The remake. It’s a go-to in the Hollywood tool bag when they are fresh out of ideas. Everything from 2012’s Total Recall to 1997’s Blues Brothers 2000, if Hollywood thinks it can profit from rehashing an old story, it will. The thing is, most of the time, the people just don’t want a remake. Especially a remake of an already classic movie like The Princess Bride.
The most recent remakes, that I can think of, that were absolutely butchered came from Disney, 2019’s The Lion King and 2019’s Aladdin. Of course, you’re free to disagree with me, but I felt both of these films fell miles short of the originals and should have never been made. I admit, my expectations may be a bit high, but at the same time, if you’re going to remake something that was wildly popular in the first place, you should expect the bar to be high.
I need only point to one Tweet from The Dread Pirate Roberts (Westly) himself, Cary Elwes. His one-sentence basically sums up exactly why remaking The Princess Bride is a hairbrained idea.
There’s a shortage of perfect movies in this world. It would be a pity to damage this one. https://t.co/5N8Q3P2e5G
— Cary Elwes (@Cary_Elwes) September 18, 2019
There is no need for a remake of The Princess Bride when you have a ton of other material that could be shaped into a movie. Take, for instance, The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock. Now, one might argue that the character is relatively unknown and audiences may not respond well. So tell me then, how did the Matrix become a wildly popular and now classic movie when its characters were unknown?
Elric is only one example in the sea of literature available to Hollywood to pull from. There are so many other potential movies out there but studios seem to be content regurgitating already digested content and throwing it back in our faces. It’s bad enough when a bad movie is remade, and it’s insulting when a perfect movie, like The Princess Bride, is remade.
Let’s hope this rumor has no merit, or at least, let’s hope the uproar over a potential remake is enough to squash such an awful idea. Just leave this classic as it is. If it’s aged in any way, it’s only aged for the better.
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Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
