Hollywood executives are notoriously unsentimental when it comes to greenlighting remakes of much-loved movies. Did you cringe in horror at the recent news that remakes of Point Break and Dirty Dancing are in the works? Boo hoo for you. Did you boycott last year’s Karate Kid remake purely on principle? Well, suck on those $359 million worldwide grosses. That said, if anyone ever dreams of remaking director Rob Reiner’s 1987 comic fairy tale The Princess Bride (and it’s hard to imagine the thought hasn’t crossed someone’s mind — after all, there has been talk in recent years of a musical theater version), they’ll have millions of loyal fans of the original wishing for them to be devoured by Rodents of Unusual Size. And it’s not just the fans who would find the very idea inconceivable(!) — cast members from The Princess Bride, who recently came together for the first time in 25 years for EW’s Reunions issue (on stands now), also find the notion appalling. “I hope I’m dead before that happens,” says Mandy Patinkin, who played the swashbuckling Spaniard Inigo Montoya. “I don’t want to have to go through that. Be careful what you even say.”
Spinning off some characters into another movie, though? That’s another question. Billy Crystal tells EW he, for one, thinks that his cantankerous wizard Miracle Max and Max’s not-a-witch wife Valerie (played by Carol Kane) deserve their own movie. “There should be a Max and Valerie movie,” Crystal says. “Start a Twitter thing: ‘We want more Max and Valerie.’ Now we won’t need as much makeup.” Sure, he’s probably joking. Then again, maybe he’s got something there. As spinoff ideas go, to quote Miracle Max, I’ve seen worse.
I hope I’m dead before that happens as well. The movie is perfection.
Now, a musical theater version…I’m curious
We are remaking Star Wars.
I hope that is ok.
My best friend has just announced her wedding with a great man who is a cele+brity!
They met-via { millionaireluv`c`o’m}
It is nice club for rich men or pretty girls mate.
You do not need to be wealthy or famous, but you can meet your true love, it’s worthy a try.
Depending on which film, I could be ok with that.
Cary Elwes is soooooo HOT!!! tee-hee!!
Oh Tom, George Lucas remakes that every time there’s a new medium to exploit!
I am open to a musical theater version too
A musical would be neat, remaking this perfect movie though is beyond a bad idea. Andre the giant and the two other goons are impossible to recast!
I never cared for the original, especially since they couldn’t bother to cast an actual Spaniard in the role of Montoya. Hollywood, land of racial inclusiveness…NOT
I hear ya. And Andre the Giant was NOT an actual giant. Just a really tall normal guy. Disgusting how these Hollywood phonies work.
Are you seriously being facetious enough to compare apples and figs here? Having white/jewish actors play the ridiculously small amount of characters for people of color is part of a huge sociological problem, not only in Hollywood but in America; the “giant” thing is only a snarky retort that has no basis in reality. What, you couldn’t use the “Julia Roberts was not a real pixie fairy” retort? Gimme a break.
Cris, you are a moron if you really think you were funny and “witty” with that answer. Try telling that to the millions of hispanic actors who barely scrape a living playing thugs and/or other stereotypical roles, while white actors get to play not only the substantial roles for whites, but the substantial roles for latinos.
Mandy did a great job. I couldn’t imagine another guy in the role, even if he were the “right” nationality. That doesn’t matter.
Yeah, a great job. *slap* He was so convincing playing a Spaniard who talked with a weird accent that sounded more like Russian-meets-British. Whatever. And Patinkin also played Argentinian in the original Broadway “Evita”. Interesting, whenever a light-skinned latino is up for a white role, he ultimately does not get it, because he doesn’t look the part. And yet, Patinking looks anything BUT Argentinian or Spaniard, and he still got these roles.
Last I checked Spain is in Europe, where white people come from. It’s not like they said he was Dominican or Guatemalan.
