A couple of years ago movie fans had a minor heart attack when there was reportedly some interest in the idea of remaking The Princess Bride. Even at the time it did not seem like there were any active plans to try and do this, but somebody somewhere apparently thought it was a good idea at the time. Cary Elwes made clear at the time that he didn’t like the idea, and he recently doubled down on that, though he admits he completely understands why a studio might be interested in doing the remake.
Whatever else Cary Elwes does in his career, he will almost certainly be known for The Princess Bride before all else. His connection to the film likely makes him somewhat protective of it, and so, when the idea of a Princess Bride remake was brought up, he was certainly not excited. He recently told THR that his feelings on the topic have not changed. While he understands why a desire to remake the movie might exist, he feels that Princess Bride is in a unique class of movie that should be left alone. He explains…
For the studios, the cost of promotion and advertising has become so prohibitive now that they want to cut down on that. Their feeling is that when they do a reboot or remake, they have a target audience, so they don’t have to spend as much on marketing. So I understand the motivation. But my theory is, look, if the movie is popular and it’s done well, and people love it, I think it’s pretty much best left alone. If a film has landed in the hearts of the public, then, to me, it is not a good idea to try and revisit it.
It’s not exactly news that movie studios hate to take risks. They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on film projects, and they want to have as much assurance as possible that those movies will give them a return on their investment. One of the major ways this is done is by using properties that people are already fans of, thus all the remakes, reboots, and adaptations that we see.
While The Princess Bride was anything but a box office smash at the time of its release, it is perhaps one of the most universally beloved films, maybe ever. It would be difficult to find a modern movie fan who has not seen it and who does not also love it. Difficult, though not impossible.
For the most part fans are ok with all the reboots, we even love some of them. And a good remake can exist alongside a good original, especially if the remake adds something to the original. But some movies certainly feel like there’s nothing that could be added, and many would likely agree that The Princess Bride is one of those.