WHAT WENT WRONG - The Princess Bride

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

What do Chernobyl, Fat Albert, and Andre the Giant have in common? Why, The Princess Bride, of course! Join Lizzie & Chris as they discover how this incredible film took over 14 years to make, why it was NOT a box office success, and how a massive fart can teach you the most important lesson in human empathy.Go Ad-Free - Join Our Patreon!Check Out Our Merch!Follow Us on Instagram!What Movie's Next? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And welcome back to What Went Wrong, your favorite podcast full stop that just so happens to be about movies and how it's nearly impossible to make them, especially a good one. As always, we're your host, Chris Winterbauer, and Lizzie Bassett. And I'm thrilled because we're not covering the Lord of the Rings anymore. No, we're not. I'm so excited to just sit back and enjoy the inconceivable backstory of... The Princess Bride, and it's pretty charming. I think you're going to have a good time. I'm excited.

Also, we want to call out before we get into this that we have gotten some great reviews in particular. We got another one recently calling out that they would love to see us doing some more episodes featuring directors, writers, creators who are women and people of color. We hear you. Yes, we absolutely need to cover more of those on this show. We promise those episodes are coming, unfortunately, because the film industry has frequently been dominated by white men. that has been the majority of the directors and writers that we have talked about, but we need to make more of an effort, and we shall. Exactly. We also got a very long, thoughtful review from someone who, as they said, a love-hate relationship with our show, and all I wanted to say that

this individual was, thank you for taking the time to write to us. While I don't agree with everything that you said, it was very thought-provoking, and I really appreciated it. It was a wild ride. It was. And of course, we always want you to listen. You're always invited. Everybody is invited to listen to our show. We hope we can create a show that appeals to folks of all backgrounds, with the exception of those who leave us three-star reviews for airing reruns. But otherwise, everyone's invited. Just wanted to hammer that nail home. Anyway, let's get to today's episode, Lizzie. Let's do it. All right, well, without further ado, Chris, I'm going to tell you the inconceivable. tale of how the Princess Bride made it to the screen. So right off the bat, let's just get the information out of the way. The Princess Bride was released wide on October 9, 1987, directed by Rob Reiner, written by William Goldman, both the book and the screenplay, starring Carrie Ellis, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Wallace, Sean, and my favorite person in this whole story,

Andre Rene Rousseimov, aka Andre the Giant. You are going to fall in love with him. I love him so much. And as always, the synopsis from IMDB is, a bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farm boy turned pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies, and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.

Now, Chris, today, we are going to discover how this, I think truly incredible movie took over 14 years to make it to the screen why it was not a box office success and how a giant fart can teach you the most important lesson in human empathy. All things I feel like I need this week in particular. Yeah. So I'm thrilled. I really loved this movie growing up. It was a treat to rewatch it.

It is one of those movies that I find only grow up. more charming with age. So it leans so far into the bespoke kind of almost homespun qualities of it. It feels like it's being told, obviously, from a grandfather to his grandchild, that anyway, it's one that we've gone back to. Sometimes you go back and you have that, was it great, or were you eight, you know, reaction. This one really held up for me, I have to say. I think we're going to learn why that is over the course of this episode. A lot of it has to do with the fact that this is not a children's movie? No.

At all. It's a movie for adults that children also happen to be entertained by, which is one of the best best case scenarios. I'm sure you as a parent can agree with that. I can. I'm trying to keep my daughter away from Cocoa Mellon for as long as possible, for the love of God. I don't know what that is, and I don't want to.

So my main sources for the episode today are, which lie did I tell? More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman. which she does talk about the Princess Bride in. And as you wish, Inconceivable tales from the Making of the Princess Bride by Carrie Ellis and Ghost Writer Joe Layden. Both are absolutely delightful. If you enjoy this episode, I highly recommend you go back and pick them up.

It's just seriously fun. I really enjoyed both of these. So I want to start, Chris, not with the Princess Bride or with William Goldman, but with Rob Reiner. Let's do it. Reiner was born to Hollywood Comedy, Royalty, Carl and Estelle Reiner, and he'd broken out as an actor early on playing Meathead in All in the Family from 1971 to 1978.

He is very funny. Really an incredible actor. He's like, he's so good, continues to be. One of my favorite Rob Reiner ongoing cameos is as Jess's dad on New Girl, which he is wonderful. Yes. So after directing a couple of TV movies, Reiner then broke out in a huge way as a director, With 1984's, this is Spinal Tap, which if you've never seen, stop what you're doing, go watch it. Yeah.

Turn it to 11. Yes. And watch it. It is incredible. And he, of course, also plays faux documentarian Marty DeBerke in that film as well. So he follows that up with The Sure Thing, starring John Cusack in 1985, which I have never seen. Is it cute? Yeah, it is.

It's a cute movie. And John Cusack is, I feel always very charming and lovable. John Cusack. Yeah, it's good. Okay. And then in 1986, he releases Stand By Me. So that's a pretty crazy three-movie run in very quick succession. Columbia Pictures, who was releasing Stand By Me, was desperate to keep working with Rob Reiner.

So the way that Carrie Elis tells this is that they said, basically, you've got carte blanche. You can do anything you want. And Rob Reiner remembered the fantastic book his father had given him many years earlier. And so when they said, what do you want, Rob, anything? He said the Princess Bride. And they immediately said, anything but that. Yeah, anything exactly. Yes.

Yeah. So let's talk about why. I'll do anything for Rob, but I won't do the Princess Bride. Maybe that's what Meat Lope is singing about. So let's talk about the Princess Bride and why they were refusing to do it. It had a reputation at this point as being absolutely impossible to me. make into a film. Right. Which I'm sure you've probably heard about this part of the story before. I have not. Well, never mind. So the novel was written by William Goldman in 1973. The way that it came

about was that he was on a trip with his daughters and he offered to write them a story. And apparently this was something that he would do pretty frequently. He would like tell them bedtime stories. And he said that this was one of the only things in his sort of writing career where the stories came to him very naturally, which I think is very sweet. And he asked them what this story should be about. One said princesses. The other said brides. He said, OK, dokey. That's the title. Brilliant. It's incredible. There was a movie from a few years ago called Monster Trucks about trucks that are also alien monsters. No one saw it. Don't worry about it. That movie came about because an executive six-year-old son was like, you know what I'd like to see in a movie?

trucks that are also monsters, and it got fast-tracked, no joke. So anyway, this was the good example. Monster trucks is the bad example. Well, we don't know that. I have not seen monster trucks yet. So it just so happens, Chris, that out of everything, that legendary screenwriter and author William Goldman had written, which, in case you're not familiar, includes Marathon Man, Heat, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, all the president's men.

His credits are absolutely insane. Out of all of those credits, the Princess Bride was his favorite thing he ever wrote. Wow. And at first it came very easily to him, but then he ended up kind of struggling with the story for years. Then he gets the idea that his novel could just be the good parts, meaning that he could think of it as though he were abridging someone else's story.

and just selecting the good parts, which is how you get the title that the book has, which is The Princess Bride, S. Morgan Stern's classic tale of true love and high adventure, The Good Parts Version. So you'll hear that in the movie, Peter Fox says, by S. Morgan Stern. Of course, it is not. It's William Goldman. Now, the idea is that in the book, William Goldman's father used to tell him this story, but only the best parts. And so now William Goldman is recounting the good parts to you in the abridged version.

which is, of course, where you get the Peter Falk and Fred Savage characters from the movie, and he's just skipping through to the good parts. But in the book, it's his father? I believe so. That's interesting. I don't know if you're talking about this. I believe William Goldman's father committed suicide when he was in high school. Oh, God.

