paramount wanted italian-americans in the movie. robert evans and others from paramount believed that their last film, "the brotherhood", was unsuccessful because there were no italian-americans. paramount first wanted sergio leone to direct the film. the studio also went to peter bogdanovich, peter yates, richard brooks, arthur penn, costa-gavras, and otto preminger. all of them said no to the movie. francis ford coppola, who would direct the film, said no at first. he thought the book was "cheap stuff". he changed his mind because of finances and advice from others.