Mike Myers ... Shrek (voice)
Eddie Murphy ... Donkey (voice)
Cameron Diaz ... Fiona (voice)
John Lithgow ... Farquaad (voice)
John Cleese ... King Harold (voice)
Julie Andrews ... Queen Lillian (voice)
Antonio Banderas ... Puss-in-Boots (voice)
Rupert Everett ... Prince Charming (voice)
Larry King ... The Ugly Stepsister (voice)
Jennifer Saunders ... The Fairy Godmother (voice)
Conrad Vernon ... The Gingerbread Man (voice)
Behind the camera:
Director:
David Ellis
Screenwriters: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio
Plot:
More adventures from everyone's favorite ogre!
UPDATES:
Variety reports that despite previous negotiations to have "Shrek" writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio return to scribe "Shrek 2," David Stem and David Weiss have been brought on board by Dreamworks to write the sequel instead.
UPDATE:
In the new issue of Creative Screenwriting, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, screenwriters of SHREK, explain why they opted not to
pen SHREK 2: Rossio says, "Many great Shrek sequels can be made. We felt that all of the good sequel versions had a similar quality, which is that you'd always begin
with the fairy tale conventions and out of those conventions you'd tell a dramatic and funny story. And the story that was chosen for SHREK 2 was
actually one that does not deal with fairy tale conventions."
UPDATE:
Dark Horizons (http://www.darkhorizons.com/news.htm) reports that Jeffery Katzenberg recently spoke with CNN and revealed a little bit of the plot to the planned "Shrek 2."
Katzenberg said that story starts when Shrek and Fiona return from their honeymoon to find a letter - its Fiona's parents inviting the newlyweds around for dinner, and are unaware of what happened to their daughter. Liz Smith's column today also confirms that Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy have all signed on for the sequel.
UPDATE:
Friday January 25,2002
Myers, Murphy and Diaz back for 'Shrek 2'
The ogre, his sidekick donkey and the princess they rescue will all return with their familiar voices when ``Shrek 2'' finally makes it to the big screen.
The three stars of the original ``Shrek'' -- Mike Myers as the green-skinned title ogre, Eddie Murphy as Donkey and Cameron Diaz as Princess Fionna-- have all committed to a planned sequel to the computer-animated hit, a DreamWorks SKG official said Friday.
``They're not recording yet because the final script isn't done yet, but they've all signed on,'' studio spokesman Chip Sullivan said.
As for John Lithgow, who voiced the evil but diminutive Lord Farquad in the original film, ``he was eaten in the end, so I don't know whether he comes back or not,'' Sullivan added.
The blockbuster storybook spoof was a smash hit for ''DreamWorks,'' grossing nearly $900 million in movie, video and DVD revenues since its release last May, including more than $470 million at box offices worldwide.
The critically acclaimed film also has generated Oscar buzz, mentioned as a possible candidate for best picture of 2001 and a near-certain contender for the new Academy Award for best animated film.
``Shrek 2,'' expected for a 2004 release, is being co-written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the same team behind the original ``Shrek'' and the 1992 hit Disney-animated film ''Aladdin.'' Voice work for the original film reportedly took four years to record, with several stops and starts.
Terms of the deals DreamWorks signed with Myers, Murphy and Diaz for ``Shrek 2'' were not disclosed. But Daily Variety reported last summer that they stood to earn as much as $5 million each, including a large up-front payment.
According to Variety, the three performers made roughly $3 million each for the original ``Shrek,'' based on their share of the domestic box office gross, which then stood at $240 million and went on to reach more than $267 million.
UPDATE:
From Dark Horizons:
According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Katzenberg explained, "After returning from their honeymoon and showing "home movies" to their friends, Shrek and Fiona learn Fiona's parents have heard their daughter has married her true love and wish to meet the husband and invite him to their kingdom, called Far Far Away. The catch? Fiona's parents are unaware of the curse that struck their daughter and assumed she married Prince Charming so are a bit shocked to learn
their son-in-law is a 700-pound ogre with horrible hygiene and a talking donkey."
UPDATE:
CountingDown.com
is reporting that John Cleese will be lending his voice talents to "Shrek 2," where he will play the father to Princess Fiona.
