A few years ago, ahead of the 2019 Oscars, I wrote a column that started with a simple question: What does a movie producer do? Despite the ubiquity of the term, it’s a job title that fails to capture the day-to-day work itself. Director? Sure, most of us have a decent idea of what that means. Screenwriter? That too. Production designer, stunt coordinator, music supervisor? Same. But producer? What does a producer even do?
The new limited series “The Offer” on Paramount+ is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of “The Godfather” in the early 1970s. It’s told primarily from the point of view of the movie’s producer Al Ruddy, and it might be one of the best distillations of what a producer actually does, start to finish. I suspect anyone who has ever produced a film is going to feel vindicated by this portrayal.
“The Godfather” was a massive box office hit — the highest grossing film of 1972 — but it nearly fell apart at various points before making its way into theaters. The script was a mess. The executives didn’t want to cast an unknown named Al Pacino. The studio even had doubts about Marlon Brando. Money was always running short. And getting the movie made also involved making nice with the mob, a complicated dance considering the material at hand.
Played by Miles Teller as a man fueled (and exasperated) by the constant roadblocks in his way, Ruddy — almost everyone calls him Ruddy — is a combination go-getter, deal-maker, idea man and facilitator. He puts the wheels in motion. That’s what a producer does. But even “The Offer” acknowledges that no one really knows what that means. One night in bed with a woman he’s just met, he’s asked: “So what do you Al, hm?” Movies, he tells her. I make movies. “So you’re a director?” No, I’m the producer. “So you write the script?” No, but I put it all together. She laughs. “What does that mean?” Later, she visits the set, watches him in action and makes this observation: “I think I understand what you do. You’re a problem solver. You’re a ringmaster.” Something like that, he says with a shrug and a wry smile. Exuding confidence is a big part of the job and Teller wears the role with a similarly winning self-assurance and intelligence.
A former computer programmer, Ruddy broke into Hollywood by creating “Hogan’s Heroes” for TV and then, with zero experience working in film, he talked himself into a gig at Paramount. “The Offer” isn’t designed to pause and consider who was (and still is) allowed these kinds of unlikely opportunities — of sneaking onto the lot to convince a studio head like Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) to give him a shot — but if you guessed that it’s primarily white men, I’m not telling you anything new.
Ruddy gets his foot in the door, which comes with an office and a secretary (Juno Temple as the resourceful Bettye McCartt, who would later become a talent manager for George Clooney and Tom Selleck, among others). Evans assigns Ruddy a project that’s giving everyone headaches: Mario Puzo’s novel “The Godfather,” which has been selling like gangbusters, but the public has grown tired of gangster flicks. Somehow, Paramount — which owns the rights — needs to turn the book into movie gold and it’s on Ruddy’s shoulders to make that happen. That means finding the director (Francis Ford Coppola) and the screenwriter (Puzo, with an assist from Coppola) as well as securing the cast.
Once filming begins, Ruddy’s job is to put out fires both on and off the set. And boy are there fires. So many fires. The now-famous scene where Michael Corleone decisively becomes part of the family business when he plugs Sollozzo and McCluskey in the restaurant? That was an actual working restaurant and the owner wanted the cast and crew out in time for the dinner rush. It’s up to Ruddy to figure out a solution that prevents them from getting kicked to the curb. When Coppola insists that the Sicily portions be shot in Sicily, it’s Ruddy who has to rearrange the budget or make a case up the chain of command to get more money. And it’s Ruddy who has to broker peace between Coppola and his lighting director, the latter of whom threatens to quit. Yes, they were fighting about the lighting!
Keeping everything on track meant Ruddy also had to get in bed with the mob. It was a reluctant bargain on Ruddy’s part, but there was no way the movie was getting made without the help of real-life crime boss Joe Colombo, who was initially opposed to the film and eventually swayed otherwise, thanks to Ruddy’s persuasion. It’s very messy and very compromised.
Once the movie is in the can, Ruddy is still on the hook, weighing in on the marketing plan and making sure they hit the studio’s release date, ushering the film through its final cut. All of which is why it is the producer (or producers plural) who gets the Oscar when the best picture winner is announced.
Sometimes the producer is the one who comes up with a movie’s premise, as Ruddy later did for 1974′s “The Longest Yard,” starring Burt Reynolds. It was the film Ruddy chose to pursue next rather than working on “The Godfather: Part II.”
Sometimes the director is also a producer. “If a director has a producer credit, it means they were more involved than just being a director — they were part of the whole process,” producer Robert Teitel told me in 2019. “What you have to look at is, conceptually how did the project come in? Did that director write the script? Did that director put it together? Did that director find the material? Did that director find the studio? Or was that director hired later on in the process? Every movie’s different.” Teitel’s producing credits include “The Hate U Give,” “Soul Food” and the “Barbershop” franchise. A Bob Marley biopic is among his upcoming titles.
“The Offer” shows us how it works at the studio level. But what if the movie is an indie, meaning not funded by, or answerable to, a studio? Are producers negotiating their own salaries with themselves? “Pretty much,” Teitel told me. “Obviously you can’t take the lion’s share or you’re not going to get the movie you want. So it’s always tricky — like, how are you going to get it done and still earn a living?”
Robert Evans — a big personality who epitomizes Hollywood schmoozing — has a prominent role in “The Offer,” alternating between Ruddy’s champion and his nemesis. Years later Evans would strike out on his own to work as a producer himself. Technically, Paramount let him produce one film a year before he stepped down, including “Chinatown” from 1974, directed by Roman Polanski. People tend to refer to the film as Polanski’s “Chinatown,” which made Evans bristle: “I was on it for five years; he was on it for nine months,” Evans says in “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” the 2002 documentary about his career in the movies. It’s a quote that underscores the extent of a producer’s involvement, which can precede that of the director — and anyone else — by years.
Funny thing about the Evans documentary. “The Godfather” does come up. Of course it does. But not once does he mention Al Ruddy’s name.
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Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
