The Long History of The Princess Bride (1987): From Development Hell to Beloved Classic
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The Princess Bride started life as a 1973 novel written by William Goldman and was almost immediately tagged as a potential film.
What should’ve been fairly straightforward, adapting The Princess Bride novel for the screen, instead was an arduous decade long process.
And no one could’ve predicted what would happen after. Well, except for Barry Diller.
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Bride
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Bride_(novel)
https://variety.com/2017/film/features/the-princess-bride-turns-30-1202565060/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/entertainment/movies/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-princess-bride
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Goldman
https://ew.com/movies/2011/10/14/princess-bride-oral-history/
https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/princess-bride-turns-30-cary-elwes-shares-stories/story?id=49990697
https://web.archive.org/web/20210807091322/https://www.indiewire.com/2012/09/5-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-princess-bride-on-its-25th-anniversary-105642/amp/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-it-was-like-finding-the-legendary-cast-of-the-princess-bride/
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/1987W41/occasion/us_indig_peoples_day_weekend/?ref_=bo_rl_table_3
https://www.newspapers.com/image/905956913/?match=2&terms=the%20princess%20bride
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1277606334/?match=1&terms=the%20princess%20bride
https://www.newspapers.com/image/900896022/?match=1&terms=the%20princess%20bride
https://www.newspapers.com/image/360937258/?match=2&terms=the%20princess%20bride
https://archive.ph/efq72
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@SecretGalaxyTV
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Check out my sponsor Zocdoc and stop putting off those doctors appointments. Go to https://zocdoc.com/SECRETGALAXY to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.
@orangesox915
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Classic!
@sleepinglionarchives
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
I am beyond thankful Richard Lester wasn't allowed to touch this project
@bicyclelife7088
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
No mention of Deadpool with Fred Savage and the recreation of the bedroom.
@Cyril29a
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
It was my date movie all through my teens. Invite a girl over to watch a movie, I somehow landed a screening copy on VHS from a film to vhs transfer company I had a connection with. That movie made my teens and early twenties significantly more interesting.
@ScottBlade-e9v
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
My favorite story about the making of this movie is Robin Wright talking about Andre and how he kept her warm by putting his hand over her head and how she had to be put in a harness just so she could drop just a few feet into his arms because his back was in such bad shape he couldn't even hold her up
@nathanowen1328
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
I was given a copy of the book for my tenth birthday before the film came out. Like the fictional Goldman, I was an uninterested reader at the time, and like the fictional Goldman, this book turned my appetite for quality storytelling voracious. I not only love this book, I owe much of who I am today to it.
@hewiy33
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
as you wish…
@Michael_aka_Psycho
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
One of the greatest movies ever made. And I will fight you in the streets if you disagree.
@BrenTrenn
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
RIP Rob Reiner ✝️
Terrible tragedy. May he rest in eternal peace 🙏
@DrBeastMcCoy
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
now would be the perfect time for a remake of The princess Bride with Fred Savage as the guy reading the book to his son or grandson
@DrBeastMcCoy
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Robin wright read for The princess Bride at the director's house?
🤨
@davidclifford6125
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
More videos like this please!
@stevencooper564
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Rest in Peace, Rob Reiner. Gonna have to throw this on again, for old times sake
@FemmefromtheBlock
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
I grew up with a taped-off-tv vhs of The Princess Bride so it wasn’t until my 20s that I saw Westley actually stab the ROUS or realized There was an SOB after Inigo’s line, “I want my father back.”
@SirSkud
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Absolutely on my "stranded on an island" list
@jimmyzbike
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Fam from way back. I’ve owned it on DVD, then blu-ray, and now 4K. I’d buy it again on the next physical that comes out in the future.
@graysound820
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
I saw the movie by myself in '87 and it felt like I was the only one who saw it. Maybe a year later, soon after the Entertainment Channel (E!) was launched, they had a contest for the first so-many people who sent in a postcard with their favorite song from a movie written on it (mine was "Is Your Love Strong Enough" from the movie Legend). I won a VHS copy of the Princess Bride. Still have it.
@arcoliatiggett1869
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Love love love this movie; classic and close to perfection.
@travismiller4320
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Yep, will never forget in summer of 1988, when I was 8 went to dad’s house for his weekend and aunt and uncle rented My Life as a Dog and The Princess Bride. Watched My Life as a Dog and told them “Great now both movies we rented suck” but they both insisted The Princess Bride was great and to at least give it a chance and watch it…needless to say they were right and I’ve loved it since almost 40 years later.
@Major_Arschloch
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
The Pandemic version was Carl Reiner's last role before his death, meaning his last words on film were to his son, and were "As you wish"
@BonkyTrollDoll
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
I waited SOOOOOOOOOO many years for this damn movie to get made. I picked the book up at a second hand book shop, not knowing anything about it or the author. Right there on the front it said "SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!!!" and after reading it (again and again) I was super stoked.
10. Goddam. Years. I didn't know it was possible to be both happy and pissed at the same time until this movie finally came out when I was in high school. But when I saw the movie and it was actually GOOD, I was just very happy. For the cherry on top, my high school theater performed an adaptation and I got to be both Vezzini and Prince Humperdink. To say it was worth the wait would be an understatement. I feel like Mandy Patinkin in that interview up there.🥲
@fusionspace175
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Presumably they spent the rest of their lives together, until the 2026 sequel of course, in which we discover that Buttercup actually was under an evil spell the whole time and never loved Wesley. Upon the curse being broken at the start of the film, she proceed to defeat him in a sword fight, then stomps on his genitals for twenty minutes while screeching every complaint the writers feel like putting in there, along with any random complaints women on set wrote down in a notebook they passed around, all with Wesley profusely apologizing for all men the entire time. Once he is again nearly dead, she leaves him to his fate, and goes on to break the spell of True Love which has held all women in that world captive to men since time out of mind, defeating a decrepit evil old male wizard with the power of her moral superiority, which has magically become a chipper talking sword and a flying pony. Box office projections are beyond imagination.
@pensado3000
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
i would watch this with my mom. she's gone now. and, all i can say is: "as she wished."
@JackofallTrails-k2l
July 5, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Stephen King lived in Portland for a time, probably during the period mentioned, but I’ll be very surprised if you don’t get a few prideful comments from my hometown insisting you should have said “Bangor Maine’s Stephen King.” Lil Wayne cancellations notwithstanding, Bangor doesn’t have much to put it on the map and they can be pretty vocal about their only resident international celebrity
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