Shrek is love, Shrek is life… and Shrek is coming back to the big screen.
Shrek first appeared on the big screen in May 2001 (yep, we’re feeling old too), and had three increasingly bad sequels, culminating with Shrek Forever After in May 2010.
Somewhere in there we also got the criminally underrated Puss In Boots standalone movie, and combined, the five movies took in over $3.5 billion worldwide.
Right alongside them is the Despicable Me series – three standalone titles, and one spin-off – and they too have made some serious bank, with over $3.7 billion, even though they too have been getting progressively worse.
Apparently following the Spider-Man movies rule of reboots, keeping the amount of time between new iterations is small as possible, it has been announced that Chris Meledandri, the guy behind the Despicable Me series, has been hired by Universal to reboot Shrek.
Meledandri told Variety:
“When you look back on those vocal performances they’re awesome, and while you certainly could make a case for a complete reinvention, I find myself responding to my own nostalgic feelings of wanting to go back to those characterizations.
“The challenge for us has been to find something that really does feel like it’s not simply yet another film in a series of sequels.”
“There’s a tremendous amount of fun to be had in that world, but it’s a high bar to find a story that’s truly world. You want to find something in the narrative that really feels like a departure.”
Meledandi’s latest film, The Grinch, tells the story of a grumpy character, with a cute, mostly mute assistant, who has his heart opened by children… y’know… like Despicable Me? So here is hoping that departure really kicks into place for his take on Shrek.
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