But he was sitting there that night in the tights he wore and all he had on top was a very thin towel across his shoulders. Maybe it's a giant thing, I never asked him. I have no way to explain this, but Andre never got cold. I remember it was as cold as any time I ever had on a movie set. The whole crew is bundled up, but the wind cut in on us anyway.

The next night we were shooting outside, the attack on the castle, and it was cold. I think I came up with something real smart like 'I knew that, sorry' and hid. Rob yells 'Cut,' turns to me and in a voice I can still hear, he says with all the patience he can muster, 'Bill, it's supposed to catch on fire.' at which point there is a flame spurt and her dress catches on fire.Īt which point (so humiliating) I start to shout, 'Her dress is on fire, her dress is on fire,' totally destroying the shot. OK, I am standing there on the set of the Fire Swamp and Rob Reiner goes 'action, Cary' and here they come into view, those two wonderful actors, and I am watching from a corner of the set, and he leads her forward, one step, another step. Why am I so smart? Because Morgenstern wrote it, I adapted it for the novel, and used it in every draft of the screenplay, of which, believe me, there were many. Now I know what is going to happen-there is a flame spurt and her dress catches on fire.

And there is a moment in the movie where Cary Elwes (Westley) starts to lead Robin Wright (Buttercup) through it. I hide on the sets out of the way when the camera rolls, but I cannot tell you how often the director, just as he is about to start, sees where I am and asks me to please move, because I am standing in the exact spot where the shot will end.Ī few days before the day I am about to tell you about, we were shooting the Fire Swamp. I make the actors nervous, but more than that, and if I have written this before, skip this part, I have an amazing ability to screw up shots. You won't believe that, I know), and (2) if you are the writer, essentially, your work is done. They are tedious and horrible for several reasons: (1) they are tedious and horrible (but I once wrote that the best day of your life is your first day on a set and the worst days are all the ones that follow. I ordinarily do not not not like being on movie sets. I had written the screenplay for it first over a decade before-but it had never been 'picked up,' as they say Out There, till then. It was such a happy time for me, at last Morgenstern coming to life on film. L ET ME TELL you how I first heard of the existence of the Morgenstern Museum.īack we go to 1986, Sheffield, England, and we are shooting the movie of The Princess Bride.

The princess bride morgenstern