Where to watch Apocalypse Now (1979)

Trivia & production notes

• John Milius wrote the screenplay after George Lucas and Steven Spielberg encouraged him to create a Vietnam War film while he was working as an assistant to Francis Ford Coppola on The Rain People.
• Milius adapted Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to a Vietnam War setting after his college screenwriting professor challenged the class by claiming no screenwriter had ever successfully adapted the novel to film.
• The title Apocalypse Now was inspired by a hippie button badge from the 1960s that read 'Nirvana Now.'
• Milius wrote ten drafts of the screenplay totaling over a thousand pages after Coppola encouraged him to include every scene he wanted in the movie.
• George Lucas planned to direct Apocalypse Now with a budget of $2 million using 16mm cameras and real soldiers, but shelved the project due to studio safety concerns and his commitment to Star Wars and American Graffiti.
• Steve McQueen was Coppola's first choice to play Willard but refused to leave America for three weeks, and when he dropped out in February 1976, Coppola had to return $5 million of the $21 million he had raised.
• Marlon Brando was hired to play Colonel Kurtz for $2 million for one month of work, plus 10% of theatrical rental and television sale rights that earned him around $9 million total.
• Harvey Keitel was cast as Willard based on his performance in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, but was later replaced by Martin Sheen.
• Dennis Hopper's role as a war correspondent grew out of Coppola noticing him talking nonstop on location and deciding to film him greeting the boat crew.
• Sam Bottoms contracted hookworm while filming in the Philippines, and the parasite damaged his liver.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Apocalypse Now, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.