Executive producer Dexter Fletcher discusses TheOffer, finding the right cast for the series, and working on 'Ghosted' with Chris Evans.
Based on the extraordinary experiences of Academy Award-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy while making The Godfather, the Paramount+ original series The Offer shows the wild journey the New York City gangster film that had the approval of the actual mob remarkably took on its way to becoming one of the great cinematic masterpieces.
DEXTER FLETCHER: Not really. The things that have happened across my desk, it’s about what has engaged my imagination or what I feel connected to. This is such an incredible period in history with incredible characters that I was immediately attracted to that, with the film as the backdrop to these amazing characters. Obviously, true stories, or the stories about real people, are intriguing. And I do understand that there’s creative license you have to take, in order to tell the story well.
After everything that you learned in order to tell this story, are you surprised that not only did The Godfather get made at all, but that it somehow became one of the greatest films of all time? Are you surprised it ever actually got finished? FLETCHER: You’re right, it has such a huge cast. Certainly, in those initial episodes, you’re introducing everyone as fully as you can and giving them enough character and screen time, so that the audience sticks with them, and understands and knows who they are. That’s certainly a challenge in storytelling terms, which was new to me because I come from film. I generally have a bit more time to spend with my characters and there’s fewer of them.
I’ve spoken to several of the actors in this cast, and the one thing they all said to me, along with the fact that they were nervous about taking on these roles, is that you’re very persuasive and that you knew how to build their confidence. They all seemed to feel like that you really created a safe space for them to play a character that they thought was scary to take on.