bid on Wine Online)
• 15:12 THE ALPHA of Coppola's Career: The Godfather (1972)
• 31:44 How Coppola's First Film Informed His Last Film
• 57:38 The Godfather's Winery Legacy
• 1:00:28 Coppola's Winery Empire 1980 - 2021

Transcript

0:05

Are you not entertained? Yes, Real good time! He's Dave, and I'm Dallas, and this is Ventertainment. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. This is entertainment. The wine and entertainment pairing podcast. Are you ready for this three parter? It's grown into a three parter somehow. Don't ask me how. But you know what? I'm not doing the proper introduction. Welcome back to another wine and entertainment pairing for your Vintertainment. This is, of course, the podcast where we delude ourselves into thinking you want to hear what we have to say about different pieces of pop culture and art. But we know for a fact that you need to hear what we have to say about wine, because man, wine is complicated. You think all you need to know is the name of a grape? But even more important than that is where was it grown? Then you still can't depend on any given flavor profile without knowing what kind of container was that wine aged in? Was there skin contact or no skin contact? Cold or warm fermentation, whole cluster or destemmed? What was the alcohol level? How long has it been in the bottle? Whew, well, okay, you don't actually need to know half of that, but you definitely need to know roughly half of that to know what you're getting inside any given bottle. So what better way? To get to know more about wine and about more wines and to hear one WCET level 3 certified wine professional and one normal person who puts up with him natter on about specific wine details, flavor profiles, and the stories behind them all couched in terms of how well they may or may not go with certain kinds of entertainment. And what better way to learn about the art of entertaining, storytelling, and world-building than to listen to a professional writer and world-builder and one normal person who puts up with him, Natteron, about mood, theme, artistic intention, and poetic notion, all couched in terms of how well they may or may not pair with specific wine. You get the most out of either when you have an adventurous spirit and an open mind, explore different corners of what an art form has to offer. Wine itself is an art form. It's history and culture in a glass. And in most cases, a winemaker's passion, just as entertainment is history, culture, and an artist's passion on a page, screen, or record, which is why they go so goddamn well together. Now. Please be sure to give this podcast a follow or subscribe and even better, leave a rating and or review on Spotify or Apple podcasts or whatever platform you're listening to this on, both the rating and a review. If you can be bothered with it, the more you do, the more the algorithm loves us and shows us to others who also listen to wine or entertainment podcasts. And that's how we grow. Also, man, tell friend or family member about this podcast if you think they'd enjoy it. send them to our podcast and to our Instagram, VentertainmentPod, Ventertainment P-O-D on the IG, and our home base of operations, which is Substack, which you can find at our glorified vanity URL, VentertainmentStudios.com. That will take you to a Substack page. Substack is where you'll find a directory of all our episodes, directories of all the wine and entertainment pairings broken down by category. bonus pairings not featured on this podcast, articles about the wine and entertainment industries. One of those articles actually we're going to reference quite a bit in this episode today because we covered Francis Ford Coppola's movie Dracula from 1992 and what that had to do with his winery empire. So we're gonna mention some of that in this episode today and then some of it is still, we're not deep diving into Dracula itself. That's not the movie we're covering today. So that article does deep dive a little more into Dracula, how it came about. how Coppola became the director on it. So go read that article for even more context and information. So you will find articles like that about the wine and entertainment industries, guest collabs with other wine and entertainment writers, interactive polls. If you enjoy this podcast whatsoever, you simply must go follow us on Substack at entertainmentstudios.com. It is the best place to get to know us better. Now, motherfuckers, today is part one. Guaranteed part one. We're gonna record it all in one go here. But I'm pretty sure what we're recording in one sitting today is going to be part one and part two because we wrote so much down in our notes. And that doesn't even include the freewheeling part of the discussion. So this is gonna be a part one and part two with a bonus companion part three where we interview someone that took part in the Megalopolis film. So all of that is gonna come one episode per week. starting with this episode this week. Now my guess is, we're recording this all as I speak, so my guess is part one is going to cover Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather, the movie that put him on the map, and then the winery empire that came from it. This is a wine and entertainment pairing show, so of course we're going to cover his wine empire and the story behind that. And then part two is going to cover what happened to that wine empire to make Megalopolis happen. And where that winery empire remains today, we're going to talk at length about Megalopolis. We have a lot to say about Megalopolis. So that's going to that deserves its own part. The Godfather and Megalopolis, they are the bookends of Francis Ford Coppola's career. Very likely. Maybe he does something else after Megalopolis. No one's sure about that, but likely nothing that big ever again. I think in terms of. Count old Francis out, he's got another one up his sleeve. We'll see. We'll see. But you know, The Godfather is the movie that gave him the cash to purchase his first vineyard estate that became his wine empire. And then he sold the biggest part of that wine empire to finance his 40 years in the making passion project Megalopolis. So likely the beginning and end of his film career and the beginning and somewhat end of his winery empire. It's certainly not an empire any longer, the winery part of it, but we'll let you know where it all rests today. Because there's a lot of confusion as to like, so what does he own? What does he not own? What part of his empire? When did what become what and what was called what? It's actually kind of confusing and we're going to tackle it all in these episodes. We will also, of course, talk at length about both movies. And then we got our hands on some well aged Coppola high end wines. That's all thanks to Dave and his tireless determination to skulk around the wine bid sites. Dave on this one. Yes. And you know what? It's funny. These wines do not pop up there very often. That's right. So I search for them all the time. Only two. I got these wines. I've probably been sitting on them for like a year or more at this point, waiting for this episode to come and for me and Dallas to be on the same coast in the same city so we could drink them together. And they in. probably over like a year and a half. These are the only two Coppola wines that really popped up on the bidding site. And one of them, No One Else Bid Against Me, that was awesome. But these are not his quote unquote diamond collection. They're not the Francis Ford Coppola winery, the one that has his namesake on it, which actually is a winery that came later in his winery empire. Those are the ones you can find at every supermarket. grocery store, every, like every, every Target, every big box store, every, everywhere, right? Those are the Pope Francis Ford Coppola wines, quote unquote, the diamond collection. The ones we got are his quote unquote, Engelnuck high end Napa wines, or as the winery was called in the years these two bottles were made, Nibam Coppola, which is now called Engelnuck ever since 2011. We'll cover the story behind that as well. Pinky promise. So. We tried these two wines over the weekend. A 2000 Cabernet Franc. That was the one no one else bit on because was a Cabernet Franc. No one gives a shit about it. No, I love that. I love that because it's so much better. It's the one that I actually want. It was the one that I was most gung-ho about. Nobody cared. And a 1998 quote unquote cask Cabernet Sauvignon. That one. some little motherfucker started bidding right at the 11th hour, like in the final minutes. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I got it back, but it only went up like 10 extra bucks, you know, before I got it, because it was so last minute. So there wasn't much of a bidding war. And you know, if you ever do wine bidding, guys, if you've never done eBay, if you've never learned this trick, do not, you have to remember to come back at the 11th hour. Do not bid. seven days out from the from the end of that auction, because then other people will just bid and it just raise it just drives the price up. Right. So just just look at it. Follow it. Track it. Whatever. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And if everyone then you'll see there'll be like 38 other people are tracking quote unquote like this wine. And you're like, OK, but you're all just kind of watching it. And let me tell you, 99 % of them will forget to come back and bid at the last minute. So the chances are if no one is bidding until that last minute, and look, if like one person places a bid, cool, come back at the 11th hour, decide what is reasonable for you, like maybe 10 bucks or something like maybe five bucks, see what happens. Place that one bid. And if the other person's maximum was way higher, it's like, nope, it's still theirs. You're like, all right, let it go, nevermind, know, kind of a thing. But decide how far you wanna go, because most of the time, When you place that bid, the person will only probably put their maximum one dollar above. Right. And so you're like you place that bid and it's like it goes up one dollar and then it's yours because you did it. So last minute, it's mean to quote unquote snipe a bid like that. But it's the way to get things for not outrageous sums of money. So word to the wise, don't bid until the last minute. Remember. Yeah, so these were both. We brought them to a local wine bar. They were both tremendous, holding up beautifully. And we will end this dub two-part episodes. We will mention which of these two wines pairs with which of these two movies and why. And we will also have some audio clips because we brought these bottles to a local wine shop here in LA, curated wine shop, shout out. Because you know, old wines, don't. really last beyond the first day of opening. Like the chances of them being fresher or better opening up even more on day two rather than oxidizing overly fast because of the age that's already on them, right? These were both over two decades already in age and the chances of them being better on day two, not high. So I'm like, let's and we can't drink two whole bottles in one sitting. We shouldn't. We shouldn't do it again. is what you're saying. We've done it! And also when you have a special wine like that, mean, they could have been bad, right? We don't know until you open them. So it's a risk. But at the same time, like, share them. That's what they're for. That's that's the joy of this thing. So we took them to that local wine shop. We're pretty friendly with them. And while we were sitting there talking, so one of the owners of curated wine shop is an ex production designer in the industry. And it turns out they did not know we were bringing this. We had never mentioned this to them before. think we'll talk. Nope, we just impromptu brought this and we were there. We brought we pulled them out. We told them what we were doing and why we were drinking them. We're like, yeah, we're prepping for this episode. We're to do the Godfather in Megalopolis. And Johnny, one of the owners, the ex production designer, was like, the production designer of Megalopolis is here tonight sitting at one of the other tables. And we were like, I'm sorry. Those were fully smacked in that moment, by the way. So this was Bradley Rubin, one of two production designers because they fired the first one halfway through filming. So Bradley was the one who had to come in the second half of filming, but Bradley was there and we brought him over and because you just, gotta love LA man. We actually called him over. He allowed us to do an impromptu recording on our phones. And we asked him some questions. So we will be tossing in some recorded moments from him at certain points in this podcast episode. This will all be in part two when we get to Megalopolis. Note there will be in these little audio clips much background noise. We were in a music playing in the background, other conversations going on around us, but it's still legible. And some of his answers were wonderfully eye-opening. So we absolutely had to include it. Even more, even more. One of the ladies who works at Curated. knew one of the actresses in the Megalopolis movie, You Gotta Love L.A., man. And we are now scheduled to interview her and her experience making this movie. So look for that companion episode to drop the week after part two of this episode. And I can guarantee you this, whoever you think we're talking about, no, it's not her. It's going to be an unexpected kind of interview. And a real side note here, Dave, just a testament to what we do here at Ventertainment. We go out of our way to bring you the best wine and the best entertainment professionals, even if those things happen haphazardly and in terms of Hollywood vernacular kismet. as we were out sitting at a table, as we do pontificating about nonsense, wine and entertainment, we found out that... One guy in the room was the guy I attributed my favorite moment in the entire Megalopolis film to. I said to myself months before, I want to meet this guy who came up with this imagery for this particular And you will have to mention what that is Dallas, because we didn't record that part. I was bummed. really wanted your reaction to that was was like, I mean, that Dallas said our gobs were fully smacked, but his gob like he actually like froze when this came out. He like he was speechless. I've rarely seen Dallas speechless in that way. So bear with us these next three weeks. This is going to be a lot, but it is we are very proud of everything we have coupled together. even if a lot of it was impromptu and out of the fucking blue. We are scrambling. Yes, we are. are scrambling to put it all together and it is it's coming together beautifully. We're really happy about this. Now. All that said, let's dig into it. We are going to start with the Godfather. We're probably going to talk less about this one than Megalopolis. Truly what there is to say about what is there to say about the Godfather that hasn't already been said, but. I can reveal that I personally watched The Godfather for the very first time just one month ago. I was born. And folks, I am not Gen Z or Gen Alpha or any shit like that. Like I was born in the decade The Godfather was released. this is this you are going to hear a rare viewpoint here, I believe a first time viewer in 2025. and not someone who's just like before his time or anything like that. mean, technically it's before my time by like, I don't know, six years or something like that. But it was like, in general, I should have seen this before now. Now I will say I have a memory. Long way back in the day of video rental stores, I had rented on VHS tape, this thing called Godfather part one and part two. And it was a four VHS tape set. And it was something weird where they had recut both part one and part two into a fully chronological order between the two of them. And I tried watching that back in the day. I remember renting the movies. I think I was way too young. I was either junior high or high school. I don't even remember. But it was I was too young. I was not interested. I was not into it. I was not paying attention. And I have zero memory. except of the fact that I did at one point rent it. I have zero memory of the movie itself. So for all intents and purposes, this was my first time watching it. Dallas, how about yourself? What's your background with Big Odd Pub? Let's see, well, as everyone knows, The Godfather, by all