LOL thank you, topoopon. In what universe are people from Spain not white?? And I mean, the line between “white” and “Hispanic” is rather blurry anyway, sometimes. Patinkin had the charisma, the intensity, the comedic ability, and the bodily grace to play Inigo Montoya. Does it really matter if he isn’t actually Spanish? How many Americans have played Europeans and vice versa? How many gay people have played straight people and vice versa? The Princess Bride was an American movie made on a moderate budget…why would you expect them to invest the time and money into seeking a Spanish actor with all the right abilities JUST because of his nationality, when they had access to a talented actor in Patinkin? I certainly wish Hollywood weren’t so heavily white-focused in terms of roles and major stars, but b*tching about a non-Spaniard being cast as a Spaniard in a fairy tale set in a kind of alternate-universe Earth is pretty silly.
It is a FAIRY TALE, people. Good grief.
You’re right, the movie has castles and kings in it, so it’s not playing in the US, what are all those US actors doing in it?
Are you even freakin kidding me with the spaniard thing!?! Why must EVERYTHING be about prejudice and racism?!?! And might I remind you that as an Italian, should I be APPALLED at the idea that Andy Garcia, a cuban, played an Italian Mobster in the Godfather Part 3?!!?!? Ohhhhhh no Im sure thats ok!!! Anthony Quinn???? Give me a break people…… if they were only cast in roles that reflected their own nationality, they wouldnt be called “ACTORS”!! Give it up
Wallace Shawn is also not sicilian.
Mel Smith is not an albino.
Mary Martin played Peter Pan.
Al Pacino played a cuban.
Sean Connery played a russian.
Claire Forlani played an american.
Renee Zellweger played a brit.
It’s called acting…
I read somewhere that the guy playing Humperdink is not really a prince. The nerve of those people!
But we can all relax: Christopher Guest is indeed a Baron.
I am greatly offended that Hugh Jackman has been cast as Wolverine…. those Aussies are taking roles from hard working Canadians!
Newsflash: Italians and Spaniards are the same race (white). People from Spain are NOT Latinos, and Mandy Patinkin was fantastic as Inigo Montoya.
Um, Spaniards are white. Hilarious that someone who cries racism doesn’t know the difference between Latinos and Spaniards.
Meg, you clearly have never been to Spain or Argentina. Mandy Pantinkin would fit right in as a Spaniard. And many Argentinians are blonde, blue-eyed. Yes, it’s true. So stop whining.
I’m not sure which is the more ridiculous post: those that don’t think Spaniards are white or the original complainer who wanted an actual Spaniard to play a Spanish character.
I have no idea how many semi-leading actual Spanish actors were there in Hollywood in the 80s (or now for that matter).
Renee Zelwegger is not English (Bridget Jones)
Minnie Driver is not American (Good Will Hunting)
Tom Hanks was not mentally handicapped (Gump)
this list could go on forever.
Christi
I obviously agree with your point DreamOutLoud (I posted pretty much the same thing), but Minnie Driver in Good Will Hunting? Did she ever say she was American? I thought she was just a Brit going to Harvard…
If you don’t like the Princess Bride, I SERIOUSLY pity you.
So, a white grandfather reads to his white grandson a *book* and the child imagines/interpets the events of that book as told to him. Chew on that theory.
you keep using that word…I do not think it means what you think it means…
“racial inclusiveness”? I thought Spaniards were white!?
What if Montoya was a Sephardic Jew ???
Now everyone is happy…
Princess Bride is perfect exactly as it is and I hate even thinking that it could be remade. But this particular dialogue on the board is one of the funniest things I have ever read so thank you for making me scream with laughter at my computer. My neighbours are probably calling the police.
@johnny (et al)
Millions of Hispanic actors????!!!! How many actors do you think support themselves in the world based on acting alone? MAYBE a few thousand?… MAYBE!!??
I don’t like the white-washing (I didn’t watch “21″, for example), but let’s not act like it’s a sociological problem. We could give every role in Hollywood to Hispanics and the rest of the Hispanics would still be having the same problems. It’s like suggesting that all the Black people are okay in the US now, because the MLB allowed Jackie Robinson.
The musical version stalled out. Adam Guettel was supposed to have written it, started, but for some reason stopped. Bummer, too, because it probably would have been great.
If they do, they should call it “Revenge of the Queen.” No wait, that’s another rumored cult movie sequel.
