As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride (3 page)

Acknowledgments

About Cary Elwes and Joe Layden

Index

For my little princess, Dominique

W
illiam Goldman once said about the movie business, “Nobody knows anything.”
The Princess Bride
is Exhibit A in defense of that truism.

As I was starting my career as a filmmaker, I thought, naively, Why not make a film based on
The Princess Bride
? That should be easy. It’s a brilliant story written by one of America’s greatest writers. Why wouldn’t everyone just jump at this idea? Little did I know that for fifteen years it had been the story that no studio would touch. Fortunately, Norman Lear, my
All in the Family
boss, and the man whom I would come to call my second father, had faith in this wonderful fractured fairy tale.

Making
The Princess Bride
was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Living in England for six months, working with old friends, and people who would become old friends, creating a film based on my favorite book of all time. Nothing could be more satisfying.

When you start a film, you have an idea of what you want it to become, but you never know if anyone else will share your interest. Bill Goldman once referred to the book he wanted on his tombstone as an oddball story. When it came time for the movie’s release, no one had any idea of how to sell it. Was it a fairy tale? Was it a swashbuckling adventure? Was it a love story? Or was it just a nutty satire? The fact is it was, and is, all of the above. Not easy to capture in a two-minute preview trailer or a thirty-second TV ad.

We opened to some critical success, but only moderate business. Luckily through VHS, DVD, and TV it managed to take hold, and over the past twenty-five years its popularity has grown. I can’t tell you the pleasure I get from people who first saw it when they were kids, telling me how much their kids love it. What a thrill to know that a film you’ve had a hand in is getting passed down to future generations.

Reading Cary’s book has brought back wonderful memories. He has so beautifully recounted what was for me, and I’m sure for all of us, one of the truly great creative experiences of our lives. He takes us, as only he can, through the Man in Black’s eye view of the world of the R.O.U.S., Miracle Max, and the Cliffs of Insanity. And he does it with style and grace. So curl up in a comfy spot and have fun storming the castle.

—Rob Reiner

S
tanding onstage at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, surrounded by cast members and some of the crew, many of whom I’ve not seen in years, I feel an almost overwhelming sense of gratitude and nostalgia. We have gathered here at the New York Film Festival to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of
The Princess Bride,
a movie whose popularity and resonance now span generations.

That fact alone boggles the mind—how such a quirky and modestly conceived film could achieve such a lofty position in the pantheon of popular culture. What really strikes me, though, as I look down the row at the faces of my fellow actors, is how quickly the time has passed. Has it really been twenty-five years? A quarter century? The passing of time is most critically noted by those who are missing, the great Peter Falk and that gentle mountain of a man, André the Giant. But to counter that sadness is the camaraderie of being back with those who are here
tonight and who stood alongside me so many years ago: Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Wallace Shawn, Chris Sarandon, and Mandy Patinkin, not to mention Robin Wright, looking as lovely as she did the day I first laid eyes on her so many years ago. Then again, she has always set a rather ridiculously high standard for beauty, and that seems not to have changed. The only ones who couldn’t make it were Christopher Guest and Fred Savage, who unfortunately were busy working on other projects.

This is a night of red carpets and remembrance, of interviews and a screening filled with laughter and joy. It is also only the third time that I have seen the film in its entirety with an audience since its initial screening in 1987 at the Toronto Film Festival. That previous event, while successful, did not exactly produce the sort of response one would expect of a film destined to become a classic.

Is it fair to call
The Princess Bride
a classic? The storybook story about pirates and princesses, giants and wizards, Cliffs of Insanity and Rodents of Unusual Size? It’s certainly one of the most often quoted films in cinema history, with lines like:

 
“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

 
“Inconceivable!”

 
“Anybody want a peanut?”

 
“Have fun storming the castle.”

 
“Never get involved in a land war in Asia.”

 
“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

 
“Rest well, and dream of large women.”

 
“I hate for people to die embarrassed.”

 
“Please consider me as an alternative to suicide.”

 
“This is true love. You think this happens every day?”