Hollywood has always been into remakes and reboots; they’re easier and safer than original ideas! The public doesn’t always go for them, but sometimes even they decide some things are too sacred. A threatened Back to the Future redo wasn’t well-received, including by the person who owns the rights (which he won’t sell). And now the mere mention of unnamed famous people discussing a remake of The Princess Bride — a detail buried in a lengthy Variety piece on television pioneer Norman Lear, one of the film’s executive producers — has been met with swift push-back.
This should be stressed: There is no official Princess Bride remake — yet. The prospect is only mentioned once: As per Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra simply says, “Very famous people whose names I won’t use, but they want to redo The Princess Bride.”
But that was enough to sound alarms. One possible reason: The 1987 original is still aggressively watched. The comical fantasy — adapted from a novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman, by Goldman himself — wasn’t a box office sensation, merely doubling its modest budget. It became one of those films that takes off on home video and television airings, like The Shawshank Redemption, Idiocracy, as well as The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life. Perhaps its absurdist humor, comical digressions, and charmingly lo-fi effects play better on a small screen.
Whatever the reason, simply the whiff of the notion of the concept of the idea of a Princess Bride 2.0 was enough to inspire rage — including from the wife of one of its stars.
https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/1173980868009840640
Others not married to Christopher Guest were also livid.
Abso-fucking-lutely NOT. Do NOT. NO. Just because the Dark Crystal is doing well doesn't mean you can redo nor does it mean classics NEED to be redone. The Princess Bride is perfect as she is. https://t.co/HuTujU7tYn
— HotPinkHobbitMess (@2phatgeeks) September 17, 2019
https://twitter.com/mrfeelswildride/status/1174074132276772865
https://twitter.com/WitekAlex/status/1174089329674788864
https://twitter.com/allitemplebooks/status/1174089322716438529
NO. NO. NO. My mom saw The Princess Bride while waiting for my delivery and I grew up obsessed with it and Buttercup. We're not rebooting it or redoing it. We are leaving The Princess Bride ALONE. Final decision. https://t.co/0LM7bELUHT
— Gianna Fioravante (@ggfioravante) September 17, 2019
https://twitter.com/SarahSahim/status/1174049880815349761
The Princess Bride vs. any potential remake. pic.twitter.com/Bs7XPdhcoV
— Andrew Bauer (@thedynamos) September 17, 2019
Someone across the street started booing and all I can think of is The Princess Bride. pic.twitter.com/XBaLAM5i0b
— Hannah Ray Lambert (@TheHannahRay) September 15, 2019
Will this ever lead anywhere? Who knows? Perhaps others won’t be happy to read the rest of the Variety and discover there’s talk of reboots of Lear’s shows. Anyone else steaming over the possibility of a modern redo of his ahead-of-its-and-even-our-time soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, or even its fake late show spin-off Fernwood 2 Night?
(Via Variety)
