Illumination Studios has announced “Skrek 5” is in the works along with a “Donkey” spinoff with Eddie Murphy.
Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri confirmed that the “Shrek” franchise is being rebooted with the hope that the original cast comprised of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy will accept offers to return.
“We anticipate the cast coming back,” Meledandri told Variety. “Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return.”
He cited the company’s new “Super Mario Bros.” film and added, “It’s not that dissimilar to the process that we went through with ‘Mario,’ where you look at what the core elements are that audiences have loved, and you do your very best to honor those core elements. And then you’re hard at work to build story elements and new characters that take you to brand new places. The original cast is a huge part of that.”.
Murphy spoke about a possible Donkey-centered spinoff earlier this year in an interview with Etalk.
“I love Donkey,” Murphy told Etalk at the time. “They did the Puss in Boots movies. I was like, they should have done a Donkey movie. Donkey is funnier than Puss in Boots. I mean, I love Puss in Boots but he ain’t as funny as the Donkey. … I would do a Donkey movie, I would do another Shrek, in two seconds.”
Meanwhile, Meledandri is also “deep into development” on “Sing 3” and “Secret Life of Pets 3.”
About “Sing 3” he told Variety, “It will involve characters from the original cast, but it will take us into a new world.’
When it comes to a possible “Secret Life of Pets 3,” he shared, “One of the stories that we’re developing involves one primary character from the first two films, but introduces a new set of characters,” Meledandri explained. “And then another story that we’re developing is the ensemble. So we’re looking at it from different angles.”
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