Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya.
You killed my father.
Prepare to die.
- In just a couple of weeks, 'The Princess Bride' will celebrate the 30th anniversary
of its release, just another gem from 1987 that is way too beloved for us to pass up.
But considering how much you guys were into our last episode on 'Spaceballs',
we figure you guys aren't sick of the nostalgia just yet.
So here are seven things you didn't know about 'The Princess Bride', probably.
(Sound) - What, what?
- Sure, 'The Princess Bride' is a super famous movie classic now.
But that didn't spare it from being in development hell for so
long that William Goldman, who wrote the book and the screenplay,
was convinced the film would never get made.
- That would be inconceivable.
- At one point, he even bought the rights to his own book back because
the screenplay had been sitting around not getting made for a dozen years.
Norman Jewison was attached to direct at one point, boom, bonus thing.
- Ooh ooh ooh, look who knows so much?
And even after Rob Reiner was on board to direct and
they were a week away from starting principal photography in England, it still
almost didn't happen because they hadn't secured the financing to make the movie.
It only came through at the absolute last minute, before the cast and
crew headed to London.
In other words, it's basically a miracle that 'The Princess Bride' ever got made at
all, let alone turned out as great at it is did.
- That's wonderful.
(Sound) - Development hell and
financing weren't the only challenges that 'The Princess Bride' faced.
Nailing the casting was critical.
And if some had had their druthers, we would have had a very different movie.
- Inconceivable.
- For one, Fezzik was almost played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- What?
- Though William Goldman had always written the part with Andre
the Giant in mind, ironically, in the 70s, Arnold was way more gettable than Andre.
Andre was busy with his pro wrestling career, whereas,
Arnold was actually interested in the role early on.
But, by the time they finally got around to making the film,
Arnold had become way too famous.
And by that, I mean he'd become way too expensive.
They even offered the role to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at some point.
But he was too busy with the NBA.
With Andre being over 7' tall and some 500 pounds,
it was pretty clear that no one else on Earth could really have played that part.
- It's not my fault being the biggest and the strongest.
I don't even exercise.
- Arnold may be 6'2'', but he looks tiny compared to Andre.
That other super tall guy is Wilt Chamberlain by the way.
Andre was so big that once when he got pneumonia as a young man,
he lost 100 pounds in three weeks.
You've got to be absolutely massive to not only lose that much
weight in just a few weeks, but to bounce back from it.
Sadly, Andre the Giant passed away at just 46 years old in 1993.
And with those super sad bonus things, let's move on.
(Sound) All that wrestling in the 70's and 80's wasn't the best thing for
Andre the Giant's back, which made some of the stunts on set a lot trickier to do.
Take this scene where Westley fights Fezzik.
They actually had to use a stunt double for this part where Cary Elwes jumps onto
his back, because Andre simply could not perform the stunt.
It would have been excruciating.
In every wide shot where Westley is on Fezzik's back, they use the double.
And if you look closely,
you can tell the double was significantly smaller than Andre was.
Meanwhile, for the close-up shots from the front with Westley hanging on his back,
they had to devise two special ramps for Elwes to stand on, so
that he wasn't really putting any of his weight on Andre.
- I do not envy you the headache you will have when you awake.
But in the meantime, rest well, dream of large women.
- And here, when he catches Buttercup,
they had to have her jump from just a foot or two above the frame.
And they had Andre leaning against a board to absorb the impact when he catches her.
You can even see the board behind him.
(Music)
We mentioned earlier that 'The Princess Bride' was shot entirely in Europe,
except for one shot, specifically, this shot.
- As you wish.
- Rob Reiner didn't like the way he directed Peter Falk in the original take.
So they did that one line as a pick-up back in LA.
Once you know that, it does stand out as slightly off from the rest of the scene.
So, sorry I ruined that for you, I guess.
Moving on.
(Sound) - It's not that bad.
- Here's the thing about the ROUSs.
- Rodents of unusual size?
I don't think they exist.
- (Sound) The sounds they're making?
That's the director, Rob Reiner.
He looped all the sounds while in post.
And then they ran his noises through harmonizers and
added effects to get the unique sound they have in the film.
Reiner nearly lost his voice creating the bass sounds for the ROUSs,
only to find out that the sound engineer had forgotten to push record.
So he had to do it all over again.
- Inconceivable.
- Inconceivable is right.
I mean the sound dude had one job.
Next thing.
(Sound) - Go to 50!
- Andre the Giant had his back issues.
But he wasn't the only one working through some intense pain on-set.
In this scene, Cary Elwes was barely able to walk because he'd been in a dune buggy
crash the day before, which nearly broke his ankle.
If you look closely, you can see how carefully he's walking.
And when he lowers himself to the ground,
he does it in a way that avoids putting any weight on his busted ankle.
Then, when he has to get back up,
he basically does a one-legged squat type of deal to protect the injured side.
Elwes insisted on going through with the scenes they'd planned for that day,
even though Rob Reiner had wanted to figure out a way to work around the still
fresh injury.
What a trooper.
And what a last thing we're about to get into right now.
- You can die too for all I care!
- Ooh!
- Segway.
- Let's do one more real quick.
(Music)
- Let's wrap up with a good old-fashioned easter egg.
Rob Reiner convinced Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights to do the music for
'The Princess Bride'.
But, Knopfler only agreed to do it one condition, that they pay him.
- Inconceivable.
- You keep using that word.
I do not think it means what you think it means.
- Well, I guess it was technically two conditions.
Because he also demanded that Reiner find a way to have the hat he wore in 'This
Is Spinal Tap' appear somewhere in the movie.
And there it is, on the lamp in the grandson's, AKA Fred Savage's, bedroom.
Okay, I guess Reiner sort of took the easy way out by putting it in there,
instead of finding a way to put it somewhere in Humperdinck's castle.
But at least he held up his end of the deal.
(Sound) That's it for us today.
But, we've got some leftover things we didn't have time for today.
So, if you guys do want to part two, hit the thumbs up.
And we will do as you wish.
Thanks for watching.
And subscribe to Cinefix for more truish things about movies, and frankly not often
enough about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, right here on 'Things You Didn't Know'.
(Music)
The end.
Now, I think you ought to go to sleep.