 The Writers Guild of America (WGA) gave screenplay credit to  Mario Puzo (qv), David Newman (III) (qv), Leslie Newman (qv)  and Robert Benton (I) (qv), although many involved with the  production, including director Richard Donner (qv), credit  Tom Mankiewicz (qv) with writing much of the final shooting  script. To make up for the WGA omitting Mankiewicz name from the  screenplay credits, Donner gave him a "creative consultant" credit,  which appears after the screenplay credit during the opening titles  sequence.