Last year, we heard rumblings that Hollywood was considering tackling a The Princess Bride remake. Frankly, that sounded like an awful idea because Rob Reiner’s 1987 movie managed to strike a perfect balance of tones and it seemed unlikely that any new version would be able to recapture its spirit – especially without original writer William Goldman on board (Goldman died in 2018.) Then, a few weeks ago, Jason Reitman (Juno, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) announced that he had recruited an A-list cast for a Princess Bride remake for Quibi that was shot in everyone’s backyards during the coronavirus quarantine, all to help raise money for the World Central Kitchen charity. How could anyone be mad about that?

Now Quibi has released a lengthy clip from the homemade version of the movie on YouTube, so keep scrolling to see an all-star cast recreate the movie’s memorable sword fight, the Man in Black’s confrontation with Fezzik, and the hilarious battle of wits.

The Princess Bride Remake Scene

I’m a big fan of both William Goldman’s novel, which has some fascinating backstory elements for Fezzik and Inigo Montoya, and Reiner’s film adaptation, and I’m one of those people who was slightly disturbed by the idea that this movie might be remade. (Compared to everything else going on in the world right now, it’s hard to get truly riled up about anything so insignificant. But still, the idea was a little bothersome.) But damn it, this homemade backyard remake is charming as hell and just plain delightful. It’s exactly the type of momentary distraction from the horrors of the world that I needed.

Reitman clearly has a major love for The Princess Bride, because this isn’t his first time working with this material. Back in 2011, he staged a live reading of Goldman’s script that had Paul Rudd playing the role of Westley/The Man in Black and Mindy Kaling as Buttercup. Patton Oswalt played Vizzini in that live read as he does here, bringing the same manic energy to the role as he did almost a decade ago.

If you’re wondering who some of the cast members in this scene were, here’s part of the cast list directly from Quibi:

Jack Black – Westley
Diego Luna – Inigo Montoya
Kaitlyn Dever – Westley
Finn Wolfhard – Inigo Montoya
King Bach – Vizzini
Dave Bautista – Fezzik
David Spade – Westley
Tom Lennon – Prince Humperdink
Oliver Lennon – Rugen
Patton Oswalt – Vizzini
Jon Hamm – Westley

The post Watch: Quibi’s Homemade ‘The Princess Bride’ Remake Scene, Starring Jack Black, Jon Hamm, Patton Oswalt, and More appeared first on /Film.