Everything You Need to Know About the Epic War Movie, Apocalypse Now

Into The Heart Of Darkness

Milius was working as an assistant with director Francis Ford Coppola on The Rain People (1969) when he was encouraged by his friends, famed directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, to write a Vietnam War movie. Milius had wanted to fight in the war himself but was rejected for enlistment due to his asthma.

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Writer John Milius. Photo By Alex Berliner/BEI/Shutterstock

It was then that he came up with the idea of taking Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and adapting the story, which was published in 1899 and follows a plot that mostly takes place in Africa for a Vietnam War setting. Coppola offered Milius $15,000 to write the screenplay and another $10,000 if the project got greenlit, so the writer got to work.

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