The Cotton Club Movie Fiasco — Mistakes Were Made

Francis Ford Coppola directing, Mario Puzo writing the script and Robert Evans as a producer, how can a film with this team fail? This is the same team behind the Godfather 1 and 2, two of the best movies of all time. The Cotton Club was going to be the next big thing for them, right? Not so much. It was a movie plagued with many problems.

The thinking behind the Cotton Club was good. Robert Evans hoped the film would bring public attention to the Harlem Renaissance era of African American history. The movie got some bad news early on when Paramount pulled out of the movie in 1981. Then, the film was delayed because Robert Evans had to produce anti-drugs public service advertisements. These ads resulted from a Plea Bargain, Evans struck because of a drug conviction.

We move to 1983, where Evans asks Coppola and William Kennedy to rewrite Puzo’s script. Evans was initially planning to direct the movie, but then turned around and asked Coppola to direct it. Coppola and Evans had bad blood from their skirmishes during the Godfather movies production, but both were broke and needed each other. By the time of this decision, they had already committed $13 million dollars to the screenplay, its rewrite and the hiring of Coppola.

Because of Paramount dropping the film, Evans had to secure outside funding for the…