measure and account, is a seminal work. Its central themes of power and influence and legacy through the lens of a post-war New York family with deep old world ties is a tale that has come to define artistic filmmaking in the past 50 years. It launched the careers of dozens of famous names and ruined a few others. The film was a standard and almost required viewing for any 20th century cinema fan or... theater kid or artistic individual whatsoever. And in my childhood, my father was just that, cinema fan. And this film was a standard in our home. I saw The Godfather the first time sitting on the couch with my dad around age 11 or 12 or so and was hooked. It was gritty, urban, somehow pastoral. It was a complete vision. That was my takeaway at the time was it was a complete tale, if that makes sense. And it just rang true for me. And in reality, it's something that most parent guides might not recommend showing your 11 or 12 year old. But I saw it and it was amazing. Yeah, I'm actually mildly surprised because even when I rented it, I'm like, I was not old enough when I rented this. I'm like, this was R rated, right? Yeah, probably because it was the Godfather. Like my parents were probably like, sure, this is OK. You know, kind of a thing like, yeah, watch some watch. Get some culture. Damn it. Stop playing your video games, you know, and actually. But like if I wanted to get a horror movie or Robocop, they'd be like, no, you are not holding enough. Yeah, I was not allowed to watch R-rated movies. This was a family drama. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Yeah, and my dad was very good about exposing his kids to concepts that were perhaps a little intellectually or thematically out of reach for them but being kind of a guide for us to sort of be the translator and you know, give us context That's why I was watching his film so early and if I'm honest, it's a That relationship with my dad is at least partially to blame and this film for my rather expansive writing style. yeah, long history with the godfuck. Yeah, yeah. And you, what did you think? So was there any difference? How long had it been since you last saw it? man, it's... in its totality, probably close to a decade. Probably just a decade though. Interesting. Yeah Yeah, probably close to a decade. Completely different experiences, you know, from watching it the first time to watching it, you know, in the late 80s and early 90s and then watching it again, you know, maybe a decade ago, completely different experiences. I mean, plainly, can't say. I've only seen it once at this point. But I can say watching it this time in 2025 for the very first time, and I had always seen clips running around online and things like that. you knew the cast. You knew I'd seen plenty of Coppola since The Godfather. But I'd never seen any of The Godfather. It's like not part one, not part two, not part three. To this day, also, folks, I've never seen Apocalypse now. I know. These are all things I'm aiming to correct very, very shortly. But yes, I think the only, I've seen The Conversation, which is the one he did in between Godfather part one and part two. And I love The Conversation. And then after The Conversation, honestly, I don't think I've seen a Coppola movie until Dracula in 1992. I don't think I've seen any of his eighties output for good reason. We're going to get to that outside of maybe though. I'd really want to see the cotton club that one. And I do want to see one from the heart. His, his disastrous, the one that like his megalopolis before there was a big lot, you know, It was pre-Megalovia. But I can say watching The Godfather for the first time, like, yes, there's so much about it that feels, a lot of people say it feels timeless. I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. I understand what they mean by it. And it definitely, but I think there's so much in this movie, like you watch it and you're like, yeah, this became the cinema of the late 60s to the 70s. Like Woody Allen movies felt like this in this era. You know, like just that New York City looking like New York City, like it looks a little on the darker side and gritty. It's not really over lit. There's a lot of natural lighting going on or seemingly natural lighting going on in these scenes. The way dialogue and characters work, you know, there's a lot of conversational and I don't know. There's something that I attribute to that era of cinema. And watching The Godfather, I understand it's seminal because this really didn't exist much before this movie. And Coppola was one of the people, one of those auteurs of the 70s alongside De Palma and Scorsese and Cimino that really established this style as part of the American cinematic lexicon. But it did feel dated, I think, to me, not in a bad way, but just like I recognize this. When you say dated, you mean in terms of the visual, the aesthetic, or the narrative? Both, both. I think even the narrative, like there's so much that goes on in this movie. For example, I feel like Al Pacino's relationship with the lady who becomes his wife, his girlfriend at the time, the women in this movie are largely either absent or... not real characters in and of themselves. And then they're disposed of like Kleenex and then done to do like they're they're they're there to become wives and make babies. And it's just like, Whoo, okay. Yeah, this is interesting. And just even the relationship like one of my biggest gripes, I think of the Godfather was that relationship between Al Pacino and his girlfriend, because he just treats her like garbage. I mean, he just leaves. and just like doesn't come back. Like doesn't try to write to her, doesn't try to say anything. Even when he's still there, like before he goes to Sicily, when he's still in America, he's just like not sending her any messages. I'm like, wait, what the fuck, man? Like, but it's done in this way where it's almost not even common. Like it's commented, it's kind of commented on like, you know, do you want to send her a message? He's like, and it's like, okay. Why? Why not? Like, why do you not care? Why do you not want her to be a part of it? And then when he's fully in charge of the family, like now he's like deep into the bad stuff. He goes back for. Yeah. And ropes her into it. And I'm like, so at first I'm like, he doesn't want her to be a part of him being like he's starting to realize he's going to do this for the family and he doesn't want her to be a part of that. I kind of understood that. He never says that. by the way. It's just sort of like that was my maybe read of it where I'm like, maybe it'll make sense like that. But then once he's so deep in, he's never coming back out. He goes back to her. and after, of course, an additional romance, romantic relationship he does try to create in Sicily dies on him. Then he comes back and he's like, OK, how about you? You again? I'll come back for you. I'm like, it's so callous in every way imaginable. It really bothered me. It really bothered me. I find that counterpoint of how callous those characters can be interesting in comparison to how calculated they can be and they are in other areas of their lives. you know, do think Coppola does a really good job of swinging that pendulum back and forth between those two things, because he kind of does the same thing in Metalopolis with the character. There's a callousness to those characters, but there's also such hyper... calculated intent in other areas of their lives. So another one of those themes, which we'll get to later, that you sort of see popping back up in his work, because as someone said, I'm not going to say who said it, not going to incriminate anyone, but someone said earlier, Coppola seems to do a lot of the same things he did in his early works as he's doing in his later works. And not sure how much growth that shows, but at least he's wielding the artillery. freely so yeah Right. you know, Coppola's own wife was, you know, she infamously shot the entire documentary, Hearts of Darkness, about Apocalypse Now and the Making Of. And she's one of those people that is very ride or die with Coppola. Like, she was along for the ride throughout everything. During the shooting of The Godfather, he was shacked up in a hotel