Yeah. So that is really interesting if he wrote it as a father to his son. I did not know that. I will have to investigate that. God, that's sad. A little fun fact after that not so fun fact is that the pit of despair was originally. the zoo of death in the book changed for budgetary reasons. So Goldman writes the book, publishes it, it does well. His agent loves it, and his agent gets it into the hands of the

Greenlight Guy at 20th Century Fox. Now, I want to read you what Goldman has to say about the Greenlight Guy. These Premier 100 types out there have all these different titles, Vice President in charge of this, executive in charge of that, and on and on. All salad. In movies, there is but one power, that of being able to green light a picture. Each studio has a grand total of one green lighter. Those other executives at that studio, regardless of their title, are only oil slicks. I only experienced, I've experienced it only once in my career, but when we made Moonshot, a lot of people read that script, had to read that script. Ultimately, it only mattered what one person thought, and that was Toby Emmerich in that instance. But anyhow, so yeah, there's always

is that, you know, that one person at the end of the day. Yeah, everybody else is reading it to try to help tee it up in the right way to the green light person. But ultimately it's, and I think that's kind of how it has to be. It's got to come down to one person. Of course. You can't have every decision happened by committee. So the green light guy at Fox loves the book, but he's not totally sure it really makes sense as a movie. So they make a kind of weird deal with William Goldman.

They will buy the film rights to the book. if he writes the screenplay, but they won't buy the screenplay unless they decide they want to make it into a movie. And by the way, Goldman would go on to write the screenplays for several of his other novels, including Marathon Man, Magic and Heat. However, all of those are published after the Princess Bride. So he didn't actually have a track record of doing that prior to this, I don't think. So Goldman writes it. Greenlight Guy still isn't 100% all in, so he sends Goldman to meet with Richard Lester in London. Richard Lester had directed Help and A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles movies.

Which had almost led to the Beatles doing Lord of the Rings as we discussed on our last couple episodes. There's actually several Lord of the Rings tie-ins in this episode. You'll never escape it. He had also just directed the three musketeers, so that means that this would be right around 1973-ish, which is right after the Princess Bride came out. So Lester had some notes, Goldman applies them, Greenlight Guy likes it, Bada boom, bada bing. We got a movie, right, Chris?

William got Billy Goldman and Dick Lester are making a movie. No, they're not because the green light guy gets shit canned. Oh, no. That's the problem. Somebody can always fire the green light guy. That's right. So new green light guy basically just takes the hook across his desk and says, you know, nothing. Well, let's just think, when the new green light guy comes in, the first thing he does is kills everything.

The thing the old guy did. Everything. Because God forbid any of those become successes. Exactly. They don't want them to become a success because then they wouldn't get the credit. It would be the credit of the previous guy. So the Princess Bride is dead. But Fox still holds the rights.

So William Goldman, at this point, he's like, I have to make money somehow. So he just kind of like lets it go and he spends years writing many other hit screenplays. In the back of his mind, though, is always the Princess Bride. And he has this nagging fear that, you know what, Fox could just commission another screenplay from someone else who would just ruin it. So he does something pretty unusual. He buys back the rights to his own book with his own money and says... That is very unusual. He said, quote, I was the only idiot who could destroy it now.

Yeah. How much, do you know how much the rights were? I don't. I don't think it was crazy expensive. First of all, because this wasn't like a blockbuster book. And second of all, because there was always suspicion as to whether or not this would be feasible to make into a movie. Got it. I think the big reason for that is that tonally it is a strange book in the way that the movie is as well.

So don't worry, though, Chris. I'm not worried. Then another green light guy from another studio, and he doesn't name this studio, also strikes a handshake deal with Goldman. this time they're going to make it, Chris. This is going to be the one. And we're going to put it all on a handshake, the classic Hollywood handshake. So they do a classic Hollywood handshake and they go their separate ways to celebrate that weekend and get ready to get going the next Monday. There's just one problem.

That green light guy gets hit by a plane. That green light guy also gets shit canned that weekend. Yep. Yes. So this just keeps getting better. Goldman then manages to get a small unnamed studio on board, and they are so excited. So excited, in fact, that they actually go under the weekend before pre-production is supposed to start on the Princess Bride. So, oh, we got too excited. We spent too much. We're out of business. Yeah. We're completely out of business. So at this point, the script is cursed, and it is officially languishing in development hell. Some other directors who had also tried to get this movie made over the years include Norman Jewison, who of course did Fiddler on the Roof. He, I believe, tried to make this into an independent film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Fetwick. Oh, wow. He did, yeah, he did Moonstruck.

I was thinking, in the heat of the night, Cincinnati Kid, the hurricane was one of his last movies. Oh, wow. He's great. Incredible director. Robert Redford also tried to, that would have been weird. Yeah. It wouldn't have been very funny, I don't think. No, no, a heavier film.

Yeah. Also, what went wrong alum, John Borman? Yes. John, he probably put a lot of sex in it. Had to, be honest. That's what he did. And Francois Truffaut. Really?

Yes. Yes. Okay. Didn't see that one coming? tried to make this movie, didn't happen. I also saw somewhere that even Carl Reiner maybe tried to make this at some point. I don't know if that's true, but he did give Rob Reiner the book. Yeah.

My guess is somebody read that he gave him the book and knew Goldman, like, you know what I mean, like put the two together, but... Maybe. Who knows? So at this point, William Goldman has gotten burned so many times with this, his favorite thing he has ever written, that he did not want to give Rob Reiner the rights when Reiner approached him. about this movie.

He said, this is my favorite thing I've ever written. I want it on my tombstone. Well, it keeps killing people, so it probably will go on his tombstone. That's true. I tried to find his tombstone. He did pass away in 2018

to confirm if anyone honored his wish, but I couldn't find it, so I don't know. I hope somebody did. Oh, that would be a fact. Listeners, if any of you know where William Goldman is buried, we would like to go pay our respects.

Send us a message. That's true. But God bless Rob Reiner and his producing partner, Andy Scheinman, they went to Goldman's apartment, and they pitched their vision for it. And William Goldman sounds like such a tough nut to crack, but so funny.

They were like going through this whole pitch, and they're both freaking out. They're like, I have no idea how this is going. Like, he's not giving them any clues. He's just, like, you know, writing in his journal as they're, like, pitching this thing. And then they stop, and Goldman is, like, ecstatic. He loved it.

It's the best piece. pitch he's heard. So he says yes. But again, nobody at this point wants to finance this thing. Yeah. Like nobody wants to touch this. So Reiner turns to his old friend, mentor, and massive sitcom genius, Norman Lear. Yeah. Lear said yes after reading the script on the condition that they find distribution through a major studio so that his then brand new act three productions would not be on the hook for the whole thing financially, because it would literally bankrupt them. Right. So Reiner and Scheiman somehow get 20th Century Fox to come back around again on board,

and suddenly 14 long years after it was published, with a budget of around $16 million, the Princess Bride was headed to the big screen. Wow. So the first people hired were Rob's close friends, Billy Crystal, for his cameo as Miracle Max. And, of course, his is incredible. So good. Billy Crystal. I forget how good Pete Billy Crystal. He's so funny. Oh, incredible. So good. Apparently his outtakes are just, like, unbelievable from this. I bet you they're absurd. I mean, steals the movie. He's in the movie for what, five minutes or less? Five minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he and Carol Kane are like one of the most memorable parts of the whole thing. They're great. And of course, also Rob's Spinal Tap collaborator, Christopher guest, as Count Rugen, the six-fingered man. It would, of course, become the chief proponent of mockumentary film. And Jamie Lee Curtis's husband. Indeed. And I've heard wonderful, nice, quiet man. He's supposed to be so nice. In Carrie Elwist's book, which we'll get to it a little bit, they had a funny interaction.

