Don Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, once said, "Great men are not born great; they grow great." The same could be said for the incredible story behind the making of The Godfather, which the upcoming Paramount+ miniseries, The Offer, explores. The Godfather wasn't exactly born with the greatness it became. Rather, it grew before it was the award-winning gangster film that inspired so many others.

Michael Tolkin, who wrote films such as Deep Impact and Changing Lanes, served as the head-writer for the series with Dexter Fletcher, who recently directed the 2019 biopic Rocketman, directing several episodes of the limited series. The Offer will follow Albert S. Ruddy's trials and victories as he strived to produce The Godfather in the early 1970s.

As many may know, The Godfather was based on Mario Puzo's 1969 novel of the same name. The Offer takes audiences behind the scenes into how Ruddy, alongside the famous director Francis Ford Coppola, brought the bestselling mafia masterpiece to theaters. Expect high stakes, crime, and movie melodrama as we take a deeper dive into all we know about The Offer.

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Image via Paramount+

Related:'The Offer' Review: A Love Letter to Cinema That Mixes Fact and Fiction Into the Making of 'The Godfather'

Watch the Trailer for The Offer

Where Can I Watch The Offer?

The Offer is slated to premiere exclusively on Paramount+ on April 28, 2022. Due to being a Paramount+ Original Series, there are no plans for the show to stream on any other platform.

Who Is in The Offer's Cast?

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Image via Paramount+

Leading the cast of famous people playing famous people is Miles Teller as Albert S. Ruddy. Teller got his start in the mid-2000s with short films before hitting full-length feature films starting with Footloose and Project X in the early 2010s. In his earliest most notable role, he co-starred with Shailene Woodley in the 2013 romantic drama The Spectacular Now. He and J. K. Simmons led the Oscar-winning 2014 drama Whiplash from Damien Chazelle, and in the same year, Teller joined Zac Efron and Michael B. Jordan in the romantic comedy That Awkward Moment and the dystopian film Divergent. While carrying his role in the Divergent franchise through all three films, he additionally took the torch from Ioan Gruffud to play Reed Richards in the 2015 ill-fated Fantastic Four reboot. The 2010s continued his streak of leading roles, starting with Todd Phillips' ripped from the headlines black comedy War Dogs, the biopic Bleed For This, and in 2017 the war drama Thank You For Your Service. Teller recently starred as Martin Jones in Nicolas Winding Refn's controversial miniseries Too Old to Die Young in 2019. Along with the release of The Offer, his 2022 works also include the long-delayed and highly anticipated Top Gun: Maverick at Paramount and the sci-fi thriller Spiderhead at Netflix.

Starring as head of Paramount, Robert Evans, is English actor, Matthew Goode. Goode's acting career began in the early 2000s, with the movies Al sur de Granada and Chasing Liberty. He went on to play in an array of dramas, from the romantic in Imagine Me & You to the historical in Copying Beethoven and crime with The Lookout. Goode starred opposite Amy Adams in the romantic comedy Leap Year in 2010 before leading the Australian drama Burning Man in 2011. In the 2010s, he continued onto higher profile films, such as the thriller Stoker, the biographical drama The Imitation Game, and The Sense of an Ending. Between movies, he worked on multiple television series, including Dancing on the Edge, Death Comes to Pemberley, The Good Wife, Downton Abbey, and The Crown. From 2018 until this year, he took on the vampire role of Matthew Clarimont in the fantasy television series, A Discovery of Witches, where he played the romantic interest of a witch, Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer). In 2021, Goode played major roles in the Skye Original film The Colour Room and the dark comedy Silent Night.

American actor Dan Fogler is portraying the renowned, award-winning director, Francis Ford Coppola. Fogler has done work in film, television, and Broadway. He won a Tony Award for his theatrical work in the 2005 Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In 2007, he played lead in the comedy Balls of Fury. He later went on to contribute his voice to numerous animated films, including Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Mars Needs Moms, and Free Birds. Since 2018, he's held the role of Luke in the zombie apocalypse series The Walking Dead. Fogler made his biggest break with joining the Harry Potter realm as the muggle Jacob Kowalski in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, continuing to reprise the role in the film's sequels.

