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THFrancis Ford Coppola believed that Marlon Brando was familiar with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", the novel on which the movie is based. When Brando arrived on-set, Coppola was horrified to find that Brando had never read "Heart of Darkness", did not know his lines, and had become extremely overweight. Kurtz had always been written as tall and very thin. After some panic, Coppola decided to film the 5' 10" Brando as if he was a massively built, 6'5" brute to explain his size, and kept the camera away from his huge belly.
Marlon Brando was paid $1 million in advance. He threatened to quit and keep the advance. Francis Ford Coppola told his agent that he didn't care, and if they couldn't get Brando, they would try Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, or Al Pacino. Brando eventually turned up late, drunk, and about 88 pounds (40 kg.) overweight. He admitted he hadn't read the script or "Heart of Darkness". He read Coppola's script, and refused to do it. After several days of arguments over single lines of dialogue, Coppola agreed to an ad-lib style script, with Brando filmed mostly in shadows.
Apocalypse Now (1979).
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