But yeah, Christopher Guest is like the polar opposite of Count Ruggins, the six-finger man. He's just like the sweetest man on the planet. And only five fingers, I've heard. Yeah, has a solid ten fingers total. So ten fingers total. Yeah. So many of the people involved in the film jumped at the chance because they were already big fans of the book, including Carrie Ellis, who had read it and Chris Sarandon, who... Who's great in this? He is so funny. He's also great in Fright Night, and I think people, we forget, like, how good he was in some of these more outlandish roles in the 80s. And it's... I love him. He really, he straddles, like, camp very, very, very well. And I really, I really enjoyed seeing him again. He's very fun. And you can see how Shrek still so much for this movie from this movie.

Like Lord Farquod as well is just designed to look like the short stubby, I feel like Chris Saranen. Anyway. Skeppy. So he had actually been married to Susan Sarandon. Many people don't know that. That is her first husband, Chris Sarandon, while she was doing a film with Robert Redford. And Redford at that point had the film rights. And so he gave Susan a copy and then she gave it to Chris.

And that's how he had it and he loved it. when he heard that they were trying to cast Humberdink, he was like, get me in the room. Get me in the room. Yeah. Great. Now, Princess Buttercup, on the other hand, had proven a very difficult role to cast, which kind of makes sense. Like, they talked about this a bit.

She's the straight man, essentially. Yeah. And that's often the hardest part to play. Yeah, you need somebody who is not going to drag down the pacing or dampen the comedy, but provides the contrast that lets you laugh. Like, who can, like you said, play it straight, play it serious. it is tough to find that gym at the office. Exactly.

And also to be just like absolutely stunning. She's supposed to be one of the most beautiful, or the most beautiful woman in the world. Right. So they saw hundreds of women for this part, but nobody was quite right. I saw in a couple of places that Meg Ryan, Uma Thurman.

Both would make sense. And Courtney Cox had all auditioned for the part. Courtney Cox, interesting. This is a little bit before I would have known of her. Yes. Because I learned about her through friends. The name I was going to mention because we've talked about her on this is Leah Thompson, who I thought just because like Back to the Future was right around here.

And I just thought there's, she does not, she's not quite the look I think that they're going for. But she committed so hard in Howard the Duck. I was like she can do anything. She's amazing. Weirdly that my initial reaction was that even though I know all of the names I just listed are American, she for some reason strikes me as too American. I can't explain. Immediately I was like,

oh, Leah Thompson, American. Meg Ryan seems so American to me, too, in a good way. I feel like she could pass for like, you know, bubbly countryside, uh, Brit lady. Bubly country Brit pumpkin? Yes. What are we going to go for? Hot, hot bubbly pumpkin.

Um, so apparently Robin Wright's name had been floating around, but she was essentially unknown at this point. She was on an American soap opera. called Santa Barbara, but didn't have, yeah, it was not huge. Really big in the Santa Barbara area. Really big in the central coast of California. Huge numbers. But she didn't have many other credits to her name, and also she is American.

And I think that Americans, despite the fact that I listed out, all Americans, were not what was coming to top of mind for them to cast this role. They were concerned about the accent. So finally, they're so exhausted of looking that they see Robin's picture. It's been hanging up there. and they're just like, whatever, bring her in. There's the story you want to hear as an actor. Whatever.

No, so they bring her in. And Chris, unlike Jake Gyllenhaal in The Lord of the Rings, she knew about the British accent. And not only that, her stepfather was British. So she came in and she pulls it off without a hitch. They were extremely blown away by her, very impressed. They all said that, like, it was no question. As soon as they saw her, they were like, make her a deal.

That is Buttercup. She says she's like, I think they were so tired. They literally saw 500 women. And I walked in and they were like, sure, whatever. Whatever. Great. Got the deal. We're done.

But she is great in this. She's great. I'm inclined to believe them. I bet she had a great audition. I also think Carrie Fisher would have been really good. Sorry. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

She's almost too funny, though. I know. I know we know that now. But she played it straight in Star Wars. So she's a little fun. in Star Wars. She is. Robin Wright, not known for being super funny. Robin Wright of House of Cards. The villain in Forrest Gump. She is the villain in Forrest Gump. I know. I know. I just kind of like, oh, she died. It's sad. It said, but she also, I feel, made some terrible decisions.

So she was also forced to sign on for another year of Santa Barbara, just to be able to do this, because the soap opera, that's how they roll. Now, the role of Wesley was proving, similarly difficult to cast. But Rob Reiner gets a hold of a Trevor Nunn film called Lady Jane. Have you ever seen this, Chris? No, I've never seen it. I actually love this movie. It is not a funny movie at all.

It's a very sad movie about Lady Jane Gray, who was the queen for nine days before she got her head lopped off. And in it, opposite Helena Bonham Carter is Carrie Ellis. He is so good in it. He is like a huge bag of dicks for like 90% of the movie. And he's so good at it. He is such an asshole. And then he comes around at the end in a way that is so charming and I think very hard to pull off.

And he ends up, you know, standing by his wife's side in a very sort of tragic sweet and very romantic way at the end. So it came out in 1986. I'm not sure if Reiner got an early screening. He probably must have. But he is very struck by Carrie Elvis's performance. I can see why, having seen this movie, I can see why he thought he would work based on that. He's dashing, yeah. Very handsome, very, you know, sort of Errol Flynn-esque.

But I think the part of that movie that did it is that he is an asshole. Yeah. And still manages to be appealing even through that in that movie. Well, and he has to, you know, obviously pull off the Dread Pirate Roberts side of the persona in this movie. And I think it's fun that his character is very multi-demand. in a very fun way in this movie. He's great. The director Trevor Nunn actually offered Carrie the chance to spend a year in residency

with the Royal Shakespeare Company after working with him, but Carrie turned it down. Had he said yes, he would not have been available for what came next. So Carrie at this point is filming an indie film in Berlin when he gets a call from his agent that Rob Reiner and his producing partner want to meet with him. And apparently they're on a pretty tight timeline, but they're still looking for their Wesley. And he's like Wesley in the Princess Bride. I fucking love that book. And they want to come meet me.

Fantastic. Now, Chris, this is early summer, 1986. Something big had just happened only about 800 miles away in what is now Ukraine. Oh, Chernobyl. Chernobyl. Oh, no. Yes, that's correct. Chernobyl.

So, Carrie and his indie film crew don't seem too bothered by this. For anyone that doesn't know, Chernobyl was a massive nuclear meltdown that did cause nuclear fallout over a huge swath of Europe. And people were very afraid. They didn't know how much area was going to be affected. Apparently, a week earlier when this film crew was filming in Helsinki, they were warned that they probably shouldn't drink the milk, just in case. Which it goes to be like, I wonder what's going on with the cows? Why is it just the cows? But they seem pretty lax about this.

