Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride Had A Clever, Touching Remake You Likely Missed

I maintain that the idea behind Quibi was sound. Many look to Quibi as a symbol of corporate failure, as the streaming service infamously cost $2 billion to launch, and crashed and burned after only four months in 2020. But the thought of producing high-quality, short-form film projects for mobile screens was a clever thought, and a way to adapt to a changing media landscape. Why not watch a serialized movie on your phone, portioned into seven-minute intervals? It was ideal for elevator rides, waiting in line, or hanging out in public. The issue, of course, was that Quibi launched in the middle of COVID lockdowns, and audiences had no reason to watch a phones-only video service when their TV was in the room with them. 

In 2025, the sudden popularity of short-form vertically presented, phone-ready scripted dramas, nicknamed "microdramas," has proven that Quibi was ahead of its time. It was merely a victim of bad timing. 

Many of Quibi's films were actually novel and exciting to watch. Zach Wechter's and Jack Seidman's thriller "Wireless" was one of the best films of 2020, and Tricia Brock's sex comedy "Dummy" was crass and clever. And, as a way to fill the Quibi coffers during lockdowns, there was "Home Movie: The Princess Bride," a remake of Rob Reiner's 1987 comedy/fantasy classic. The makers of "Home Movie," knowing that celebrities were all relegated to their homes, asked dozens of famous actors to each re-enact a very brief scene or two from "The Princess Bride," using their own phone cameras and whatever props, costumes, and locations they could immediately access. Many, many actors played along. 

Director Jason Reitman then ransom-noted together all the footage into an approximation of the movie. It's a wild, campfire-story-like experience. Even Rob and Carl Reiner both appeared on camera. 

When I say that many actors participated, I mean it. Seventeen different actors played the character of Westley throughout "Home Movie: The Princess Bride," including Jack Black, Taika Waititi, Paul Rudd, David Spade, Kaitlyn Dever, Brandon Routh, Common, Chris Pine, and Cary Elwes, who originated the role. Buttercup, meanwhile, was played by nineteen actors (twenty if you include Patton Oswalt's pet dog). Tiffany Haddish, Zazie Beetz, Annabelle Wallis, Leslie Bibb, Joe Jonas, Zoe Saldaña, Jennifer Garner, Penélope Cruz, and Robin Wright (who, likewise, originated the role) all participated. 

Listing the entire cast of "Home Movie: The Princess Bride" would take up too much space, suffice to say that there are some unexpected names on the roster. Celebrity chef Jose Andres, for instance, plays Prince Humperdinck (the role originated by Chris Sarandon) in one scene. Some of the shorter roles only have one actor. John Malkovich was the only one to play Peter Cook's Impressive Clergyman. Seth Rogen was the only one to play Billy Crystal's Miracle Max. 

If you'd rather see everyone yourself, you can watch the entire presentation in full here:

In the film's most touching moments, the Grandfather, originally played by Peter Falk, was played by the late great Rob Reiner in one sequence. At the end of the movie, Rob Reiner moved into bed to play the young Grandson while his own father, Carl Reiner, played the Grandfather. "The Princess Bride" ends with the Grandfather leaving a bedroom saying, impishly, "As you wish." Carl Reiner got to deliver this line to Rob. The moment becomes all the more touching when you realize that this scene was the last thing Carl Reiner ever shot before his death. Now that Rob Reiner has also passed, the scene becomes even more moving and personal.

On its surface, "Home Movie: The Princess Bride" feels like little more than a whimsical lark. Celebrities were hurting for work during COVID lockdowns, and shooting scenes from an incredibly well-known and widely beloved movie like "The Princess Bride" seemed like a fun way to while away the hours. The actors each likely got a small paycheck in the mail, and viewers could bemusedly watch them dress up in household items and do their best Andre the Giant or Mandy Patinkin impersonations. One needs to know "The Princess Bride" pretty well to even understand what's going on, as each scene is set in a different backyard or living room, and characters fluctuate from minute to minute. 

But "Home Movie: The Princess Bride" is so much more than a celebrity-stroking trifle. Recall that Reiner's original film was staged as a Grandfather reading a fantasy story to his sick Grandson. It became a way for the young boy and the old man to bond over their mutual passion for this story. "Home Movie" takes that conceit out of its original context, and spreads it out into the real world. "The Princess Bride" has become so beloved and familiar to multiple generations, that we have come to repeat it and recite it to one another. It's almost become a folk tale unto itself, a bardic tradition that parents can hand to their children. It's a pop culture password that savvy fans can quote to one another. 

And "Home Movie" shows that we're simply continuing the grand and touching tradition of handing a beloved story back and forth. Rob Reiner made a classic so enduring that it became a campfire story, a whimsical tale celebrities can re-enact on a moment's notice.