The original is a sublime subversive fantasy. LEAVE it alone! Re-making it nowadays, the story would have Buttercup become the Dread Piratess Roberta rescuing Westley from the 6-breasted woman or something stupid like that! It would, given the movie themes now, be Seth Rogan-ed and Aptow-ed to hell and back. There would be toilet and stoner jokes a-plenty, and star over-the-hill B flatliners or no-name winners of some pathetic TV reality casting show (“Becoming ButterCup: The Florin Challenge-o-palooza”). DO NOT storm this castle! Re-make “Dune” or something else that sucked the first time around….
Not to mention they’d need to write in an Asian kid in a wheelchair to make things Extreme.
i love…love….love mandy patinkin but he has this HUGE EGO that has gotten him into trouble before. lets see….he hopes he is dead before they do a remake!!! he is a broadway/stage thespian….if they decide to do a remake ON BROADWAY, which is where this dood really belongs, would he tell the producers NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOO THANK YOU? i think not. i really think he is talking thru his matzas and think twice about what he tells journalist!!!!!
Hollywood should STOP attempting to re-make classic movies…..
And stop it now!!
Stop it now, I mean it!
Stop it now. I really really mean it!! Alfred Hitchcock never did Birds 1, Birds 2, Birds 3, Birds 4. He made a movie and then moved on and told another story. Hello!
Anybody want a peanut?
The reason is because there is no originality left in Hollywood. They’ve apparently run out of ideas. I sometimes wish I could give them some of mine, but they would probably just steal them, and I would get zippo. Oh well….
Posting about it only spreads the word/puts the idea in more peoples’ heads.
A remake?! Inconceivable!
Winner!
Definitely ‘Like’!
I do not think it means what you think it means.
I think it means exactly what I think it means. Did you miss the reference?
Sean, Rolo is just referencing another line from the movie. I think Andre’s character says it.
@Sean. Rolo’s comment is a line from the movie… Montoya says it to Vizzini.
My bad…
I doff my hat to Rolo, and hang my Princess Bride trivia-deficient head in shame.
Misleading headline
Has this even been discussed or are you at EW just stirring a pot again?
maybe they wanted an excuse to mention the reunion issue – cuz people may not have heard about it
William Goldman’s teased a sequel for years but never gone through with it, hard to mess with such a classic.
Any sequel or pre-quel–no re-make, please–must involve William Goldman. Perhaps his own imagined sequel “Buttercup’s Baby”, Goldman’s own postscript of our heroes and heroine’s lives after their escape from Florin. Anything else would be “inconceivable”!
More Max and Valerie!
When will Hoolywood come up with an original idea and remakes??? What next, rake of The Godfather or Apocalypse Now with some ass wipe tweener as Don
Corleone or Colonel Kurtz? Glad movie channels
exist so I can choose to stay home! Pop in a DVD and watch some real gritty cinema!
Shia LaBeouf as Michael Corleone.
That is too funny – this board is killing me tonight!
If I had to roll dice, I’d think Hollywood would probably remake Pete’s Dragon or The Sure Thing within the next few years.
Next? Hollywood will probably just invest their money in dramatic theater and just keep putting on productions of the works of Shakespeare… I’ve never understood how they can just keep remaking hamlet over and over, write something original…
Or maybe great screenplays are works in their own right and if individuals want to invest their time and money in producing their own “take”, that is their prerogative. Though I’m still not sure why anyone thinks remaking Point Break is a good idea…
As. You. Wish.
Way to invent a story EW…..No one has said anything about a remake except for you guys…..So if they do it….it’s all your guys fault…..
I’m ok with a Blade Runner remake, but the others no!
I think the right director could make a compelling movie as long as they don’t just go for big special effects. Now, a Broadway musical version of the Princess Bride is a fantastic idea.
FYI – Writer of the article was incorrect. The Blade Runner movie rights say they can only make a prequel OR sequel. Doing a remake isn’t allowed by the deal.
Thank god!
There was a rumor a few years ago about a remake with James Franco and Seth Rogan.
Wait?.wasnt that that crap fest “Your Highness?”
Seriously Hiollywood…when in the hell are you finally going to come up with something original instead of all these stupid remakes of movies and TV shows past? And you wonder why the box office is dropping like flies.
I find the idea of a remake horrifying; the Max and Valerie spinoff could be hilarious though.