Carrie always was like, I don't know. I wasn't really that worried. However, Handy Shynman, Rob Reiner's producing partner, was very scared. So when he's not excited about entering a possible nuclear fallout zone and Rob Reiner is like, whatever, don't go if you don't want to go. But at this point, they had just like with Buttercup auditioned hundreds of people for this part, including Colin Firth. Oh, you know, Carrie Alwis, I think, cuts a more dashing figure. However, Colin Firth in that movie The Kingsman, which is like kind of a nuts movie, but I kind of liked it. It's fun.

It's very fun. He does action real well in that movie. He's great. So who knows? He could have been wonderful. I agree. I don't think that's a bad option. But apparently, poor Andy was so scared that he would literally run from the car into the hotel

and the same going out because he didn't want to be outside. Just holding a ball of lead over his crotch as he's like sprints between the location. He barely left behind a thousand dollar jacket because he just wanted to get the fuck out of there. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. He was like, we're going in to talk to this man and then we are leaving Berlin. They walk in and Carrie's got a sixth finger all the sudden. We've got to get out of here. Well, he could have played the six finger man.

So Elvis was dreading having to actually read for the part. and he spent much of his hotel room meeting with Robin Andy doing a fat Albert impression. So he's turning to Michael Scott. Fat Albert. Wow. Oh, my God. I love how he thought, like, if I can do this long enough, I won't have to audition. Literally.

It's like a kid trying to avoid, like, get out of church. Like, if I just lie still in my bed long enough, we will meet. this church. Yeah, that is what he tried to do. So I don't know how long as fat Albert impression went on, but it went on for a long time. I can't hear it. Nope. Let's not. The good news is they loved it. Hey, honestly, if I was, if I had seen from what I know of Lady Jane, Lady Jane, which is a drama, not funny, and he's very, I know he's dashing, I know he's handsome, I know he can do the, probably the physical stuff. The last thing would be like, can he do the humor?

That's right. This guy's just like, you guys know Fat Albert? That would probably be a good sign. Came right out with Fat Albert. So he does end up reading a small part of the scene from the fire swamp where Wesley explains how he became the Dread Pirate Roberts. Right. And at that point, they were like, stop, you've got the part.

Also, they want to get the fuck out. Yeah, they're also like, they're like leaving the hotel. It's yours. It's yours. It's yours. It's yours. Goodbye. Good luck with the radiation.

So then they jet it off to go talk to a giant. Yes. Andre René Rusimov was born in France in 1946, about 40 miles outside of Paris in the countryside. He was somewhere around 7 feet, 4 inches tall. That changes depending on what source you are looking at. And I saw in many places that he weighed over 500 pounds, although again, that also changes.

Do you know how big he was when he was born? You know what? He wasn't huge. So he had a kind of gigantism, I think is the correct term, that affects your like adrenal glands. Is it called like agromegaly? Yes. Yes. So it doesn't start kicking into full effect until you hit puberty essentially. The pituitary gland kicks it in. Yeah. My grandpa was just under 12 pounds when he was born. You know David was over 12 pounds. Yeah, that's right. I saw a video of David as a baby. And honestly, it was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Enormous. It felt like somebody had CGIed a 150% too big baby into somebody's home video footage.

He was so big. Honestly, David might have been bigger than Andre the Giant at Burr. Why are you so big? And now he's a very lovely proportionate 6 foot two man. Yeah. A lovely tall man. So a little fun fact about Andre is that he was frequently driven to school, when he was young by a very famous playwright

who happened to live in the French countryside. And that is Samuel Beckett. I didn't remember the name, but when you mentioned that, I had heard that story before. Yeah. Well, so this is interesting. You may have heard the story

that Samuel Beckett drove Andre to school because Andre was too big to fit in the school bus. That's the story I heard. And that's the story. Well, so this is kind of a lot of things about Andre the Giant are larger than life. Yeah. Yeah, and he even perpetuated some of these himself.

Like, he told that version of the story to Carrie Ellis, but then if you go and look on, like, Snopes, they talk to his family, and his brothers were like, no, that's bullshit. Like, there was no school bus. Samuel Beckett drove us, they drove Andre. They drove several kids. But I think that's interesting that he, like, he loved that stuff. And he perpetuated it.

Yeah. Yeah. So despite his humble beginnings in the countryside of France, He was a massively successful world-famous wrestler at this point. He was also absolutely hilarious. He learned that he was able to lift cars with his bare hands, and so sometimes he would just move his friend's cars around without them knowing and would wedge them into little alleyways and places they couldn't get them out of.

Oh, my friends can't get their cars. It was actually William Goldman who suggested that they meet with Andre about the role. It turns out Goldman was a lunatic Andre the Giant fan and frequented his shows at Madison Square Garden. And he was a really incredible entertainer. Yes. This was not somebody who was somebody who was very natural in front of a crowd. He's amazing. He's so funny and just incredible.

So Rob and Andy arrive in Paris and they go to meet Andre at a point. And when they walk in, it was clear that he looks absolutely perfect. They walked in and they were like, that is Fezic sitting on that tiny little barstool. So they go up to their hotel room and they ask him to read three pages. And Rob Reiner says he couldn't understand a word that Andreous Giant said. So after he reads, there's this kind of silence and they're like, okay. And so also we want to make it clear that the job is 15 weeks because. Andre was used to traveling constantly. And this is a pretty long stay. But Andre just says,

I do it, boss. And then he asked Rob Reiner if he wanted him to just play those three pages the whole time. And Rob was like, no, no, it's a big part. It's a movie. It's a movie. You're in the whole thing. But the thing is, if you're doing like wrestling performances and you're going town to town, you are repeating the same beats like over and over again. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not a stupid question. If you think about what he's been doing, but Rob Reiner, they have no idea what to expect. And so after they're like, no, no, you have a lot of lines. He just goes, I do it, boss, gets up and walks out. And Rob Reiner looked at Andy Scheinman and goes, oh my God, I don't know if he can do this. Yeah. But they hire him anyway. And he turns out to be the most lovely human on the planet.

He actually would continue to struggle with the English pronunciation of his lines during production. So before production, Rob Reiner actually put all of them on tape for him. Oh, so you could hear them. Yeah, and he would listen to the tapes over and over. And, of course, Rob Reiner is an excellent actor, so he had someone giving him, like, very strong line reads. He was giving his line reads, yeah, exactly, before he were going to set. That's great. Now, they would later say they did not have a second choice for Wesley, Buttercup, or Fetwick.

These were their only options. It sounds like it was Andre or bust. Yeah. Now rounding out the cast were Mandy Patinkin as Enigo Montoya. So dashing. I know. He cuts a real dashing figure. He's great now, but is a different Mandy Patinkin.

So good. Also, it's easy to forget that Mandy Patinkin and Carrie Elwis are not short at all. Because they're standing next to Andre the Giant for most of this movie. Carrie Elwis, I knew, was over six feet. I don't know how tall. I think they're both around six feet. Like, they're both dashing tall men. Carol Kane as Miracle Max's wife, Valerie, Fred Savage, and Peter Falk as grandson and grandfather, and Wallace Sean as Visini.

So good. So according to Sean, his agent told him he was the third choice. Who are the first two? I mean, can you guess? 19. Italian, a small Italian man. Danny DeVito? Yes, that's choice number one.

