A 'Princess Bride' 'Remake' Is Happening & It Has A Star-Studded Cast

The film has already raised over $1M for charity

If you are a fan of The Princess Bride, you know it should never — under any circumstances — be remade. The original is perfection; nothing and no one could ever replace the magic that writer William Goldman’s story created. However, if there were, say, a global pandemic resulting in a months-long quarantine and you have a bunch of A-list celebrities with time on their hands working for free to give back to charity, it could worth the watch.

Filmmaker Jason Reitman has been working on the secret project since March, enlisting some seriously famous performers to shoot a homemade, fan-filmed version of the cult classic all on their phones. The outrageously done film will be shown on Quibi with each chapter featuring a different cast every day for two weeks starting this Monday. It’s like he knew it had to be so different from the original that fans would never consider it a remake but rather a bunch of bored famous people acting out their favorite scenes.

The best part? All the money raised will go to the World Central Kitchen charity, founded by José Andrés, which has been helping thousands of restaurants stay open feeding millions of meals to those in need. Quibi also made a $1 million donation to the charity in order to distribute the project.

“The week that the stay-at-home order came through in California, I just woke up one of the first mornings, I think like most people did, feeling as though, All right, I need to be able to do something of value,” Reitman told Vanity Fair. “I just thought, Can we remake an entire movie at home? And I had seen that a fan-made Star Wars had been done. I just started reaching out to actors I knew, saying, ‘Is this something you’d want to do?’ And the response was kind of immediate and fast. It was like, ‘Oh—that sounds like fun.’”

The film is meant to provide some much-needed levity to all that 2020 has become. Using household props, like Legos, stuffed animals, and very, um, creative wardrobes, the film has multiple castings of the same characters, innovative stunt scenes, and enough star power to fill an afternoon.

Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Garner, Tiffany Haddish, Common, Patton Oswalt, Taika Waititi, Neil Patrick Harris (and husband David), Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas, Chris Pine, and many other surprise guests have taken part to make this one for all ages to enjoy.

“What’s nice about it is that I made a film that’s lasted so long. Now it’s over 33 years. And the biggest kick I get out of it is that kids who saw it when they were eight or nine years old have kids that age now, and they’re seeing it and liking it. It seems to have stood the test of time,” said Rob Reiner, who directed the original and plays a small role in this project. “If you already know the movie, that’s what makes it fun. The audience already knows every line. I had no reservations. I was like, ‘Nah, let’s do it!’”

Newlyweds Jonas and Turner gender-swapped their characters, Princess Buttercup and Westley, as they struggle to escape the Fire Swamp and the ROUSes (Rodents of Unusual Size), which is obviously played by their corgi sporting a neck pillow.

In another chapter, Garner emerges as Buttercup in the scene where Humperdinck introduces her to the commoners as his bride. She also plays opposite herself as the old lady who boos her for turning her back on true love (“And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva…”).

“They’re all donating their time,” Reitman said. “They’ve been working tirelessly for the last two to three months to create an entire movie from scratch, just because. The money is for a good cause, and it’s fun to connect with a movie you love. In recreating it you get to feel a little bit of what it was like to make the original.”