Coppola co-founded his studio American Zoetrope in 1969, along with another young filmmaker by the name of George Lucas. Their plan was to use the studio to gain financing outside the established Hollywood system, enabling them to make the kind of films they couldn't otherwise—and Apocalypse Now was to be the launchpad for their operation.

The screenplay by veteran scribe John Milius was an updated retelling of the 1899 Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness, with the setting changed to Vietnam, where war was currently raging. Coppola intended for Lucas to direct the picture, but as the war became increasingly controversial among the public, they found themselves unable to secure financing. The film was put on hold, and Coppola accepted a job from Paramount Pictures, directing one of his most successful films—The Godfather—largely to keep his own studio from going broke.

The Godfather's Oscar-winning success—along with that of its sequel and 1974's The Conversation, which was nominated for Best Picture and for Coppola's original screenplay—kept American Zoetrope afloat, and by 1976 Apocalypse Now was finally ready to be put into production. By that time, however, Lucas had become sidetracked with a little project called Star Wars, a movie which Coppola has mixed feelings about to this day. Speaking with Screen Daily, he said, "I think Star Wars, it's a pity, because George Lucas was a very experimental crazy guy and he got lost in this big production and never got out of it."