Choice number two. Another small man, not Italian. Another small man. Think of a small angry man starring opposite Bill Murray in a movie that is also from the 80s. A small angry man starring opposite Bill Murray. Also a small angry man starring opposite a shark.

Oh, Richard Dreyfus? Yes. Interesting. Actually, Dreyfus to me is a pretty good fit. More, like, I would have done Sean over DeVito and then maybe Dreyfus over DeVito. I love Danny DeVito, and his turn on is always sunny is like the most amazing second career of all time.

I think they're all great. I'm so glad we got Wallace Sean, but his agent told him that those were the two choices ahead of him, which I don't know why you would tell your client that, especially when your client is as neurotic as Wall as Sean. I was going to say, yeah. So he spent the entire shoot so nervous that he wasn't as good as Danny DeVito. Yeah.

He had a pretty bad time. He also jokes that the performance is 40% him 40% Rob Reiner and 20% Danny DeVito. That's awesome. He's just like watching tapes of taxi as he's enjoying it. He literally said he would think how would Danny DeVito do this? Because he was so stuck in his head. Oh, poor guy.

In his audition, he apparently walked into the room, saw Reiner, Goldman, and Shimon sitting there and said, oh my, and walked out. And someone had to go get him and convince him to come back in and do the audition. So he's the anti-Andre the giant. He is the anti-Andre the Giant, although he was also like an incredibly accomplished actor, playwright, and screenwriter at this point. I think he would just like teach, do lectures at Oxford in his spare time and stuff when they, in Cambridge, when they were shooting. He's an unbelievably smart person. Well, yeah, and he had done my dinner with Andre. But he'd also been

in Manhattan and all that jazz before that too. Yeah, he's great. Yeah. But Rob Reiner, by the way, says he never wanted anyone else. So who knows? I'll take Reiner's word. Although that is what Rob Reiner says about everyone, because I think Rob Reiner has a haught of gold. Yeah. They also initially, apparently wanted Michael Palin as the impressive clergyman, but he was about to start shooting a fish called Wanda. So Peter Cook stepped in instead, who was wonderful. Now, at the table read, William Goldman, again, basically scares the shit out of all of them when he tells them that this is his favorite thing he's ever written. Yeah, don't fuck it up. Basically. that's how he introduces himself at the table where he's like, okay.

I wrote it for my daughters. My dad killed himself. Oh, Jesus. And everyone just went silent. But the good news is it becomes very clear, very quickly, that they have the right cast in place as soon as they start. Now, I think after the script reading, they were sort of running some scenes. And Andre, who again is a performer, but is brand new to acting, was repeating his lines the way Rob Reiner had recorded them for him. but he was doing it very slowly. So first he performs a scene with Carrie Elwis,

who's very sweet and just accommodating, I think sort of a lovely gentleman. And then he has a scene with Mandy Patinkin. Maybe not as sweet. Listen, I think he's, this made me lots of things in this story make me love Mandy Patinkin, but I think he is not to be trifled with.

So then he has a scene with Mandy, and he kept repeating his lines at the same very slow, steady, rehearsed pace. Suddenly, Mandy Patinkin reached up and slapped the giant in the space, saying Fasherphesic, and Andre snapped into action. William Goldman said it was probably the first time

he had ever been slapped outside of the ring. Well, yeah, exactly. I mean, could you imagine reaching up and slapping an actual giant across the face? I think it was a light flap. It was a light slap. Yeah.

Yeah. But it just sort of shocked him into gear. And that was kind of their, like, the dynamic of the characters as well. But also, like, if Mandy Patinkin slap me, I would be kind of happy. I would love it. I would be thrilled. Come on, hit the other cheek. Highlight of my life.

Yeah, exactly. Now, from the very beginning, Rob Reiner knew that he did not want to use stuntmen for the big sword fight between Enigo Montoya and Wesley. He wanted that to be Carrie Elwis and Mandy Patink. in the close-ups and the wide shots. And there's not a lot of cutting. It's long, no. Yeah, and it's just this long, very well choreographed using the full set as they're going

up and down. It's amazing. It's described in Goldman's book and script as the greatest sword fight in modern times. Right. So nothing to live up to there. And remember. Also, not a lot of sword fights in modern times. So.

That's true. Low bar. They also have to fight with their left hands as well as their right hands. Oh, that's right. That's, yeah, they have the reveal. Yep. So before they even begin production, Carrie and Mandy are sent to train with two incredible swordsmen who would help them achieve this feat. Peter Diamond and Bob Anderson.

Diamond was a legendary stuntman and sword trainer who had worked with Errol Flynn. Yep. He was also the stunt coordinator on Star Wars, A New Hope, and, fun fact, he is the German soldier climbing up the side of Indies truck in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Oh. Yeah. Peter Diamond. He goes up the side. Bob Anderson was an Olympic fencer and expert fight choreographer.

He was the lightsaber double for Darth Vader's battle scenes in the Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi. And one of his last jobs before he passed away was as swordmaster on Peter Jackson's the Lord of the Rings. I was going to say, Bob Anderson, I remembered his name. He taught Aragorn specifically how to not hit people in the face with the sword. Kept asking Vigo why he didn't want to use the lighter stunt sword. There you go. Yeah. Now, Carrie Elwis shows up on day one, ready to learn.

But Mandy Patinkin, not going to leave anything to chance. So it turns out. You got private lessons before me? Yes. Yes, I love it. What a motherfucker. I know. That is such a move.

That's great. Much to Carrie Elwis' dismay. Mandy Patinkin has already been training for two months in the U.S. before they get there. He has a bust of Carrie Elwis' his. his face in, and he's just slicing it up in his apartment. Oh, that's great. Yeah, he seems like a really fascinating person and just an unbelievably hard worker. Yes. So Mandy said when he read the script, he immediately thought of his own father's passing in 1972. He said, if I can get that six-fingered man, then I'll have my father back in my imaginary world. He'll be alive in my imagination.

So that was it for me. I'll become the greatest sword fighter and my reward will not be to be in this movie that ended up being what it's become to all these people, my reward will be that my father will come back. Oh, it's very lovely. And, yeah, then he beat the shit out of Carrey. And then Carrey always had to pay for it. Yeah. So Mandy and Carrie trained from 9 to 5, five five days a week during pre-production.

And Mandy was always early. Right. Carrie Elvis would always show up on time and be like, God damn it. This, son of a bitch. But their training didn't stop there. Once production started any time they would wrap a scene, Bob or Peter would be waiting for them with their rapiers behind the camera. And they literally trained every spare minute that they had. Yeah.

I love this. This is a little side note. Christopher Guest obviously had to do a little bit of sword fighting as well. And he was undergoing some trading. But at a certain point, he apparently just gave up and decided to simply try and defend himself from Mantey Patinkin. That's what you get. He was like, I'm just going to try and stop him from stabbing me. And they were like, sure, that's fine.

And then he also said that when they were filming their fight in the castle, he was having so much fun. And, of course, they're using blades that, I guess, aren't actually metal that makes noise. Right. And he didn't realize that he was making the sword fight sounds going ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, like a kid. So that also happened in Star Wars in the first of the prequels, Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson, when they were doing their first lightsaber scenes, they were doing,

And then George Lucas was like, hey guys, can we do it without the sound effects? We'll put those in later. That's literally Rod Reiter says, Chris, we'll put the sounds in later. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So shooting begins at Sheperton Studios in London, August 18, 1986. They're set to start with the scene in the fire swamp, where Wesley tells Buttercup how he became the Dread Pirate Roberts, same one carried done in his audition. Yep.

