Rob Reiner Discusses the Unique Charm of ‘The Princess Bride’

Rob Reiner’s Journey with ‘The Princess Bride’

Rob Reiner was on a roll. His first film, This Is Spinal Tap, was a comedy tour de force that unleashed the mockumentary form on pop culture. He followed that up with the well-received John Cusack romantic teen comedy The Sure Thing. The studios came calling, and Reiner was eager to adapt a beloved book given to him by his father, comedy icon Carl Reiner.

Meeting with Paramount

“After these first two movies, I had a meeting with Dawn Steel, who was the head of Paramount at the time,” Reiner recounted during the Directors on Directing panel with Paul Feig at San Diego Comic-Con. “She asked me, ‘What do you want to do next?’ I replied, ‘I have something in mind, but I’m not sure if you’ll want to do it.’ She insisted, ‘No, I want to do what you want to do.’ I said, ‘I want to make a movie out of The Princess Bride.’ To which she responded, ‘Anything but that.’”

The Challenge of Adaptation

Reiner discovered that the project had been shopped around to several studios years earlier, all of whom passed. So The Princess Bride was on hold, and he ended up making his next film, Stand by Me, with Columbia Pictures instead.

However, Reiner was undeterred. He was captivated by the 1973 novel, whose full title is The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The “Good Parts” Version, by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman.

Goldman’s Skepticism

Goldman was also a fan of his work. When Reiner first approached him about adapting The Princess Bride, Goldman was skeptical, especially given the previous failures to bring the story to the screen.

“When I first met Bill Goldman to discuss this, he said, ‘This is my favorite thing I’ve ever written, and I want this on my tombstone. What are you going to do with it?’ I assured him I wanted to be as faithful to the book as possible,” Reiner recalled.

Creating the Screenplay

Goldman was eventually won over by the enthusiastic director, and together they refined the screenplay, which was acquired by 20th Century Fox, and sought the perfect cast.

“It’s an oddball movie, when you think about it. It’s got romance, swashbuckling, and satire,” Reiner explained. “The same film that features thrilling sword fights also has a character saying, ‘Never get involved in a land war in Asia.’ It’s a bizarre mix of elements.”

The Cast and Marketing Struggles

Among the cast was Reiner’s good friend, Billy Crystal, who had cameoed in Spinal Tap and would later star in Reiner’s rom-com classic When Harry Met Sally… as Miracle Max.

“Billy gives you gifts,” Reiner said. “When he says, ‘True love… It’s the greatest thing. Except for a nice MLT, a mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, when the mutton is nice and lean, and the tomatoes perfect. I love that sandwich.’ He improvised that. I broke up and had to leave the room.”

Despite its uniqueness, the studio struggled to market The Princess Bride.

“Fox released it without knowing how to promote it. They didn’t even have a trailer or one-sheet. We were concerned because audiences loved it during screenings. I remember when The Wizard of Oz was released, it was a disaster. It bombed, received bad reviews, and people hated it,” Reiner shared.

“I called Barry Diller, the head of Fox at the time, and said, ‘Barry, we have a great film, and nobody knows how to market it. I don’t want to be another Wizard of Oz.’ He replied, ‘Don’t let anyone hear you say that.’”

A Lasting Legacy

The Princess Bride was far from Wizard-level hated. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave it dual thumbs-up. While it was only a modest success at the 1987 box office, its stature has grown over the years. Now considered a classic, The Princess Bride was deemed “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” and selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2016. Reflecting on the journey, Reiner admits he had no expectations of its future success.

“Never, never, never. We just made this movie. Over the years, people embraced it. We never knew it would become so loved.”

Which is almost as good as a nice MLT.