The Princess Bride is a 1987 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner and starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, and Robin Wright.

Adapted by William Goldman from his 1973 novel, it tells the story of a swashbuckling farmhand named Westley, accompanied by companions befriended along the way, who must rescue his true love Princess Buttercup from the odious Prince Humperdinck.

Before the wedding, she is kidnapped by crafty Sicilian criminal Vizzini and his henchmen: Fezzik, a giant, and Inigo Montoya, a Spanish fencing master obsessed with revenge against the six-fingered man who murdered his father.

Atop the Cliffs of Insanity, the man in black defeats Inigo in a sword duel and knocks him out, chokes Fezzik into unconsciousness, and kills Vizzini by tricking him into drinking a deadly poison.

Inigo and Fezzik follow Westley's screams to the pit and take his body to Miracle Max, a folk healer whom Humperdinck recently fired.

Betsy Brantley appears as the mother of Savage's character and Margery Mason portrays the Ancient Booer who heckles Buttercup in her dream.

Rob Reiner, who had been enamored of Goldman's book ever since he was given it as a gift from his father, realized he wanted to make the film adaptation after successfully demonstrating his filmmaking skill with the release of This Is Spinal Tap in 1984.

[7] During production of Stand by Me, released in 1986, Reiner had spoken to an executive at Paramount Pictures regarding what his next film would be, and suggested the adaptation of The Princess Bride.

He was told they could not, leading Reiner to discover that several studios had previously attempted to bring Goldman's book to the big screen without success.

[8][9] Richard Lester was signed to direct and the movie was almost made, but the head of production at Fox was fired and the project was put on hiatus.

[15] Robin Wright was cast late in the process, about a week before filming; Reiner and Jenkins had auditioned a number of English actresses but had not found their ideal Buttercup.

[15] Uma Thurman, Meg Ryan, Sean Young, Suzy Amis, Courteney Cox, Alexandra Paul and Whoopi Goldberg all auditioned for the role.

[16] When Goldman originally shopped his novel in the early 1970s, his first choice for Fezzik was André the Giant, whose wrestling schedule left him unavailable for filming.

André was hesitant to take the part on the account of the fact that the film's dialogue was in English while he was French and because he was a professional wrestler, not an actor.

[19] Near the end of casting, the World Wrestling Federation told Jenkins that André's match in Tokyo had been cancelled, clearing him to play the role of Fezzik.

[14] For his part, André found his participation was a gratifying experience considering that no one stared at him on set during production as a kind of freak, but instead simply treated him as a fellow member of the cast.

[25] Billy Crystal and Carol Kane spent time before traveling to England to work out the backstory between Miracle Max and his wife and develop a rapport for their characters.

[2] Unsure how to describe the film's postmodern narrative, Fox promoted it to theaters as a zany comedy and released it without an audience trailer.

The site's consensus states, "A delightfully postmodern fairy tale, The Princess Bride is a deft, intelligent mix of swashbuckling, romance, and comedy that takes an age-old damsel-in-distress story and makes it fresh.

In 2005 The Princess Bride was voted 40th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Family Films poll ahead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Beetlejuice and just behind Bugsy Malone and Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

[43] American Film Institute lists In December 2011, director Jason Reitman staged a live dramatic reading of The Princess Bride script at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), with Paul Rudd as Westley; Mindy Kaling as Buttercup; Patton Oswalt as Vizzini; Kevin Pollak as Miracle Max; Goran Visnjic as Inigo Montoya; Cary Elwes (switching roles) as Humperdinck; director Rob Reiner as the grandfather; and Fred Savage reprising his role as the grandson.

[45] In 2013, director Ari Folman released a live-action animated film titled The Congress, which directly referenced The Princess Bride.

[46] In 2014, Cary Elwes wrote As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, a behind-the-scenes account of the film's production, co-written with Joe Layden.

This edition was widescreen and included an audio commentary by Rob Reiner, William Goldman, Andrew Scheinman, Billy Crystal and Peter Falk (this commentary would also later appear on the Criterion Blu-ray and DVD release); excerpts from the novel read by Rob Reiner; behind the scenes footage; a production scrapbook by unit photographer Clive Coote; design sketches by production designer Norman Garwood; and excerpts from the television series Morton and Hayes, directed by Christopher Guest.

The DVD release featured the soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 with the film in wide and full screen versions, and included the original US theatrical trailer.

The next year MGM Home Entertainment re-released the film in another widescreen "special edition", this time with two audio commentaries—one by Rob Reiner, the other by William Goldman—"As You Wish", "Promotional", and "Making Of" featurettes;[clarification needed] a "Cary Elwes Video Diary"; the US and UK theatrical trailers; four television spots; a photo gallery; and a collectible booklet.

[62] In 2016, Rob Reiner said the project was still in development despite "roadblocks" and that Marc Shaiman, Randy Newman and John Mayer had all been approached to write songs, but had turned them down.

[63] In June 2019, it was confirmed Rick Elice and Bob Martin were writing the script and David Yazbek was composing the music and lyrics.

It was produced by Jason Reitman during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine in March 2020 with help from an ensemble cast who filmed themselves recreating the various scenes at their homes to raise money for the World Central Kitchen charity.

The returning cast included Elwes, Wright, Sarandon, Patinkin, Guest, Shawn, Crystal, and Kane, with additional performances by Rob Reiner as the Grandfather, Josh Gad as Fezzik, Eric Idle as the Impressive Clergyman, Whoopi Goldberg as the Ancient Booer and the Mother, King Bach as Yellin, the Assistant Brute and the King, Finn Wolfhard as the Grandson, Shaun Ross as The Man With Albinism, and Jason Reitman as the narrator.