And William Goldman happened to be visiting the set. So they start filming and they keep having to stop because there's this weird noise interrupting the dialogue. They cannot figure out what it is. It sounds like chanting. It's like the omen is happening somewhere in the background of the set. And they're like, what is going on? They play the tape back on the highest volume and it sounds like some kind of incantation.

You can guess what it is. Is it William Goldman doing the dialogue with the actors? One part of that is correct. It is William Goldman. Okay, got it. Sorry, continue. Eventually, Rob Reiner, they're like looking around the set trying to figure out what this is.

He finds Bill Goldman rocking back and forth hidden behind a toadstool with his fingers crossed in his mouth. And when Rob Reiner says, what are you doing? He goes, oh, I was just praying. Why? Amazing. And Rob's like, Bill, you can't do that. The mics pick everything up on set.

Yeah, man. What are you doing? So he's like, oh, okay, sorry. Sorry about that. So Goldman continued to cause a scene later when they shot the segment where Buttercup's dress catches on fire because he walked into the room and went, oh my God, she's on fire and ruined the take. I love it like Hollywood's most accomplished screenwriter proves that no writers can ever be on set. I know. I think he would admit that himself.

He was very nervous about being on set. And he was also upset that they were lighting Robin Wright on fire on the first day, lest something happened to her face. Yeah. Apparently on one take, though, the fire retardant on the dress didn't quite work right, and the dress was catching on fire too far up close to her hair, but Carrie Elvis put it out just in time. Oh. So perhaps William Goldman was screaming about that take.

Maybe. So a little bit more fire swamp fun. The rodent of unusual sides was played by stuntman Danny Blackner, a little person who had worked on labyrinth and Return of the Jedi as an ewalk. Oh, cool. And he had to basically be sewn into that suit and couldn't really see anything or move. What is it?

Howard the duck, it's like, I know. Guys, we're just going to sew you in. Horrible. And it's like so hot. I know. So on the second day that he was filming, Danny doesn't show up to set.

He's very late. And they're like, what are we going to do? Are we going to have to stuff this thing and shoot it with like a dummy rat that looks absolutely horrible? So they did shoot some with that. because he was not there. Interesting.

And then finally, he shows up. And they're like, what happened? Are you okay? It turned out he'd been pulled over for speeding the night before. And when he told the cop that he needed to get back to work because he was playing a giant rat, the cop just threw him in jail. threw him in the truck tank or something. He's like, there's no way you're playing a rat.

Get in jail, except he's British. So filming locations, Humperding's Castle was an actual 11th century castle called Haddon Hall, which is also where Lady Jane was filmed. Oh. I think a lot of things have been filmed there. Most of the exteriors were shot in the beautiful Peak District. Rob Reiner was horrified to learn that British crews work a little differently than American ones. They had two required tea breaks each day and an additional sandwich break whilst on location.

What about second breakfast? Yeah, exactly. He was like, we're never going to finish this movie. Yeah. But apparently their unit production manager overheard him and explained that they would strike without their tea breaks. Then they wouldn't even have a movie. So they would just all stop and have a cup of tea twice a day. Yep.

Now, you have probably heard that Andre the Giant could drink anyone under the table. Yes. And this is true. I would imagine. But there is a reason for the amount of alcohol that Andre was known to drink, particularly on this shoot. and that is that he was in a lot of physical pain. Not only was he carrying around a ton of body weight, but at this point he'd also been wrestling for years,

and his opponents had never held back in the ring, smashing chairs over his back, knocking him over, possibly because he was so big and seemed indestructible, people were really rough on him. And because he was traveling, constantly, sleep schedule was not a thing. And couldn't fit in the, like, cars and planes that he was traveling in. Yeah, so he was not recovering from any of these injuries as well.

How old was he at this point? Was he 40? Somewhere around there. He's not very old when he dies and he dies in the early 90s. I think that's right. I think he was about 40. Got it. So he had like incredibly intense back pain. And in fact, his signature leotar that he would wrestle in was actually designed to hide a back brace. Oh, wow. Yeah. He was due for a major back operation after the movie wrapped.

There were things where like, you know, when Buttercup, jumps and he catches her, Robin Wright, is actually on cables because he could not hold her. Oh, wow. Yeah. Because she probably weighs 110 pounds in this movie.

Yeah, he couldn't lift that. Yeah, wow. Which for someone his size who's lifted cars, you know, that's a big drop-off. Yeah, so he was in a lot of pain. Some sources claim that he was known for downing a case of beer,

three bottles of wine, and a couple bottles of brandy each day. However, Carrie Elvis recalls a different beverage. a 40-ounce beer pitcher filled with whatever mix of hard alcohol and some soft alcohol Andre felt like that day, which he called The American. And he would just down it in like three gulps. I love how he makes it the most disgusting thing you could ever think of

and he goes, the American. Yep. So after the first read-through, everyone went out for a drink. But Andre shuts down the bar at the hotel that they're staying at in London. Finally, when it was closing, he got up to leave because he was not staying in that hotel. And he almost made it to the front of door of the hotel, but not quite. He passed out right in the lobby, just right in the front. And again, he weighs over 500 pounds.

And he is 7 foot 4. So no one can move this man. There's a literal sleeping giant in the front of the hotel. And so the hotel workers just decide to put some velvet ropes around. Yeah, rope him off. And they're like, let him sleep it off. It'll be fine. He'll get up in a few minutes. He did not. He was there until 10 a.m. the next morning. Wow. So there were. That would have been an incredible sight to check into the hotel and just there's Andre the Giant behind Velvet Row. That's literally people were walking in just terrified and walking around him because he was like in front of the entrance to the hotel. And then he just got up, dust himself up, walked out the door. All good, boss. So everyone on set absolutely loved him.

He sounds like one of the sweetest people on the planet. Here's some incredible stuff that he did while on set. When Robin Wright was freezing when they were filming outside, he would just rest his hand on her head to keep her warm. She said it was like a hot water bottle. A hot plate on top of her head. When the first catering company kept providing not-so-great food, the same kind of dish over and over again,

Andre took a truck back to France and returned with cases of fine wine, foie gras, cheese, everything they could have wanted. Wow. He actually owned a restaurant, I believe, and was a very fine food and wine connoisseur. Interesting. Also, apparently, our nervous little friend, Wallace Sean, was petrified of heights, and they had to be on a 35-foot forklift for the scene where they're climbing the cliffs of insanity.

Right. Which that was, their close-ups are shot inside Shepardin Studios. But then those are stunt doubles on actual cliffs in Ireland, and they're just being, like, pulled up by a pulley system. But Sean did not want to get on the forklift at all. Apparently, Andre just held him and said, Don't worry. I'll take care of you.

And he also offered him some cognac from the flask, which Sean declined, but he was able to calm down enough to do the scene. Oh, sweet, giant man. So sweet. So this is one of my favorite stories from the whole thing. While filming the scene on the castle wall with Fezig, Inigo, and Wesley, right as Fezig says, I guess not very long. Andre ripped the longest and loudest fart that anyone on that set had ever heard.

