Hollywood take note: Cary Elwes doesn’t want you putting “The Princess Bride” on your reboot/remake list.
“I think it works as a standalone film,” Elwes told CNN. “I think it would take away from the movie if we tried to do anything with it.”
To mark the 30 years since “The Princess Bride” released, the film will return to select theaters on October 13 and 18.
Elwes is still beloved by fans for his role as Westley, opposite Robin Wright as the Princess Bride, Buttercup.
The actor has had a long relationship with the project.
The Brit was 13 years old when his stepfather first gave him the 1973 novel by William Goldman, which the movie is based on.
“I loved it,” the actor said. “It’s a hilariously funny book and not like the movie at all. In fact, Goldman had to take only the Princess Bride story out of the book and make it a movie as the book has a whole back story about a character who is sort of loosely based on Goldman.”
Elwes wrote the 2014 book “As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride” and has his own great stories to tell.
“Here’s something that folks may not know,” he said. “Chris Guest actually knocked me out for real in that scene where he knocks me out in the movie with the butt of his sword. I woke up in a hospital having my forehead sewn back together.”
Elwes said Guest, who played Count Rugen in the film, felt terrible after the incident, adding it wasn’t Guest’s fault because they were using a real sword instead of a prop in the scene for it to look more realistic.
“It was my fault as I told him to tap me lightly and we didn’t realize how heavy the real sword was,” Elwes said. “So when he hits me and the screen go black, that’s what happened to me in real life.”
The cast is still pretty close all these years later, Elwes said.
As a matter of fact, he is back working with his “Princess Bride” costar Carol Kane.
The pair are currently filming a movie in Massachusetts about a troupe of actors who accidentally activate the Macbeth curse.
Elwes said he and Kane might travel to Boston to support the film being back in theaters if their shooting schedule allows it.
The actor shared his theory on the staying-power of “The Princess Bride.”
“It’s a family movie that everyone can sit and watch together and each get something out of it,” he said. “That’s very rare today.”