Cleese joins the ensemble voice cast which reunited Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy together for the sequel starring everyone's favorite ogre.
UPDATE:
(From
IGNFilmForce)
Shrek 2 Scribe Drama
Screenwriting duo exits over "creative differences."
June 25, 2002 - The Hollywood Reporter chimes in today with some interesting Shrek sequel news. First of all, THR backs up a report that surfaced earlier this month on the Dark Horizons website: that John Cleese has been cast in the CG-animated sequel. It seems that Cleese will indeed provide the voice of Fiona's father.
The big news, for those of you that have been closely following this project, is that screenwriting duo Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (Aladdin, The Mask of Zorro), who co-wrote the original film with scribe Joe Stillman, have departed due to "creative differences." Stillman (Joseph: King of Dreams) will now serve as the project's sole writer. Director Andrew Adamson and producer Aron Warner will work with Stillman on developing the sequel's script. THR says that Elliott and Rossio will remain on board the project in a consulting capacity.
The story of Shrek 2 begins as Shrek and Fiona return from their honeymoon. The couple learn that Fiona's parents found out about their daughter's nuptials and they invite her and her true love to visit their kingdom, a land called Far Far Away. Shrek and Fiona arrive and her parents are shocked to see a big green ogre instead of Prince Charming.
UPDATE:
According to "The Hollywood Reporter", the sole screenwriter on the project is now Joe Stillman, who co-wrote the first movie and Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
UPDATE:
BY LINCOLN GASKING | Lincoln Gasking recently attended a preview of the DreamWorks Animation slate, and filed this coverage of "Shrek 2". Warning: some story spoilers ahead!
"One of the biggest mistakes we made in the first one was marrying them off, because now we were like, 'What do we do now?', laughs Conrad Vernon, co-director of "Shrek 2", the sequel to the ogre-sized hit of 2001.
It didn't take them long to figure it out: "Well, 'Meet the Parents'... we'll do that!" The resulting storyline is a hilarious continuation of the original, which is sure to beat everyone's already-lofty expectations and continue the original's success for DreamWorks. So confident of their success, they invited the world's most critical audience to preview the film today: Internet journalists.
These guys have seen and heard it all, and it's normally months -- years, even -- before everyone else gets even close. So it was surprising how little they'd heard about "Shrek 2". No one knew the storyline or had seen any of the gorgeous storyboards or production stills gracing the walls of the DreamWorks Development buildings on the Animation campus in Glendale. That was, until today. In fact, DreamWorks was so confident of their material, they even invited the terminally-banned sidekick of test screening tell-all, Harry Knowles.
They had a lot to show, including the entire opening sequence. The film begins with pages from a fairytale book (a la "Shrek"), showing how the magical world was upset by Shrek taking the place of Prince Charming by marrying Princess Fiona. It turns out Prince Charming is the son of none other than the Fairy Godmother, who has not given up hope for a Happily Ever After for her darling impossibly handsome child.
After a raucous honeymoon, including a spoof of the famous "Here to Eternity" beach scene where a mermaid tries to steal Shrek from Fiona, Shrek is taken to meet Fiona's parents. The only problem is, Fiona's parents (the King and Queen of Far Far Away Land) are expecting Princess Fiona and Prince Charming, rather than the two ogres that alight from the pumpkin carriage to greet them on the red carpet.
"We have a lot of new characters, so we tried to want to focus on them but we didn't want to leave the fairytale characters behind," explains Vernon. It's one of the refreshing things about Shrek 2: all the favorites are back, plus a whole bunch of new ones, including the (not-so-terrible) ogre-killer, Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas; the King and Queen (John Cleese and Julie Andrews); and the Evil Stepsister (voiced by Larry King) is sure to delight. It's this sort of genius casting that will ultimately take this movie into mega-blockbuster status next summer.
Along with the new characters, the parodying is back as well. But this time, the targets have moved off Disneyland. Says Conrad: "I think if we're parodying anything here, it's the Hollywood / Beverly Hills aspect of things. We're dealing with beauty-only-skin-deep and where her parents live in Far Far Away is the place to do that."
Far Far Away is a fantastic fairytale spin on Beverly Hills: instead of the Hollywood Sign, "Far Far Away" graces the nearby hills; various fairytale characters own large estates, including Rapunzel and Jack (the Beanstalk rises up from behind his gates). Far Far Away even sports its own Gap clothing store and stretch carriage limousines.
