The Sicilian towns of Savoca and Forza d'Agro outside of Taormina.
The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Based on Puzo's 1969 novel of the same name, the film stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a powerful New York crime family. On March 29, 1971, The Godfather, considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made, began principal photography in New York City. Because the film is a period piece, The Godfather actually presents a fascinating record of what 1940s-era New York City locations still existed in the early-1970s. The Godfather filming location: Woltz’s West Coast villa: Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. The exterior of Woltz's mansion, seen also as Whitney Houston 's estate in The Bodyguard, really is Los Angeles. It's the enormous Beverly Hills estate at 1011 North Beverly Drive. The film's famous score was composed by Nino Rota. Francis Coppola's father Carmine Coppola contributed to the music performed in the film's wedding scene. Later, his son would call on him to compose additional music for the score of The Godfather Part II (1974) and most of the score for The Godfather Part III (1990). The ensuing shoot-out was filmed outside on East Seventh Street. When Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) visits Hyman Roth (legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg) in Miami it’s the real thing, but ‘Cuba’ was clearly out of the question. The Godfather III filming locations. 956 5th Avenue and East 77th Street is where the Corleone’s stayed during their time in New York City. It’s a fantastic and very expensive Upper East Side location, so its safe to say business was booming for the family. *Film, not bullets ;). Many of these shooting locations were taken from Ira Zuckerman's The Godfather Journal (1972). Although Zuckerman was an assistant to Coppola, and presumably was at the filming locales, many of them seemed to be wrong.  Since Corleone, Sicily, was too developed even in the early 70s to be used for filming, the Sicilian towns of Savoca and Forza d'Agro outside of Taormina were used instead.
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where was the godfather filmed