with a very pregnant wife. And he already had other kids that were with him too and they were all very young. And at the time he was like, I'm miserable. I can't sleep. don't like the whole shoot of The Godfather was not a happy time for him, according to him at the time. And it's funny because he seems to have ever since The Godfather sort of like almost sought out being uncomfortable during filming. You know? where he sets himself up in these weird, like Apocalypse Now was hell in the Philippines when they were shooting. And we're gonna get to Megalopolis when we get to Megalopolis, but he went out of his way to set himself up somewhere where it's like he was completely distracted, wasn't able to sleep well. And I'm like, dude, you think this is what you need to make a good movie. This is interesting. Okay, in defense of this working style, it is the X Factor, I think. I work a little like that as well, especially when I'm working on something massive. There is a need, almost a subconscious need, and I think it early on in the career, it kind of just was a part of the universe I was just in. had no control over it. Exactly. So it kind of becomes fuel, it kind of becomes a parameter that you naturally just sort of take on and later on, you find that, you know, I may need that X factor in order to sort of add the fuel kind of to be an irritant almost to kind of get you up when you don't want to or to, you know, move the ideas about, you know, so I totally 100 % understand that. it efficient? Absolutely not. But it is. part of this process. or he allowed it to become a part of his process and then sought it out beyond whether he needed it or not. But the point also about his wife, I almost forgot, his wife was very ride or die and just with him and I don't know a lot about her. I don't know really what her take on all of this was. I haven't seen the Heart of Darkness documentary yet either. So this is all something, Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness doc, that is coming in the future guys. we are, I am. I am going to correct how many American cinematic classics I have not seen in my lifetime. Like that is a big part. I'm to use this podcast to correct. So expect that soon. But I don't really know a lot about her POV, except that she was insanely loyal, insanely dedicated, went through all the ups and downs with Coppola was, you know, don't worry about it. Yeah, we sold the house. Yeah, we're in debt. Yeah, we're bankrupt. Yeah, we're this like she was along for the ride. So I feel like Coppola as a creator and a writer. He has an interesting take, yes, like a lot of male characters, women are almost incidental in a lot of his films, a lot of his stories, but they're also very exceptionally accoutrement to the men. They're just a, the handbag they wear to be a part, and they're family, they're part of the family thing. Maybe a romance, but even as romance, they are just the romantic. interest. They're the romantic target. them like jewels. Actually, there's a preciousness about them to a certain degree. But there's also the ability for him to put them on the shelf in a box and close it and walk away. And also once they're wives, right? Once they're wives, they're like, and now you're just a part of this man's life. And I think his life was that. And I don't think, like, I think his wife was very much that person who was like, that's what I want to be. That's what I signed up for. I think, and we're, know, we'll get here, but of course his wife was very ill during the filming of Megalopolis, which was one of the big things. She passed away a few months before it was released. So it was... I think even doing the film might've been him trying to hide from that reality a little bit, to find an escape, to find something to do. And also probably just mortality was on his mind at that point, his own as well as hers. But she was such a steadfast part of his life that I feel his treatment and use of women in his screenplays winds up reflecting how the woman, the main woman in his life, was just this dead, he was the patriarch. mean, there was no, he made the decisions, he went where he wanted to go, he followed his ambitions, and she was along for the ride. very, not to get, like she had agency, no, I don't think, I don't wanna take anything away from her in this thing, but I think he got used to having a woman in his life that with her agency was like, you, motherfucker, I'm dedicated to you. Yeah. And then that echoes through every version of women in his films. So, yeah, that's something that feels very dated. Washington, the Godfather. All right. So getting to a little bit, a few fun tidbits about the Godfather. So this was, course, Coppola's first major motion picture. He had done indie film, very small films before this, but he was hired. He was hired because he was Italian. That's right. And yeah, producer Bob Evans told him to sell himself to the studio by quote, talk about pasta and Italian food and don't be so god. damn cerebral one of my favorite by the way, I'm gonna stop you stop here, Dave. Bob Evans, if you guys don't know one of the single greatest autobiography slash biographies in the history of Hollywood, I recommend anyone read it. It is phenomenal. I've read it three times. I wish there were more of them. He's so candid about his time in Hollywood and being the primary player behind a lot of films in that era. And, you know, Coppola's films were were in are on that list and his reaction to Coppola when he first met Coppola when they first started interacting was one of friction. It was he thought Coppola was self indulgent. He was just way too cerebral. It's like stop thinking and do man this is film right and At least in the self-indulgent part, he was not right. not at all. Not at all. You know, and that's coming from from Bob Evans who was in. So it's just magical. There's a. There's a great a great sequence in the book when they were on the set and apparently Coppola threw some sort of fit and Evans had to come down and he sort of chased it back to the hotel or something and Coppola would come out. It's just nonsense. But the way he describes it is. sort of like an older brother who's just so disgusted and annoyed with his little brother. It's just, it's just a great book. Anyway, go on. Yes. So Coppola did have to fight for his cast on this movie, at least some of this cast. He really wanted mostly people that were not big names, people that were not established yet. So they had some credits under their belt, but none of them were big stars at the time of this movie, except, of course, for Marlon Brando, who was already a very difficult like he had just done mutiny on the bounty, which he had proven to already be a Completely unreliable pain in the ass as far as studios were concerned. They were like hell no But and then Al Pacino he had to fight for him because he was too short Bob Evans was a very tall producer and hated the fact that Pacino was as short as he was And really wanted he wanted Robert Redford in that role But then Coppola because he got hired because he was Italian and so he was very good He was very sneaky about it. He was like, well, we got a cast Italian people in these roles. And so that's how they got away from Robert Redford and back to Al Pacino and so on. Now, Coppola did you know, he was surrounded by a crew that was more experienced than he was. I'm to put a lot of this into context for how his experiences on this movie really bled into his experiences as a director going forward and into something like Michaelopolis and why he was so. untrusting and uncollaborative with his teams a lot of the times, like in certain ways. on this movie, he was the least experienced and the crew did fight him on a lot of things. The studio also sent spies to the set to report back to Bob Evans on a daily basis to tell them what was going wrong with the movie. At one point, Coppola went to the bathroom and while he was in the stall, two crew members came in talking about what a shit show the whole production was and how bad the movie was going to be. And in Coppola's own words, like he just kind of lifted his feet up so they didn't know he was there and just listened to the whole thing. Coppola stayed in a hotel. We