Trivia / The Sicilian

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $16.5 million. Box office, $5,406,879 (domestic). This film continued the descent of Michael Cimino's career. Cimino and the film were also hurt by a post-production editing incident with Cimino being Cimino, which landed him in court.
• Divorced Installment: The film was based on a novel that was a Spin-Off of The Godfather focusing on Michael Corelone's exile in Sicily, but all references had to be removed for copyright reasons.
• Fake Nationality: The only actors in the film adaptation who are actually Italian are John Turturro (Aspanu)^note Turturro was born in New York but has Italian citizenship through his immigrant father, and his mother has roots in Sicily. ​and Giulia Boschi (Giovanna). The titular Sicilian is played by the French actor Christopher Lambert.
• Troubled Production: While nowhere as well-known (or troubled) as Heaven's Gate, it still deserves a mention:
  • The film was an adaptation of the Mario Puzo novel, and Puzo was paid $1 million for the rights. In pre-production, producers David Begelman and Bruce McNall learned that Paramount Pictures had the rights to Michael Corleone as a character, so he had to be written out of the film. They hired Michael Cimino to direct, but Cimino butted heads with Begelman over the screenplay and casting - Cimino wanted Christopher Lambert to play the lead, but Begelman (understandably) didn't want a French actor to play an Italian-American in an English-language movie. Begelman and McNall eventually caved so that production could move forward. Meanwhile, Gore Vidal had been hired for major rewrites, and sued the Writer's Guild of America and screenwriter Steve Shagan for a writing credit.
  • Production itself was relatively smooth, and, while the film did go over-budget and behind schedule, this was mostly because of delays that were out of Cimino's control. There was one exception - some shooting locations were controlled by actual mafia men, who were disrupting the shoot. Cimino suggested Begelman and McNall meet the criminals, which they did, finding out that the mobsters wanted parts in the movie. The producers decided to incorporate them in minor roles and as extras, which gave Cimino access to new shooting locations and local labour.
  • This relative smoothness was not to last - in post-production, Cimino disappeared for months in editing, finally delivering a 150-minute cut of the film which he refused to make any changes to. However, in his contract, Cimino had the right to final cut only if he delivered the film at under 120 minutes. Things got worse when the distributor, 20th Century Fox, flatly refused to distribute the film unless it came in under two hours. Once this information was relayed to Cimino, he became enraged, and, days later, he delivered a cut of the film with all of the action scenes removed, which brought it under 120 minutes but angered the producers.
  • Things really hit the fan when, in response to Cimino's cut, the producers took Cimino to court, claiming he had cost the studio money and violated his contract. The producers hired Burt Fields, a lawyer who had earlier represented Warren Beatty in his battle for final cut on Reds, and who, in doing so, established legal precedent that a filmmaker's contractual right to final cut was absolutely binding.
  • When producer Dino De Laurentiis was called to the stand to testify on whether Cimino was given final cut, De Laurentiis said:
    De Laurentiis: Final cut? I no give-a him final cut.
    Fields: But we've seen the contract.
    De Laurentiis: Have you seen the side letter?
  • Turns out, when Cimino signed his contract with De Laurentiis - a contract which did give Cimino final cut privilege - attached to it was a side letter, written by De Laurentiis, that stated Cimino did not have final cut on an earlier film, Year of the Dragon. The producers argued that, because Cimino withheld the letter, he was intentionally defrauding them. The judge agreed, and Begelman personally reinstated the action scenes and cut the film down to 115 minutes for release, without Cimino's involvement. The Sicilian was eventually released in 1987, to negative reviews and commercial indifference. A 149-minute "Director's Cut" did emerge, and, while it has received better reviews, with critics finding it more cohesive, reception was still average at best.
• Uncredited Role: Gore Vidal did uncredited work on the script. He later sued the Writer's Guild for not giving him credit.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Albert Finney was offered the role of Don Croce. He was starring in a West End play at the time and declined, as there was no script. Ian Holm was also considered.
  • Dirk Bogarde was offered the part of Prince Borsa.

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