Ruddy's secretary, who would later become a talent agent for big-name actors, Bettye McCartt is played by English actress Juno Temple. Temple, being born to a producer and director, was bound forshow business. Her larger works began in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, with the historical dramas Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Three Musketeers. In 2012, she and Michael Angarano carried the comedy The Brass Teapot, and a year later, she starred in the eerie dramas Magic Magic and Horns. She joined the Disney universe as Thistletwit, one of the fairy godmothers, in the 2014 Maleficent and its 2019 sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. In 2017, she held major roles in The Most Hated Woman in America and Wonder Wheel. As for television, Temple starred as lead in the erotic 2020 series Little Birds and as Keeley Jones in the smash hit comedy show Ted Lasso.

Playing author of The Godfather, Mario Puzo, is Patrick Gallo. Aside from small parts in short films and guest appearances on television series like Boardwalk Empire, Gallo is largely known for his role as Anthony Giacalone in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated film The Irishman.

Joe Colombo, infamous mobster and leader in the Mafia, is played by Giovanni Ribisi. Ribisi has seen an extensive acting career, dating back to the 1980s with television films and the series My Two Dads. In the 1990s, he played the supporting role of T/4 Medic Wade in Saving Private Ryan, a lead role in the thriller The Mod Squad, and the romantic interest in The Other Sister. He joined James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar as Parker Selfridge in 2009. More recently, he played the titular character of the crime thriller series Sneaky Pete. Along with The Offer, Ribisi is slated to reprise his role in Avatar 2 in December 2022 and in the remaining films of the franchise which will release in 2024, 2026, and 2028.

Related:'The Godfather' Trilogy Releasing on Paramount+ in Tandem With 'The Offer' Premiere

What Is the Plot of The Offer?

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Much of what audiences will see in The Offer will be news to the public, as it hasn't been until now that the 92-year-old Albert S. Ruddy has chosen to share what happened in the making of The Godfather. Yet we can learn quite a bit from the trailer and behind-the-scenes details from Michael Tolkin's interview with Vanity Fair.

In the early 1970s, Ruddy was a fresh face, and Paramount chose him to produce The Godfather in part because of his young ambition and his record for completing films under budget. The Godfather rocketed him to fame, but it didn't come without its troubles. According to Tolkin, who interviewed Ruddy for five days prior to making The Offer, Ruddy said, "Every day of making The Godfather was the worst day in my life." This misery seems to be represented in the show, as in the trailer, Teller's character says, exasperated, "Can one thing go right with this picture?"

The Offer will also give Bettye McCart the limelight she deserves. She was truly Ruddy's closest ally and advocate during the patchy points of production. Her role in the miniseries, and history, should be recognized, as she stood as the primary female voice in a largely male-dominated production.

In the trailer, viewers watch as Mafia leaders squirm, protesting the idea of a film depicting their ways of business, family, and everyday life. According to Tolkin in his talk with Vanity Fair, Cosa Nostra, or the Sicilian Mafia, had a "a very active interest in making sure" The Godfather never made it to screens.

Perhaps the biggest threat to the film's making was mobster Joe Colombo. A Mafia boss himself, he vehemently opposed the media depicting his people as mobsters and hated the attention to his line of business. As for how The Godfather still made it to audiences, even in the face of threats from organized crime, remains a mystery. The Offer will reveal just one theory on how Ruddy and his team persevered.

The Offer will no doubt be a darkly comedic, thrilling take on a very real Hollywood drama. If the stellar cast line-up isn't enough to entice you, consider the inside-look on what was once the highest-grossing film ever made. Join the cast on April 28 as they travel back to the 1970s for an adventure in budget cuts, quarreling producers, and Italians arguing over sauce.