already said with his very pregnant wife and small children, he couldn't sleep. He said he was miserable. This seems to be something he got addicted to as we go forward. we're not gonna talk about Apocalypse now, but we will talk about Megalopolis and what he set himself up for, where he set himself up to stay and to sleep while he was filming Megalopolis. It sounds uncannily similar, except all self-inflicted at this point. It's really interesting. There was also an attempted coup on the set of The Godfather. So that very experienced, the the spies that were sending back information of what was wrong, at one point they started to be like, look, you know, the cinematographer knows what he was doing. The coup kind of wanted the cinematographer to take over as the director, because they were all very close, tight knit friends with each other. And the first AD and the editor on the set tried to get Coppola fired so the rest of the crew could take over. He had to fire half the crew in order to survive. And here's the second thing that he seems to have gotten addicted to as a director is letting heads of departments go halfway through production. Now, this is the only one I know of where there was an attempted coup. Like that one makes sense where you're like to survive, you had to do that. But I think the fact that The Godfather became the movie it did. that he survived while getting rid of his crew halfway through production. He did keep a cinematographer. Apparently the cinematographer was not really as instrumental in the coup. Like was more the editor and First AD that were masterminding the whole thing. So even though they wanted the cinematographer to take over, the cinematographer was not the one that was trying to take over per se. So he stayed on board while other heads of departments went away. But you're gonna find out as we go through other films that Coppola did. in between Godfather and Megalopolis and then into Megalopolis, letting go of his heads of departments and just replacing them halfway through filming is something that I think he's like, it's not a problem. It happens all, I do it all the time and these movies are masterpieces. more to do with a mirror of the that friction chaos thing with the hotel I think it is a sort of ability to kind of just drop some controlled chaos into the process which number one gives him more time because remember he's the kind of creator who is creating through the production right so he's throwing things at these these team members then they're just like wait what do want us to do so do you want us to do? Right. And then they'll tell him like what's really possible and what's really not. He hates it. It's just like, just make it. I just want my version done. Kind of a thing. And look, as much as we can say, like, well, it's really worked out for him. Kind of because he's in the course of his career. Honestly, he's had far more bombs than successes. This is not even a good ratio in terms of the sheer number of movies. Yeah. That's why he's gone bankrupt or almost bankrupt multiple times Allegedly, if you're listening. Go. No, no, no, it's on record. He's on record saying it like we do not have to allegedly bullshit. This is all very well cataloged. So this is not actually even worked out for him as often like he has come. He has survived by the skin of his teeth more often than not. The ratio isn't even good, but he cannot bring himself to do it seemingly to do it any differently, except on rare occasions. We'll get to some of those in the end. So when the movie was released, The Godfather, I didn't want to say someone watched an early screening. Now, I don't know if you listen to this other podcast Dallas, you might know who this is, but someone very famous, but was not involved with the film or not even involved in Hollywood said, when you see someone kill a bunch of people, but then you still feel sad when they die, you've made a masterpiece. Who said that Dallas? And it is someone for the folks listening, for the folks listening, it is the only person who has ever been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and been charged with war crimes simultaneously. Who is this person? No way. Obama? No. Henry Kissinger. yeah. Yeah. Also, not some, there's some great Kissinger moments in the Rob Evans, Bob Evans sort of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Yeah, they might have been friends or something. I don't know. But apparently he came to an early screening and then thought it was a masterpiece. When you see someone kill a bunch of people, we still feel sad when they die. As the other podcaster said, For kids to say that is for your cousin to say, well, as another podcaster, Smarmily said, and they wished he was talking to people were talking about him. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Another couple of fun facts. So even the famous lines of The Godfather, things like leave the gun, take the cannoli, which is now probably the most famous line was ad libbed in the moment by the actor. Now, leave the gun was in the script, but the actor remembered that they just thrown cannoli in the backseat before doing the scene. So he ad-libbed, take the cannoli. And it became one of the most infamous lines. Even the line, make him an offer he can't refuse. That is from the novel. But even Puzo got that line by going to Vegas. was a gambler, a horrible gambler. Very addicted to it. So when he went to do research, he's like, I'll go to Vegas, of course. And just talked to the connected people in Vegas. And one of the connected people at Vegas. gave him that line, make him an offer, I made him an offer he can't, couldn't refuse, or make him an offer he can't refuse. So just to say, show guys that, you know, if you're a writer out there and you watch movies like this, and you're like, how do I come up with brilliant lines, like blank? The answer is, you don't. you find these lines either through other people actually giving them to you or collaboration, let the actor ad lib a moment in that regard. So The thing I wanted to mention about the Godfather, before we talk a little more at length about it, is just that as much as so many bad habits seem to have been born in this movie, like because Coppola was a little out of his depth, because he, this was the very first time he had done this, and so he didn't have complete control, like there was a lot of collaboration, whether he liked it or not. And that is a big part. Now I do understand that Coppola also really had this beautiful run in the 70s right after Godfather because he had the conversation in Godfather Part 2 in Apocalypse Now. And it seemed like he could, this is why he thought he could do no wrong. This is why he thought this version, this approach, his version of making a film was like, this is going to do me for the rest of my life. Now starting in the 80s, we're going to get there, starting in the 80s, it just, this approach collapsed on itself. And we're going to get to that in a moment, but let's talk a little bit more about the Godfather here, Dallas. are, you know, I mentioned how it's the relationship between Al Pacino and his wife, but also Al Pacino is a character. If I had to say, I'm going to say some really nice things about the Godfather here in just a moment, I promise. But the one other thing, the one other criticism I had watching it was his decision to go back to the family and become this person. I feel like there's never a moment where you see this justified or where you see him as a character where it happens. It just happens. And I'm like, huh, he was so, I'm not my family. I'm not my family. I'm someone different. I'm doing this different thing. And then the moment Vito Corleone, Marlon Brando is shot and wounded and is maybe on death's door. It's just like snap of the fingers, boom. He's gone, he goes to his family, and then he never really comes back. And I'm like, I feel like that still feels a little off to me, but what's your take You feel it's off that he immediately left once that happened or that he came back. just that he never you never really see him struggle with should I is the should I suddenly become my family this thing I did not want to be a part of that I did not like in terms of