The way that Carrie Elis describes it, it sounds like the scene in the movie where they hear the man in black screaming through all the towns. Like, everyone stops what they're doing. The sound guy like has to take his headphones off and cover his ears. It just goes on and on. It was also a very hot day. And Andre was wearing a hair piece to make him look a little younger, which was apparently producing steam off of his head. So he's like steaming.

So he just lets out the swamps of Dagabah. Everyone obviously erupts in laughter and they could not get through this take for a long time after that because anytime he would say that line, they would just all start laughing. Finally, Rob Reiner pulls Carrie Ellis aside and Carrie is like, I am so sorry. I cannot get my shit together. This is too funny. Rob Reiner said, it's all right, Carrie, just flip it. Try to change the way you think of Andre. Think about what it's like for him being a giant and getting laughed at just because he's different. Oh. Also, leave it to Rob Reiner to be the only one that is like able to truly

understand the situation. Yeah. So Carrie obviously stopped laughing. He goes back, nails the take, and then apologize to Andre, who said, it's okay. My farts always make. people laugh. That was a big one, wasn't it? And then Mandy Patinkin spent the next two months training himself to fart even longer. Well, speaking of Mandy Patinkin, the only injury he suffered on set was actually from bruising a rib while trying so hard not to laugh at Billy Crystal at living his miracle now. I bet, because he's like, I'm not going to let this motherfucker make me laugh. You know what I mean? He physically hurt himself. Yeah, that's amazing. Elis was not so lucky. His first injury was entirely his own fault. They had gotten an ATV big enough

for Andre to ride around to the on-location shoots because he can't fit in a transport van. And he couldn't walk up the hills because of his back. And he loved this thing. He had one like it on his farm. He's just zooming around, having a great time, no problem. So he keeps trying to get Carrie Ellis to drive him. Yeah. Carrie's been saying no for a while. And then finally he's like, no, boss, It's easy. You'll like it. So Carrie Elvis tries it out and promptly manages to crash it into a pile of rocks. And he somehow got his big toe wedged between a rock and the clutch pedal. And when he looked at it, his toe was bent completely downward.

Oh. It's extremely broken. Oh. Now, Carrie's very young. And he, like Wallace Sean, was concerned that he could lose. this job. They're not so far into production that they couldn't replace him. So he tries to hide

it from Rob Reiner. The medic is like, you cannot. Like, you can't? He's like, can you just like splint it and just like cut a hole in the back of my shoe and just shove my foot in it? And so he's trying to get all these people to help him and he's like

limping his way back up, trying to pull it off. But he gets up there and Rob Reiner's like, so what were you going to tell me? And he's like about about what and he's like you tell carry you don't have a working toe you're supposed to be running around yeah but rob rider was very sweet about it he was basically just like the only thing that upset me was that you would lie to me about it that's even worse that is worse he's not mad he's disappointed yeah i think rob reiner's a psychopath no no i love him um and you can actually see

in a few scenes right before the fire swamp he's holding his leg a little weirdly If you watch the way that he sits down, he does it without putting any pressure. He holds that leg straight out. It's because he literally can't put weight on that foot. The other injury that he got, you actually can see in the final cut of the film. Can you guess what it is?

No, I can't. So when Christopher Guest knocks him out after they're captured exiting the fire swamp, he actually knocks him out. That is real. Oh, wow. Yeah. So when his eyes roll back into his head and he falls,

like it looks like the craziest prat fall. That's what I say it looks so exaggerated. It's real. I never would have guessed it. Wow. Yeah. I have to reevaluate all the movies that I thought were being very faky when they did something like that, if that's apparently what it looks like.

That is real. So apparently they'd been practicing and certifiable nice man, Christopher Guest, was too scared to really go for it. Right. So they kept shooting it and it looked fake. Yeah. And finally, Carrie Elwis was like, no, I think you should just do it, but just do like a light tap.

Like you'd go for it. And they go for it and boom, Carrie Helwis wakes up in an emergency room. Wow. Still dressed like Zorro being stitched up by the same doctor who had splinted his toe. Yeah. Just like, do you need me to call someone for you? I think this guy made a lot of fun of him because he was dressed so funny both times. And he's British.

Not the nicest doctors in the world from what I remember from being in London. But that was a limited experience. So who knows. Wow. Shots fired. Sorry. So back to the greatest sort of. fight in modern times.

Carrie Elwist's toe is mostly healed, although, by the way, not 100% by the time they're doing this. The day finally comes for Carrie and Mandy to show the cast and crew their sword fight on the set, built just for them. They do it beautifully, and everyone claps, except Rob Reiner, who says, that's it? It turns out they had gotten so good at it that they had just reduced it down to a minute and 23 seconds. Oh, wow.

And Rob Reiner is like, this supposed to be the greatest sword fight. Right. This can't be a minute long. And he's like, go back, add at least two more minutes to this fight. Wow. Yes. So, Carrie, Mandy, Bob, and Peter go back. They not only add the acrobatics, which you see.

That is the only stunt double. That's a gymnast named Jeff Davis. Okay. They also have to have the set builders build additional set pieces so that they can move. They build up. That sort of tower. So that's where they go up the stairs and stuff like, got it. I was wondering about that.

And fun things like when Enigo loses his sword and then it, you know, he catches it. And by the way, that's, I think Bob Anderson was waiting up above caught it and then dropped it. And it dropped it. Yeah, that makes sense. So finally, it's time to shoot the sequence for real. Even Bill Goldman flies back to see it. Praying the entire time. My God, doing incantations in the corner.

Yeah. They absolutely nail it over and over again. Left-handed and right-handed. Also, when Enigo asks who Wesley is, and Wesley says, get used to disappointment, Enig's, okay, was improvised by Mandy, one of my favorite moments in the whole movie. It's a good moment, yeah. And in case you're wondering how it holds up,

I did watch several very fun YouTube compilations of a master swordsman rating different sword fights on film. And even he says this is the best fight scene. Rates the fencing itself pretty high, but also the dialogue and acting is so good because they had practiced so much. much. Also pretty well-rated, Russell Crow and Gladiator. Yeah. Gladiator, not super historically accurate, according to the historian one, but sword fights, quite good. Pretty good. Apparently

terrible, the Scorpion King. Yes, although apparently not as terrible as you'd think, the Witcher on Netflix. That's right. He didn't hate that one. No, I like Henry Cavill. So Peter Falk and Fred Savage didn't really interact with anyone else from the cast because their scenes were shot on a different set, after everybody had wrapped. Yeah. Falk is only 55 at the time, by the way. I was wondering, because I'm guessing they did a little bit to maybe make him look a hair older. They had done more initially because he was worried that he wasn't old enough and they had

prosthetics on him. But 55 with like a 12-year-old grandson actually is not unusual at all. But they watched the Daly's back when he initially had the prosthetics on and he came to Rob Reiner and he was like, I look like a burn victim. So they took it off and they reshot those scenes with very minimal old age makeup. Yeah. There was also an alternate ending originally shot where Fred Savage would be reading the book in his room, hear something out his window and open it to see Fezik, Wesley, Buttercup, and Enigo on horses,

but they ended up cutting this because they thought it was too confusing. Yeah, it's also just the as you wish. It's very sweet. Gets the point across and we're out. Also, apparently for this scene, they had to literally crane Andre onto the horse, so he wasn't putting any weight on it because they said the horse saw Andre and it was like, nope, fuck you.

