Variety (via Toonado.com) recently spoke with Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri to discuss The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but as a creative partner to DreamWorks Animation, that's far from the only property he's working on.
With Puss in Boots: The Last Wish proving to be a massive box office hit earlier this year, there's been renewed interest in a fifth Shrek movie and Meledandri is pushing to bring back the entire original voice cast.
"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," Meledandri explained. "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," he added, referring to Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy.
While no deals are currently in place, it appears negotiations are already well underway. Meledandri says, "We anticipate the cast coming back. Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return."
Interestingly, he'd go on to suggest that there should be a Donkey movie, arguing that the character is "funnier than Puss in Boots. I mean, I love Puss in Boots, but he ain't funny as the Donkey." Does he believe Donkey could hold his own in a spin-off, though? "Without question," he responded.
Elsewhere in this conversation, Meledandri confirmed that they're working on a new movie set in The Secret Life of Pets world and confirmed they're "deep into development" on Sing 3.
We're keeping everything crossed that Shrek 5 becomes a reality, especially after The Last Wish's big tease. The franchise lost its lustre with those later movies, so here's hoping this comeback can deliver the fun, nostalgia-filled adventure fans of Shrek have been waiting for.
What do you guys think?