the quote unquote business because he was aware of what his family was and what they were doing. And so and then not only that, he's like, I'm going to take I'm going to come back and be the person to set everything right. And to like, bring us into the field like it just It just happens. Yeah, it just kind of happens. I think what they're doing, what Coppola's doing specifically, because remember, a big theme of this is about lineage. It's about a connection to the family. It's about the walk through the generations. When one head of the family vacates the seat, it must be filled, for lack of better term. in terms of sons, that is a very clear and defined kind of legacy. particularly in crime families. So I think part of the structure of the film is such that there is a weight and a magnetism to that role that was one, very clear to him from probably birth. And it didn't require a lot of intellectual engagement because once that seat is vacated, it's you, It's you. Here you go. That's your thing. So I guess it is sort of the weight, that sort of magnetism of lineage, which again is a theme to a lot of his work. Right. Well, and I guess maybe then my complaint with both the the girlfriend and well, everything that Al Pacino's character does, I guess my complaint is the same complaint then where it's like when it comes to family, things just are. To Kozla. You know, it's like you just they just be and you just become and you can't escape the gravity of it. You don't even really try as far as I could tell. And it even drove me nuts because going back to the girlfriend, like when he comes back for her, She just like, yeah, she cries a little bit. Like she's a little upset that, you know, he just disappeared for years and came back. She didn't even know that he tried to hook up with another lady and get married to her in that time period or anything like that. But then she just goes back to him, even knowing he's going to the family. And she kind of knows what that means. And I know this was the this was a period piece. This was this doesn't take place in the 70s. Right. So women didn't have a lot. She was a teacher, I think, at that point. But that probably she wasn't paid a lot like she needed a future. and he plainly comes from a very well-to-do family. So maybe there's a little bit of that going on, but there just was this weird, like, no one wanted, seemingly everyone's set up to not wanna do what they later do, and then there is no real impetus for them deciding to do it anyway. And you say that, and I think that is one of the central sort of theses of this work is that, you know, no matter how much you attempt to walk away from the weight of family, from the weight of responsibility, from the weight of filling the role, it will always, almost always pull you back and... almost saying like it is your rightful place, whether you want it or not, it is your rightful place and inertia, momentum, the magnetism of things will pull you back to it. Because that's kind of essentially what happens to most of the characters. They all have this sort of moment of rebellion that's sort of, you know, almost animalistic or reactionary. But in general, they seem to circle right back around at some point. So I do think there is some sort of central thesis there that he's attempting to kind of expound on here. I understand that. understand that. don't buy it, but I understand it, which is which I think is my complaint there. But I will say this. mean, yes, the movie, it looks beautiful. It is almost three hours long and it's actually weirdly tight. It doesn't drag it. You almost can't remove any scenes and have it still work. It's as an almost three hour long movie, like in this era of movie time. runtime bloat where we're like, why is this two and a half hours? What the hell? It's like, this is a rare three hour long movie that you're just like, yeah, this is what it had to be. Like this is the movie. So I will give it that as well. The performances are very good. I think that my complaints have more to do with the script than, you know, what the characters, how they attempt to sell it. Performances are amazing. And it really did. I think we have to remember that this cemented and created the modern day gangster film. This did not exist before this movie. know, gangster movies before this were not this. Gangster movies before this. on modern take. Yeah. Right. What is that? Pick up on 52nd Street or whatever that movie? Yeah. The Sam Fuller film. Yeah. Things like that. You know, they come from the black and white world. Right. And so it was very almost like, you know, Tommy Gunn toting type of a thing. And like very. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And very newarish, maybe detective versus something and trying to solve a crime and or a murder and blah, blah. And this once this movie dropped like. Everything changed with gangster films. Everything changed with street crime films and like how we represent how we showcased it. It's amazing because I think what he does well and a lot of those guys from that era, those auteurs from that era, they do well. They take technically a slice of life film. It is a slice of life, right? But they show you the heavy, heavy and sort of dirty, murky machinery of this slice of life because, you know, it's just a family with a business at the end of the day. You know, so it is a completely modern take on on, like you said, this sort of crime film, crime family film, it launched a thousand careers and a thousand invitations and competitors and it's in the canon for a reason. Yeah. Any final thoughts on the movie before we move on to talk about its legacy? final thoughts on the movie. I do think it is to be studied for how inefficient its process and production was, for how inefficient the players behind the scenes were, for how inefficient the relationships were. It is a master work, but mostly because of the difficulty. Because when I watch it, when I watch it on its own, I'm like, yeah, this is a very good this is a very good film. But then when you side by side, sort of bullet point the difficulty in getting it made. But again, all films are difficult to get made. Like just start there as a baseline. But this one's kind of historic. It seems even more impressive. And I know I'm waiting that probably on barely But enough times past, it's been 50 fucking years, 40 some odd years. So I think it is to be studied. is a great film. like I said, it's in the canon for a reason. And on top of that, I enjoy an auteur who shows me whatever the hell they want me to see. That may not always work. They may not always get there. The vision may not always, you know, be brought into fruition, but I appreciate the attempt from someone whose mind or creativity or palette I enjoy. And, you know, I'm gonna watch anything he does. You know, right. So. Awesome. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure if I entirely because I'm not sure if it's the inefficiency that made because I'm a big believer that limitations make a great usually make better movies. Right. When you're struggling up against something where you're like, we don't have an endless supply of money or time or things. So it's like thing we have to find a solution. And Coppola, you know, it's interesting. We're going to get to Megalopolis in part two, but you Megalopolis, there's this whole stopping time thing, which is, which is a huge, which is the most fantastical element of the movie, which is never fully explained or justified per se. It's thematically trying to be something and it we're we're we'll talk about what we each think it's supposed to be or why it's there, why stopping time is something Coppola thought made sense. But in a sense, stopping time is when, like for an artist, it's your pie in the sky dream of just like, have endless time to work on this thing, right? To shape it, to perfect it, to do what I need to do. Like when it's ready, it's ready and not until. And that's what I want, you think. That's what the artist will always tell themselves they want. But as we also learn with Megalopolis where he spent 40 years making it. Endless time is not always your friend. Endless, an endless resource of any kind is not always your friend, even though that's