When the King tries to have Shrek killed in favor of Prince Charming, the fun starts. The King employs the services of Puss 'n' Boots, who, despite his best efforts, fails miserably and joins Shrek on his quest for Fiona. After drinking a "Happily Ever After" potion to try and win back his wife, Shrek (and Donkey) are transformed into beautiful versions of themselves, which causes all sorts of mistaken identities; arrests; and an appearance by Shrek and Donkey on the Fairytale version of "Cops": "Knights".
The episode of "Knights" is seen by Pinocchio, Gingerbread Man and the Three Little Pigs on television (the magic mirror) as they house-sit Shrek's swamp abode. Deciding to rescue Shrek and Donkey, the film moves into high gear as the Fairytale group resort to a ridiculously entertaining way to save them and storm the castle. All I'll say is that it involves a Ghostbusters homage that will have you laughing in the aisle. I only saw a fraction of it and I'm still giggling.
Conrad Vernon is the perfect man for the job as co-director on this film he made his name as a standout storyboard artist on the original, as well as being the classic distinctive voice behind "Not the buttons" Gingerbread Man. Capturing a storyboard presentation on video by Conrad for the sequel's DVD release would be a smart move: his quirky character voices and special effects spoken over his brilliant draftsmanship are extremely entertaining to watch.
Leaving the theater presentation, one Internet journalist turned to another with his snide summary comment: "it doesn't matter if I like it or not, this is still going to make a fortune". The sequel to Shrek may very well be critic-proof, but it has more than enough strength to stand on its own. Start lining up now: this one's a home run.
UPDATE:
DREAMWORKS AT 2003 COMIC-CON
At the DreamWorks booth, thousands of comic book fans get an opportunity to preview the characters and behind-the-scenes images from DreamWorks upcoming animated projects at the 2003 Comic-Con in San Diego.
Thousands of fans have been introduced to the stars of DreamWorks' upcoming animated films at the 2003 Comic-Con International, being held from July 17 - 20 in San Diego, California. The DreamWorks booth features art from the animated films "Shrek 2" and Sharkslayer." Also represented is the new animated comedy series "Father of the Pride," being produced by DreamWorks for NBC's 2004-2005 slate. In addition to the art showcasing the cast of characters from each of the projects, attendees have the opportunity to view conceptual behind-the-scenes art of the sets and character development. Opening in Summer 2004, "Shrek 2" continues the adventures of the loveable green ogre, his bride Princess Fiona, and his trusty but talkative friend Donkey. The film reunites the cast from "Shrek," including Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, while introducing a new band of characters voiced by Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, and Jennifer Saunders.
"Sharkslayer" is an undersea comedy about a little fish who gets into hot water when he pretends to be something he's not -- a great sharkslayer. The film features an all-star cast, including Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese, Peter Falk, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore, Kevin Pollak, Doug E. Doug and Ziggy Marley. "Sharkslayer" is the first CG film to be produced out of DreamWorks' new state-of-the-art pipeline in Glendale, CA. "Father of the Pride," the first completely computer-animated series for primetime television, focuses on the magical world of Las Vegas' famed Siegfried and Roy -- seen through the eyes of their extraordinary white lions and other animals. The series stars the voices of John Goodman, Orlando Jones, Cheryl Hines and Carl Reiner. It will debut on NBC in the fall of 2004.
UPDATE:
Banderas Purrs Over Shrek 2
Antonio Banderas, who voices Puss in Boots in the upcoming computer-animated sequel film Shrek 2, told USA Today that he was happy to join the project. "I loved the first Shrek," Banderas told the newspaper, adding that he watches the original with daughter Stella, 7, every chance he gets.
As for his fairy-tale character, Banderas called Puss "a manipulator" who comes between Shrek (Mike Myers) and his sidekick, Donkey (Eddie Murphy). "He tries to break up the relationship between the two guys," Banderas said, adding that he drew upon his own three cats for inspiration. "Shrek thinks he's cute. Donkey feels threatened. He doesn't want to be replaced by this idiot." Shrek 2 is slated for a June 2004 release.
