Dreamworks PicturesThe man behind the insanely popular Despicable Me franchise is about to reboot everyone’s favourite swamp loving ogre Shrek for a new generation.
According to Variety Chris Meledandri, the founder of Illumination Entertainment, will oversee ‘new interpretations‘ of both Shrek and the spin-off character Puss in Boots for Universal Pictures.
Thankfully for all you Shrek fans out there, Meledandri isn’t going to change everything about the characters.
It’s being reported that Meledandri believes the voice performances of both Mike Myers and Antonio Banderas are a major part of both characters’ popularity and he’s keen to keep both onboard the series.
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.
He went on to explain that the real challenge in rebooting these characters is finding ‘something’ that breaks the mould and doesn’t just feel like just another sequel.
Dreamworks PicturesThat said he’s confident that he’ll be able to find the right kind of magic to bring both Shrek and Puss back to the big screen.
He said:
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.
There’s been speculation that Meledandri would take over Dreamworks ever since Universal’s parent company, Comcast, purchased the animation studio back in 2016 for over $3 billion.
Universal PicturesInstead, he’s opted to tackle Shrek and Puss in Boots as individual projects because he doesn’t think with his particular work style he could balance running both Illumination and Dreamworks full time.
Illumination Entertainment made their name with the Despicable Me franchise which introduced the world to the supervillain Gru, but it was his Minions which really stole the show.
These irritating but hilarious yellow blobs are insanely popular for some reason, getting their own spin-off movie and becoming Illumination’s official mascot.
Since then the studios had a number of hit movies including The Secret Life of Pets, Sing and a number of Doctor Seuss projects including The Lorax and their latest film The Grinch.
Shrek isn’t the only big name franchise getting an Illumination-style facelift. Meledandri and his team are also working on an animated version of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros.
Here’s hoping it’s better than the Bob Hoskins’ version.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.