When producer Fred Roos accepted the best picture Oscar for “The Godfather Part II” in 1975, he saluted the actors.
He still is honoring them. Controversy over Fredo Corleone reminds Roos of the late actor, John Cazale, who played the character. “He was a very sweet man, extremely talented and very humble,” Roos said. “John Cazale did five films in his lifetime, and every one of them was nominated for best picture.”
Casting Diane Keaton as Kay Adams was a leap for director Francis Ford Coppola, Roos said. “She’s very underrated when you talk about ‘The Godfather.’ She’s not usually brought up,” he added. “She was wonderful in it. She was known at the time for comedy.”
Roos cast the first “Godfather,” which rests heavily on Al Pacino’s performance as Michael Corleone. “If you didn’t have a great Michael, you didn’t have a movie. It starts with that,” Roos said.
“The Godfather Part II” returns to movie theaters Nov. 10, 12 and 13 in the Fathom Events TCM Big Screen Classics series. Theaters and times are at fathomevents.com.
Roos recalls the suspense of Oscar night in 1975. “We had two of the five nominees that night. We had ‘The Conversation’ as well,” he said. “Everybody thought ‘Chinatown’ was going to win it. It was kind of a surprise. We weren’t expecting to win.”
His acceptance speech was brief. “I’m an actor’s person so I tossed it all to the actors in a simple statement. I wasn’t about to go on and on,” he said.
Of his productions, Roos said he is proudest of “The Godfather Part II” along with “The Black Stallion” and “Apocalypse Now.” He describes the gangster drama as “almost arty for a mass-market film” and “very sophisticated” for a plot that deals with two time periods, one with the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) and son Michael.
Roos defends the oft-maligned “Godfather Part III,” which he also produced. “It’s a terrific film, it’s very underrated, go back and look at it,” he urges.
At 85, Roos remains a prolific producer. “I’m still at it, still loving it. Every day of my life, I’m actor-driven,” he said.
He is working with Coppola on “Megalopolis.” “Francis has been writing this thing for 20 years. He keeps doing new drafts every couple of weeks,” Roos said. “It’s going to be a tough one to raise the money for in the climate of today,” he said, adding that filming could start next year.
Roos said working as a casting director on “Five Easy Pieces,” “American Graffiti” and other top films prepared him for producing. “I was aiming to be a producer all along, since I went to film school,” he said. “Casting was a lucky sidetrack along the way.”
He said he lucked out because De Niro was not cast in the first “Godfather” and could play the young Vito in the second film. Roos speaks with awe about the “Godfather” trilogy.
“It never goes away. Some films fade from memory,” he said. “It seems like every month there’s ‘Godfather’ or ‘Godfather II’ on television. You have to believe people are seeing it over and over. It’s an interesting phenomenon, that trilogy.”
