Daily Dialogue — December 28, 2018

Grandpa: When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I’m gonna read it to you.
Grandson: Has it got any sports in it?
Grandpa: Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…
Grandson: Doesn’t sound too bad. I’ll try to stay awake.
Grandpa: Oh, well, thank you very much, very nice of you. Your vote of confidence is overwhelming.

— The Princess Bride (1987), screenplay by William Goldman based on his novel

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Gift.

Trivia: Inspired by, and written directly for his two daughters, writer William Goldman already had a special affection for his story. However, it spent many years in “development hell” during which it gained a reputation for being un-filmable, with at least two studio heads losing their jobs (for unrelated reasons) mere days after stating they wished to make the film. By this stage Goldman was so disillusioned and protective of his book that he took the almost unheard of step of buying back the rights to his own story when it came available after a studio ‘desk clearing’ (putting up every optioned story for sale so as to start again with a clean slate).

Dialogue On Dialogue: Talk about a gift that keeps giving! Grandfather gives the book “The Princess Bride” to his sickly Grandson, then reads him a rollicking story which comes alive in the boy’s imagination… and ours!