Apocalypse Now Lobby Card 8 11x14 Original 1979 Martin Sheen
USA Lobby Card 8 original 11"x14".Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard (Martin Sheen). Willard is sent on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. Sheen was not the first choice for this role. Steve McQueen was Coppola's first choice to play Willard, but McQueen didn’t want to leave America for three months and Coppola was unwilling to pay his $3 million fee. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper and Scott Glenn. George Lucas was originally going to direct the film in the early stages and Coppola was the producer however Lucas became un-available. Initially set to be a five-month shoot in the Philippines starting in March 1976, a series of problems lengthened it to over a year. These problems included expensive sets being destroyed by severe weather, Brando showing up on set overweight and completely unprepared, and Sheen having a breakdown and suffering a near-fatal heart attack on location. The film was ultimately nominated for eight Academy Awards and commercially it was a huge success. Today it is considered as one of the greatest films ever made.
