The Offer, the new biographical drama miniseries from writer Michael Tolkin (Escape at Dannemora) and director Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman) finally premieres today on Paramount Plus. And all three Godfather movies are coming with it, now available on the streaming platform.
Starring Miles Teller as Paramount Pictures producer Albert S. Ruddy, the 10-episode series chronicles the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Italian American crime drama The Godfather amid a flurry of controversy and continuous setbacks, including a clash with the Italian American Civil Rights League.
I’m confident I don’t have to explain to anyone reading an entertainment site what The Godfather is, nor do I have to emphasize how monumental an influence and impact it left on Hollywood cinema when it was released in 1972. What you may be wondering, though, and what I’m perfectly happy to answer, is why the Godfather films, which are frequently heralded as some of the greatest American films ever produced, were ever made unavailable to stream in the first place. The answer to that question is both simple and complicated.
As you might already know, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the original Godfather film and, in celebration of the occasion, all three films received a limited theatrical release for Dolby Cinema at AMC theaters across the U.S. on Feb. 25. The re-release took advantage of the recent 4K transfer of the films that was supervised by writer-director Francis Ford Coppola, who went so far as to re-edit the critically divisive Part III in order to hew closer to his original vision.
The reason why The Godfather trilogy was temporarily unavailable to stream until today was due not only to the 50th anniversary theatrical run, but also so as not to commercially undermine the release of the Godfather 4K restorations, which went on sale on March 22. Now that the 50th celebration has concluded, you can finally go back to enjoying these films from the comfort of your own home via streaming.
If you’ve somehow never gotten around to watching Coppola’s magnum opus, there’s no better time than now to do so. Each film boasts a run time of nearly three hours each, so if you square away a chunk of time to watch them over the next week, you’ll have the series completed by the time the fourth episode of The Offer premieres on May 5.