what you think in the heat of the moment you want is you don't want to be pushed. You don't want to be demanded upon. You don't want to have demands made upon you to be like do or die this, make it happen and let it go. And no one wants that. And yet it usually does create the better thing. And so, but I'm not sure how much I agree that like friction that didn't need to be there being created made it better that I'm not sure about. I feel like said I think I think one one thing that's been pretty consistent about his career is that on most of his films he has had for lack of a better term unlimited resources. I'm not going to say unlimited resources but he's had access to all the things he needed to do the thing. And so perhaps adding that friction as you were saying earlier that constraint. You know, with the first films being the hotel and finding a place that was subpar and annoying and chaotic. Perhaps subconsciously that was him adding that friction because of essentially what you're saying. Maybe there should be some sort of constraint that forces you to kind of have to think differently and problem solve. I don't know. But at the end of the day, regardless, I do think that the Godfather is it's. It's great for a reason and he's great for making it even with all the nonsense and chaos, which I love reading about associated with it. So yeah, who knows? Who knows? if anyone wants to see the full background, a lot of people know that there is the television show. What is that television show called? It's all about the making of the Godfather. I don't know. What? Hold on. you don't know about this? The off- you. Yes, yes, yes. That is Paramount. Paramount. All right, so Paramount has the offer. You can watch that. I've heard it's relatively true and doesn't take too many liberties. But there's also the Leave the Gun, Take the Knoli book, which chronicles all of this. And if you like podcasts, because you're listening to this podcast, go to What Went Wrong, one of my favorite movie podcasts. They have a two part. episode on the Godfather part one. They haven't done part two or three yet, but they will in the future, they say. But it is an amazing behind the scenes look. I didn't want to just like, repeat everything they did on there. So we always like hit some highlights, but I listened to both parts. And like, it's very eye opening about what this experience was like, and how it all came to be and tells you a lot about Coppola. It's really about all the players. It's not just a Coppola obsessed thing. It's not just the director the filmmaker obsessing they talk a lot about Bob Evans and and how interesting a character he was Where the studio was at the time Mario Puzo they go very deep into his life and background. It's a character These are absolute characters. They are. So I'll probably put some links down below in the description of this episode. So you can go find that podcast as well. Now, the legacy. So the success of The Godfather and The Godfather Part Two. And fun fact, The Godfather Part Two was the first movie to ever use a part two or any sort of numerical ordering in its title. Believe it or not, Hollywood had historically been opposed to ever. putting a number in a title. How quaint. How to think back. Those days. They believed audiences had little reason or care to watch a second part if they'd already seen a first. I mean, it's so backwards to everything we believe now and what we're trying to stop doing now. It's hysterical. 30 years of just non- Right, nonstop part twos and threes and fours. Anywho, these two films gave Coppola the cash to purchase the Gustave Nibam Vineyard in Napa County. The vineyard was the very first in California to gain international recognition for quality wines, winning gold medals at the World's Fair of Paris in 1889 and under the brand Inglis. remember that name, it continued to win medals and recognition at home. So for nearly 100 years, Engelnook's motto was quote, pride, not profit, unquote, and its operations were often subsidized by the personal fortunes of its owners so much so that by 1964, Coppola will understand this financial distress impel the family to sell the name and 166 acres of its vineyard to the allied grape growers who then sold it to the Hueyblen Corporation or Hueyblen, H-E-U-B-L-I-N, no idea how to pronounce that, but Hueyblen Corporation, after which Inglienook became synonymous with mass produced cheap jug wine. You've probably seen the cheap jugs that had Inglienook on it if you grew up in the 70s and 80s. Now, thankfully, Coppola's purchase of the remaining acreage of the Inglienuk vineyards, of the Gustav Niebom vineyards, and the estate itself allowed him to bring quality and prominence back to the vineyards grapes under a new label, Niebom Coppola. That's Niebom hyphen Coppola, which while he had the vineyard, he couldn't afford the Inglienuk brand, which remained in corporate ownership and continued to be slapped on mass production wines. So note that while Coppola's really good wines right now, these days and the last since 2011 have been Engelnuck. If you're buying Engelnuck before 2011, danger Will Robinson, danger, right? As the seventies came to an end in the eighties began, Coppola's fortunes turned on a dime. After one last cultural sensation with Apocalypse Now in 1979, Coppola's seemingly magic ability to create singular hits at the box office abruptly stopped. starting with the director's biggest misstep of his career at the time. In 1982, that is one from the heart. It was a musical romantic drama originally meant to be produced by MGM, who offered Coppola $2 million to direct. Coppola decided it was an offer he could refuse and declined. He instead bought the rights to the property through his Zoetrope Studios and MGM became merely the distributor. I mean, I swear to God, the studio fully pulled out, however, when the budget ballooned from 15 million to 23 million. Coppola insisted on shooting the entire film on sound stages. Remember that bit? It's going to come back to play when we hit Dracula. Miniatures and lavish backgrounds, huge musical numbers with Gene Kelly choreography, a soundtrack by Tom Waits and Crystal Gale. Paramount came on board as distributor, then backed out at the 11th hour when press screenings were not well received. Zoetrope was struggling to stay solvent with the crew working for reduced wages and an emergency influx of $8 million investment necessary during production. Columbia Pictures agreed to distribute the film mere weeks before it was set to be released. And you know, when films are released guys like theaters, have to you sign up with them well in advance, they have to carve out that time and screen time. Exactly. So they're like, the data set, you cannot change. You can pull out but if you pull out, it's going to be a year. you know, until you can get back in. So they were weeks away from the date that was set and Columbia Pictures finally stepped in, agreed to distribute. The film made an abysmal $339,000 on its opening weekend on 41 screens and ended up at only $636,796 a total. Gosh. against a $26 million budget. Hold here, that is, you know, just as a writer, director, and be sort of, And coming off of four massive hits in Exactly. Coming off of like you are on top of the world. That's what I'm saying. It's like there's no way that opening weekend he's not sitting there and just in disbelief like wait I can misstep? yeah anyway go on. And Coppola was personally on the hook for a large portion of that. Because he had financed this through American or I'm sorry, it wasn't American zoetrope yet. was just. So he was forced to declare bankruptcy for Zoetrope Studios, the storied production company behind George Lucas's pre Star Wars films, among many other. He he would later reincorporate as American Zoetrope, which now. continues to this day, or at least until Megalopolis. And we'll see if anything happens after Megalopolis. But the 80s were no kinder to Coppola. The rest of the 80s were no kinder to Coppola. The outsiders, Rumblefish and the Cotton Club were all sizable box office bombs. All solid. by the way, all solid film. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, but I think he overspent and, you know, did not make something that was because they're all they're all good films, but they're not necessarily great films. They're great movies. They were looking for movies at the time. Yes. His one hit was Peggy Sue Got Married, starring Kathleen Turner and of course his nephew, Nicolas Cage. But that was followed by another string of misfires, Gardens of Stone, if anyone has ever even heard of that one, and Tucker, The Man in His Dream. By 1990, Coppola was once again very pressed for cash, and his debts had dogpiled to the point of insolvency. He got a rescue line in the form of The Godfather Part III, which made $136 million on a $56 million budget. Finally a box office success, but it was nevertheless a disappointment compared to the previous entries in the Godfather series and did not earn enough to clear Coppola's books. So his next project was going to be crucial. If he couldn't manage a second hit in a row, something he hadn't managed since the 70s, he'd be forced to sell his Neybaum Coppola estate and the vineyard to pay off his mounting. remaining debts that would have been the end of all Coppola wine period. No empire would have ever even begun because this was still just a small winery in a small estate at the time. and also note this time, ironically, for Godfather Part Three, Coppola and Mario Puzo wanted to call the movie The Death of Michael Goh not part three. And by now the studio insisted on the numerical sequencing. how times have changed. change. Yes. Hollywood is nothing if not calcified thinking on whatever has last proven successful and being against whatever hasn't yet been done or anything that has to while. So never change is always the motto. Always. Even though the next big thing, folks, is always something new. Always. Even though they're always fishing through the dustbins of history, as though that is always where the next big thing. Because you can get a you can get a decent hit. searching through your IP library. You can keep the lights on. you know, when Jurassic Park hit, no one had ever done that before. was it. Nothing like that. Exactly. Game of Thrones. No one had done that for TV before. And that's why it was such a thing. The Sopranos. No one had done that for TV before. It's always something new. It's not, you know, Amazon rings of power. I'm sure it's doing fine, but we already had Games of Thrones. It's not changing the world anymore. It's never going to again. So. for his next film, Bram Stoker's Dracula. And I will have a link down below to our entertainmentstudios.com article on Dracula and how it rescued his winery. we are not gonna go into too much detail on how Dracula the film came to be because these episodes are not about Dracula, but we do. actually go well into detail on how Dracula came to be in that article. So we will have links down below. Go to entertainment studios.com. Look for Bram Stoker's Dracula, the movie that rescued a winery. You will find that article and all of that information is there. But for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Coppola was determined to come in on budget and on time, unlike nearly all of his previous. Exactly. Shooting on sound stages is where we come full circle with one from the heart where he demanded to shoot on sound stages. Now He shot on sound stages within a studio lot because this would allow the studio to oversee and control the production in full, which was something Coppola actually desired this one time only. But he was still Coppola. He fired numerous department heads well into pre-production, including his entire VFX team, who didn't think they could do everything that he wanted without digital effects. And on Dracula, Coppola was adamant, all practical. they would use no VFX. And God bless and beholden to that man. God bless and beholden. the most part, for the most part, although I do understand why they were like, we can't do this. Even the people who came in later were like, ooh, okay, they had to get super fucking creative. And his production designer was also fired well into pre-production who wasn't thrilled when Coppola demanded that the sets be sparse and minimalist. He wanted the costumes to be the meat of the production design in the movie. And as costume designer, he hired Aiko Ishioka, the lady who designed the Japanese Apocalypse Now poster back in the late 70s, which he loved, but who wasn't a costume designer. This particular gamble paid off, however, as Ishioka snagged an Oscar for her costumes in Dracula for her very first time as a costume designer. So that's pretty cool. So, yeah, that that's what she did after that, too. It's like, well, I want to know. I guess is what I'm doing now. You Despite all of the above, Coppola did in fact turn in a movie on time and on budget. Hallelujah. Costing $40 million total. A price tag that sounds quaint by 2024 standards, but was a sizable movie budget for 1992. Critical reception prior to the wide release was mixed. The visuals were praised while the story and some of the performances were questioned. But Coppola had done what he could. He took his family on vacation and refused to look at the news during opening weekend. Whatever would be, would be. Don't forget, if this movie didn't succeed, he had essentially lost everything. So his wife brought him the numbers from the trade news at the end of the weekend. Number one at the box office with a $30 million opening domestic. It was a record for November releases at the time. It would go on to make 82 million domestically and a whopping 218 million worldwide on a$40 million budget. Coppola was back as a hit maker. And yes, there's yard work going on. Just gonna have to deal just gonna have to deal. time. Every time. every time. huh. So flush with cash and work offers Coppola not only paid off his debts and continued to own the Neybaum Vineyard and his Neybaum Coppola brand, he was finally able to purchase the Ingle Nook brand back. Believe it or not, it cost more than the entire Neybaum Vineyard and estate combined. who buy the name back. Little bad. In case you thought people hoarding URLs that you really want are like asking too much money. Guilty. Coppola's higher end winery remained Niebom Coppola until 2011 when they then rebranded it as Inglenoek, which it remains to this day. In 2006, they bought the grounds that would become the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Sonoma County. His previous winery was Rutherford Napa County. So now this one was Sonoma. This is the brand that would grow to have bottles in nearly every grocery store in America. This is the one you've seen in every grocery store, every big box store. The wines ranged in price from $8 to $120 for the Diamond Collection Chardonnay and the Archimedes Cabernet Sauvignon respectively. So there are still some high-end ones even in the Francis Ford Coppola winery, but they're everywhere. You can find them all across America. In 2018, Coppola also bought an Oregonian wine company. do not know how to pronounce this but I'm going to try. Domaine Brugy. Brugy. Sorry, B-R-O-G-L-I-E. So however you want to pronounce guys, Brugy. We'll go with that. or birth control if you're from any place else, but go on. Anyplace else. If you're from Oregon, I have no idea. You'll to let us know. Yeah. In 2021, of course, Coppola sold his namesake winery, the Francis Ford Coppola Winery for reportedly over $500 million to finance Megalopolis, which was a $125 million budget. you know, even if he financed all of Megalopolis on his own time and did, let's say he did the P &A where it's the budget again. So 250 million. That's still only half of what he was given roughly for selling this winery. So he's doing fine, folks. He's doing fine, even if this is what we'll get to make a lot of listen part two. And he still remains ownership of Engelnuk, aka Nibam Coppola, the wines we tasted for this episode, and his Oregonian domain debauchery. that's gonna wrap us up for part one. In part two, we are gonna cover Megalopolis and what he did with his proceeds of selling the Francis Ford Coppola winery. And then of course, we're gonna get to the wines as well, which pairs with Godfather, which pairs with Megalopolis. will catch you then. Check us out next week. Ciao for now, everybody. Later, guys.