<P> Paramount wanted The Godfather to appeal to a wide audience and threatened Coppola with a "violence coach" to make the film more exciting . Coppola added a few more violent scenes to keep the studio happy . The scene in which Connie smashes crockery after finding out Carlo has been cheating was added for this reason . </P> <P> On April 14, 1970, it was revealed that Puzo was hired by Paramount for $100,000, along with a percentage of the film's profits, to work on the screenplay for the film . Working from the book, Coppola wanted to have the themes of culture, character, power, and family at the forefront of the film, whereas Puzo wanted to retain aspects from his novel and his initial draft of 150 pages was finished on August 10, 1970 . After Coppola was hired as director, both Puzo and Coppola worked on the screenplay, but separately . Puzo worked on his draft in Los Angeles, while Coppola wrote his version in San Francisco . Coppola created a book where he tore pages out of Puzo's book and pasted them into the book . There, he made notes about each of the book's fifty scenes, which related to major themes prevalent in the scene, whether the scene should be included in the film, along with ideas and concepts that could be used when filming to make the film true to Italian culture . The two remained in contact while they wrote their respective screenplays and made decisions on what to include and what to remove for the final version . A second draft was completed on March 1, 1971, and was 173 pages long . The final screenplay was finished on March 29, 1971, wound up being 163 pages long, 40 pages over what Paramount had asked for . When filming, Coppola referred to the notebook he had created over the final draft of the screenplay . Screenwriter Robert Towne did uncredited work on the script, particularly on the Pacino - Brando garden scene . Despite finishing the third draft, some scenes in the film were still not written yet and were written during production . </P> <P> The Italian - American Civil Rights League wanted all uses of the words "mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" to be removed from the script, in addition to feeling that the film emphasized stereotypes about Italian - Americans . The league also requested that all the money earned from the premiere be donated to the league's fund to build a new hospital . Coppola claimed that Puzo's screenplay only contained two instances of the word "mafia" being used, while "Cosa Nostra" was not used at all . Those two uses were removed and replaced with other terms, which Coppola felt did not change the story at all . The league eventually gave its support for the script . </P> <P> Puzo was first to show interest in having Marlon Brando portray Don Vito Corleone by sending a letter to Brando in which he stated Brando was the "only actor who can play the Godfather ." Despite Puzo's wishes, the executives at Paramount were against having Brando play the part due to the poor success of his recent films and his short temper . Coppola favored Brando or Laurence Olivier for the role, but Olivier's agent refused the role claiming Olivier was sick; however, Olivier went on to star in Sleuth later that year . The studio mainly pushed for Ernest Borgnine to receive the part . Other considerations were George C. Scott, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, and Orson Welles . </P>

What word was dropped from the film the godfather