In The Princess Bride, who wrote the screenplay adapted from William Goldman’s novel?

In The Princess Bride, William Goldman wrote the screenplay adapted from his own novel.

Goldman published The Princess Bride as a novel in 1973 and later adapted it for the 1987 film. He also appears in the movie’s framing device as the grandfather who reads the story to his sick grandson. That structure lets the film move between a modern bedroom and a deliberately storybook adventure involving Buttercup, Westley, Inigo Montoya, Fezzik, and Prince Humperdinck.

Rob Reiner directed the film, but he did not write the screenplay. The movie’s distinctive balance of romance, parody, adventure, and direct-to-the-audience humor comes from Goldman’s writing. The fictional author S. Morgenstern is part of the novel’s playful framing device, not the real writer of the film script.

Goldman’s screenplay retained many memorable lines and narrative turns from the book while shaping the material for a compact film. This is why William Goldman is the single answer for the screenplay credit, while Reiner is the separate answer to a directing question.