Whether you’re a teenage girl at your first sleepover or a cynical comedy fan stuck in the 1980s, chances are that you bloody love The Princess Bride. Of course you do! Nobody doesn’t love The Princess Bride! It’s probably one of the most comfy, rewatchable comedies out there, and for good reason.
This thing is filled with legendary comic performances from Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal and Carol Kane, a somehow note-perfect Andre The Giant, and more quotable quotes than you can shake a six-fingered sword at. The very idea of some ne’er-do-well producer attempting to replicate its charms today is, in the words of Vizzini, “inconceivable!”
Right?
Alas. In an article about the enduring TV and film work of American humourist Norman Lear, who was a producer on the beloved film way back in 1987, Sony CEO Tony Vinciquerra brought up the potential for a remake. Sure, there’s room to believe that Vinciquerra may have just been bringing up the William Goldman-penned fantasy comedy as an example of the great stuff Lear has been responsible for in the past, but it didn’t help that he excitedly mentioned “very famous people whose names I won’t use”, saying, “they want to redo The Princess Bride. Not a month goes by when we don’t have an idea coming from some very big names wanting to do things with Norman.”
Predictably, the internet did not like this. A quick glance at Twitter reveals just how deep-seated an entire generation’s love for this movie is. Most commentators were able to weaponize their obsessive knowledge for The Princess Bride in the form of criticism:
When they want to reboot “The Princess Bride” now pic.twitter.com/e0umfME8c3
— TrivWorks (@TrivWorks) September 17, 2019
My promise to anyone who does this: “Your ears you keep, so that every shriek of every child shall be yours to cherish—every babe that weeps in fear at your approach, every woman that cries ‘Dear God, what is that thing?’ will reverberate forever with your perfect ears.” https://t.co/Nm96URd0r3
— Dr. Jessie Christiansen (@aussiastronomer) September 17, 2019
You’ve fallen for one of the two classic blunders! The first being never get involved in a land war in Asia but only slightly lesser known: never go in on a Princess Bride reboot! https://t.co/1AZkr41gDI
— Adam Lance Garcia (@AdamLanceGarcia) September 17, 2019
Oh well – as the vitriolic but ultimately empty social media storm from Paul Feig’s 2016 female-driven Ghostbusters reboot proved, there’s typically no point in fighting Hollywood’s cannibalistic ability to flip its most sacred properties for a new generation. Stay tuned for updates on Timotheé Chalamet’s interest in the Inigo Montoya role, and I don’t know, the eponymous tall girl from Netflix’s The Tall Girl as Fezzik or something.
