What If Lee Marvin Starred In a Brando-less APOCALYPSE NOW.jpg

The correspondence archive Letters of Note is full of wonderful treasures, and occasionally they access notes between Hollywood personnel that provides fascinating insight into the glitzy town's inner workings.  Today's handwritten letter features a pre-Godfather Francis Ford Coppola reaching out to recent Oscar-winner Lee Marvin in 1969 to read a Vietnam war script he had written titled "Apocalaypse Now" [sic].  When the film made it to theaters a decade later (sans the extra "a"), it was Marlon Brando who brought the role of Colonel Karnage to life, but this note plants a great what-if scenario in your imagination.

You can read the full transcript and check out a scan of the letter after the jump.

Here's the whole of Coppola's letter to the Dirty Dozen actor:

Mr. Lee Marvin,

We'd like you to play the part of Colonel Karnage in Apocalaypse Now. We're an independant company in San Francisco financed by Warner Bros.

It's a good script.

Sincerely

Francis Ford Coppola

What If Lee Marvin Starred In a Brando-less APOCALYPSE NOW letter.jpg