Singer, but was replaced by Richard Fleischer halfway through principal photography. He was originally offered to direct The Godfather by producer Albert S. Ruddy, but he left the job early in pre-production due to budget disputes, being replaced by Francis Ford Coppola due to the producers' desire to keep the film "ethnic to the core." The film would go on to become a massive critical and financial success, winning the Best Picture Oscar and spawning two sequels. Furie's 1981 horror movie The Entity was declared by Martin Scorsese to be one of the "scariest movies of all time." Furie wrote and directed the 1986 action war film Iron Eagle, adapting a screenplay by writer Kevin Alyn Elders based on the real-life 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident. The film was overshadowed by the release of the similarly-themed Top Gun later that year, but proved successful enough on home video to warrant three sequels, two of which Furie directed. His 1987 superhero film Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was marred by last-minute budget cuts, forcing Furie to resort to cost-cutting tactics including relocating the production from New York to Milton Keynes, scaling-down or outright cutting planned set-pieces, and using cheaper, sub-standard visual effects. The film also suffered from numerous re-edits in post-production, with multiple sub-plots, characters, and a total of 45 minutes of footage being cut. The film was a critical and commercial failure. Since 1991, Furie has mostly directed direct-to-video action and genre films. He has also directed television series like Pensacola: Wings of Gold, Lonesome Dove: The Series, and V.I.P. He and his early film A Cool Sound from Hell were given retrospectives at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, and in 2010 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of Canada. Filmography A Dangerous Age (1958) A Cool Sound from Hell (1959) Dr. Blood's Coffin (1961) The Snake Woman (1961) During One Night (1961) The Young Ones (1961) Three on a Spree (1961) The Boys (1962) Wonderful Life (1964) The Leather Boys (1964) The Ipcress File (1965) The Appaloosa (1966) The Naked Runner (1967) The Lawyer (1970) Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970) Lady Sings the Blues (1972) Hit! (1973) Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York (1975) Gable and Lombard (1976) The Boys in Company C (1977), also writer The Jazz Singer (1980), uncredited The Entity (1982) Purple Hearts (1984) Iron Eagle