Paramount+’s limited series The Offer tells the tumultuous story of the making of The Godfather. The Oscar-winning classic stumped filmmakers at every turn and, according to the series, almost didn’t see the light of day. The beauty of this series is how it so lovingly brings to life the movie-making obsession that has inspired so many great artists.
While retelling this story didn’t prove nearly as complex or deadly as with its inspiration, the creative team behind The Offer faced a daunting task given the dual periods of the 1940s and the late 1960s/early 1970s invoked in the limited series. Production designer Laurence Bennett, an Oscar nominee for The Artist, needed to recreate key Godfather locations within the Los Angeles filming locale. That includes recreating the infamous house and wedding sequence that begins the film as well as representations of the Sicilian film shoot.
On top of that, Bennett needed to create the behind-the-scenes filming world of the early 1970s. That included backlots and production offices in Los Angeles plus Gulf & Western corporate offices in New York City.
All of that on a 9-month engagement with the project.
Take a look at Awards Daily’s interview with The Offer production designer Laurence Bennett and find out how he achieved it all so realistically and so beautifully.
The Offer streams exclusively on Paramount+.