Production History (The Princess Bride) The Princess Bride (1987)

Goldman's novel sat in development for over a decade

William Goldman published The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure in 1973, framed as his "good parts" abridgment of a fictional Florinese satire. The book was, by his own account, the favorite of everything he had written — and Hollywood spent the rest of the decade trying and failing to film it.

Goldman wrote a script in the mid-1970s. Twentieth Century Fox owned it briefly, then reverted; Norman Jewison was attached, then François Truffaut, then Robert Redford. Richard Lester nearly directed in the early eighties. Each project collapsed for reasons Goldman has described as the standard list: budget, scale, the difficulty of selling a fairy-tale comedy to studios that wanted broader genre. (wikipedia, vanity fair)

"It was the most personal thing I had ever written, and the studios kept telling me it was unfilmable. They wanted me to make it bigger or smaller or different. I wanted them to make it the way it was." — William Goldman, Which Lie Did I Tell? (2000) (book, not available online)

Reiner came up with the project as his hot streak began

Rob Reiner — coming off This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and Stand by Me (1986) — had been a fan of the novel since he read it as a young actor. He approached Goldman for the rights through producer Andrew Scheinman. Goldman, who had been burned repeatedly, sold reluctantly.

"Bill Goldman was very protective of the book. He had been through years of disappointment. We had to convince him we wouldn't do what others had threatened to do." — Rob Reiner, Vanity Fair (2012)

The project was made for around $16 million through Act III Communications and 20th Century Fox, on a budget tight enough that the production stayed mostly inside the United Kingdom and Ireland. (wikipedia)

Casting the leads took months

Westley was cast late. Reiner has reported considering Christopher Reeve, Kurt Russell, and even (briefly) Mel Gibson before settling on the relatively unknown Cary Elwes after seeing him in Lady Jane (1986). For Buttercup, the production tested dozens of young actresses; Robin Wright, then twenty-one and known mainly for Santa Barbara, won the role.

Mandy Patinkin came aboard as Inigo after the original casting fell through; André the Giant was sought specifically for Fezzik because Goldman had pictured him while writing the novel. Goldman told the story this way:

"When I created Fezzik, I had Andre the Giant in mind. I had never met him, but I had seen pictures of him. So when they cast Andre, I was thrilled." — William Goldman, Vanity Fair (2012)

Wallace Shawn, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Peter Falk, and Fred Savage rounded out the principal cast.

The fight choreography took months and was filmed largely without cuts

The Inigo–Westley duel on the Cliffs of Insanity was choreographed by Bob Anderson and Peter Diamond — the two most prolific film fight masters of the era; Anderson had doubled Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. Both Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin trained for several months, learning their roles ambidextrously so the left-handed reveal could be performed by the actors themselves rather than stunt doubles.

"We trained five days a week, two-three hours a day, for months. We did most of it ourselves. The whole point was to be able to shoot it in long takes without cuts." — Cary Elwes, As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride (2014) (book, not available online)

Elwes broke his big toe early in the shoot when André the Giant let him drive his ATV; the wrestling scene with Fezzik had to be re-staged with rigging because André's chronic back pain (from acromegaly) prevented him from supporting his own weight. (elwes book — vanity fair excerpt)

Filming ran October 1986 through January 1987

Principal photography ran from October 1986 to January 1987, with locations in Derbyshire's Peak District (the Cliffs of Insanity exteriors were filmed at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland), Sheffield, Haddon Hall (the castle interiors), and Penshurst Place (the farm). The Fire Swamp was built on a soundstage at Shepperton Studios. The film completed under budget. (wikipedia, imdb trivia)

Knopfler scored the film as a personal favor

Mark Knopfler had previously scored Reiner's The Sure Thing (1985). For The Princess Bride he produced a score he has described as deliberately small — guitars, light orchestration, a Storybook Love song that runs over the closing credits. He charged a token fee. The condition: Reiner had to put a Dire Straits hat from the Brothers in Arms tour somewhere visible in the film. The hat appears in the grandson's bedroom on a chair in the opening scene. (wikipedia, mark knopfler news)

The studio buried the marketing

20th Century Fox released the film on September 25, 1987 in limited release, then expanded to wider release in October. The marketing campaign was widely seen as confused — the studio could not decide whether to position the film as fairy tale, action, comedy, or romance. Box office was modest: roughly $30.9 million domestic against a $16 million budget. The film became a hit only afterward, on home video and cable. (wikipedia, box office mojo)

"Twentieth Century Fox didn't know how to market the film. They didn't know if it was a fairy tale, an action film, a romance, a comedy. So they did nothing." — Rob Reiner, Vanity Fair (2012)

The afterlife of the film — the cable runs, the VHS rentals, the generational handoff that would eventually make it one of the most-quoted American movies of its decade — is treated separately in The Cult Status (The Princess Bride) and Critical Reception and Legacy (The Princess Bride).