I'm not doing that. Yeah. No. And then Rob Ryder said that he walked onto set and Andre, the giant, was just being carefully lowered from the ceiling onto a very scared horse and he just goes, hello, boss. Mark Knopfler, lead singer and guitarist for dire straits.

Tire Straits. Provided the score for the film. He had scored local hear. a few years earlier, which if you've never seen that, I really like that movie. Yeah. I like Dire Straits a lot. I do too. Tunnel of Love, very underrated song, great guitar solo.

Anyway. He had one condition to do this movie. As many musicians were, he was a huge spinal tap fan. Ah. And he said he would score this movie if Rob Reiner could find a way to get Marty DeBergie's USS Coral C baseball cap somewhere on screen. And he did it. it is on the shelf in Fred Savage's bedroom. Very cool.

So, 20th Century Fox was initially very, very stoked on the Princess Bride. But Post is taking quite a lot longer than expected because they're having a bit of a hard time striking the balance between the comedy and the action and the heart of the movie. As we said at the beginning, one of the hardest things about this is that the tone is a bit hard to pin down. So they push it back from its original July 31st, 1987 release date. On September 15th, the Hollywood Reporter runs an article saying that the movie was going to be a challenge for the marketing department. And the studio decides to push it again. It premieres at TIF on 918, and it's set to do a limited release in theaters the next week, which it does. But as the cast and crew are flying back from Toronto, Rob Reiner shows them the poster.

Okay, so Chris, I want to show you the poster that the marketing team was about to start using to promote the movie. Okay, let's do it. This first one is about an old man reading to a boy in a Cloud Kingdom, and that's all I know about this movie. That's right. It's pretty weird. It looks kind of like a bizarro Disney movie. There's no Wesley, there's no Buttercup, there's no Giant, there's no Enigo Montoya. It doesn't look like this movie.

Nope. But it wasn't just the U.S. market that was having a hard time. It was also the foreign market. So I want to show you the Japanese poster. Take a look. This looks like whoever they hired in Japan forgot about it until the day before he had to turn it in. And so he cut out pictures from the movie and he glued them to a poster board. It is just a bunch of images from the movie literally like clip arted together.

Yeah. It's really confusing. It's weird. It doesn't look amazing. and again, I have no idea what this movie is. Now, the last one I want to show you is my favorite. This is the Italian poster for La Storia Fantastica. Okay, well, this one is the best one of all of them.

So this is based on the style of the artist Frank Frisetta, who did the art for Conan the Barbarian and many fantasy novels in the 60s and 70s, and basically what you have here is a super-steroided up Enigo Montoya holding a sword, giant lizard rat dragons, sexy Italian Robin Wright, I really want to see this movie. Yeah, but this looks great. It's not the movie.

It's not the Princess Brass. I would go see this movie and be confused that I saw the Princess Bride. That it's not a roided out Enigo Montoya with some sort of X-Caliber sword, yes. Actually, this looks like the version John Borman would have directed it. That is exactly what this looks like. That's right. Yeah. Anyway, none of them get it.

Yeah. Also, apparently the trailer was so confusing that it was pulled almost immediately. Yeah. But the problem is audiences that did see it loved it. Right. It won the people's choice at Toronto and had a crazy high audience rating, something like 94% would recommend it. But it didn't matter because they couldn't get people to see it. With a budget around 15 to 16 million, the Princess Bride only brought in about $30 million in its theatrical run, meaning it likely did not turn a profit after marketing and distribution.

It wouldn't have not during its theatrical run. Nope. But it wasn't until Christmas the following year that the film suddenly got a second chance. And that is through VHS. Yeah. VHS sales went through the roof because everyone started giving the gift of the Princess Bride, which is perhaps how we all grew up with a VHS of the Princess Bride in our house. I'm going to say, yeah.

Also, it was through people watching it at home with their families. Makes sense. Yeah, that this became an enduring classic beloved by millions. Everyone in the cast and crew remembers it fondly. When Andre the Giant sadly passed away in 1993 from congestive heart failure, his family apparently told Carrie Ellis it had been one of the highlights of his life. Everyone in the cast is constantly being quoted by their fans. Fun fact, if you want to really impress Billy Crystal, don't say have fun storming the castle.

Instead say, don't go swimming for an hour. Yeah, a good hour. He likes that one. My favorite story, though, is that Rob Reiner went out. to dinner with Nora Ephron and her husband, Nick Pilegi, who wrote Goodfellas. And they took him to a restaurant in New York City that John Gotti loved. And John Gotti was there that night. And when Rob Reiner was walking out of the restaurant, Gotti's limo was out front with a giant man who looked like Lucabrazzi from the godfather standing by it. And the guy

stops Rob Reiner and goes, hey, you kill my father. Prepare to die. Rob Reiner was like being his pants. Yeah. Like, please know. I'm just terrified. Great. And I will leave you with a quote from William Goldman. This movie was a remarkable experience.

The best experience I've ever had. It just worked. You never know why. And as you wish it would work like that all the time, but it doesn't. You never know what's going to happen with the movie when it comes out. Even if you've got a great cast and it's wonderfully directed, you just never know. All I know is it's different. It's an odd piece.

That's the Princess Bride. What a fun one. What an upbeat one. A charming one. Yeah. I feel like the behind the scenes really matched the tone of the movie. It did.

We don't get a ton of those. So thank you, Lizzie. Sure. That was a very heartwarming journey. Indeed. Stuff went wrong, but not too wrong. And our next film, Galaxy Quest, will have some similar themes

of how the studio didn't know how the hell to market it. That makes sense. I am excited to talk about that one as well. I'm excited to watch that one. It's so good. Okay. I can't wait.

It is. I forgot how good it is. I can't wait. Chris, what went right? So many things went right in the making of this movie. I would have to say, for me, Mandy Ptinkin. So good. He's great.

And I love that he was. kind of a psycho about doing the role so well because it translates in his performance in such a good way. He's so fun. And I think his energy opposite, he and Kerry Ellis are a great example of how contrast on screen can be so effective. Actually, the whole movie is because all the cast, you know, they have very different looks in a very fun way. Anyway, I'm going to pick Mandy Patinkin for mine. I forgot how much I enjoyed him in this movie. So good. So sweet. I feel like everyone in this comes across as very pure. And I think that my what went right because of that is Rob Reiner.

Everybody talking about the way that he would direct, he just seems like a very generous director and someone who understands actors and obviously understands comedy very well. But there was a story actually with him and Mandy Patinkin and Mandy was kind of freaking out about the part. And he was like, you know, Mandy, you don't have to do anything. Like you are in Ego Montoya. I cast you. I want you. Like, you're doing it. Just get out of your own way. And I think that what he provided everyone was sort of the safety to just be themselves. And it comes through on screen. And I,

I love it. I really love this movie. I do too. Lizzie, thank you so much. Guys, if you haven't yet, give the Princess Bride a rewatch. It is so good. So fun. As always, if you enjoy our podcast, Leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. If you don't enjoy our podcast, that's fine. Don't leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. If you would like to hear more content, check out our Patreon. Patreon.com slash What Went Wrong Podcast. You can, for free, vote for the next movie that we will cover.

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As you wish. Okay, boss. Go to patreon.com slash what went wrong podcast to support what went wrong and gain access to bonus episodes, video content, and more. What Went Wrong is a sad boom podcast presented by Lizzie Bassett and Chris Winterbauer. Editing Music by David Bowman with cover art from Uthano Youos.