Shrek the Third news
DreamWorks animated movie comes out May 18th
(Source: Sci Fi Wire)
It’s the rat versus the ogre in this summer’s animated battle, and Shrek the Third’s stars are doing their best to make sure the DreamWorks Animation flick is a box office success.
Rupert Everett, Antonio Banderas and Julie Andrews have their own take on the Shrek franchise, and how they see their characters in the movies.
Rupert Everett (the voice of Prince Charming) sees his character as the spoiled child who never really grew up.
"I think Charming is a total victim," Everett said in an interview with Sci Fi Wire. "He is a victim of (a) society that worships being good-looking above and beyond anything else — being good-looking without any content . . . The culture of envy. He is a victim of all of that. He has been brought up in all of that hocus-pocus magic. He has been born to fail, really, poor thing."
In the first act of Shrek the Third, Prince Charming is performing in a dinner theatre, but gets heckled by Pinocchio, the Gingerbread Man and the Three Little Pigs. Stung by this, he assembles a gang of fairy tale villains in a plot to take over Far, Far Away.
"I think the thing about Charming is that he is kind of typical of today or tomorrow's generation of grown-ups," Everett continues. "He has been so spoiled as a kid, and maybe his mom worked too hard, gave him too much, and he hasn't got any equipment to deal with anything. As soon as he gets his first bit of rejection, which he does . . . he doesn't really know what to do."
Everett sees a bigger theme at work in the movie.
"The Shrek fable is a parable about Hollywood, and I think one of the things about Hollywood or having a career is you are always aiming at the 'happy ever after,'" he laughs. "The golden apple or the big job, super stardom and being the prince."
Speaking of wanting his ‘happy ever after,’ Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots) is still pushing for his proposed spin-off movie, which he says may end up as a direct-to-DVD flick. Writers Jon Zack (Shrek the Third) and David H. Steinberg (American Pie 2) are developing the script, with no director yet named. DreamWorks is gunning for a 2010 release for Puss in Boots, the same year that Shrek 4 hits cinemas.
Julie Andrews (Queen Lillian) talks about singing some improvised songs after her character bashes her head into a brick wall.
"I did have a say, a little bit, yes," the actor, legendary for her four-octave vocal range, said about the scene. "We tried a few (songs), and this was the one."
She doesn’t say which tune it is, but considering her long history of doing musicals, there’s plenty to choose from.
"Well, if you think it is “My Favourite Things,” (from 1965’s The Sound of Music) that's funny," she says.
Andrews joined the squad for Shrek 2, and she says her character will return for the proposed Shrek 4.
"I am so happy they asked me back, and I'm pleased to be a part of it," she says.
"It just makes me feel great that I am part of (Shrek the Third), and this is an iconic film, I think. It is going to be around for a very long time. It is done so well, and the good thing about it to me is it seems to be one of those films that it has all the tradition of fairy-tale stories, and yet it has such a traditional underpinning of all the right values. It is about decency. It is about loving who you are, about being unique, about being kind and decent. That is what always the best fairy tales are about."
Andrews is well known to Disney fans for her work in Mary Poppins, the role that made her a movie star. She’s returning to the Mouse House to work on another Disney live-action/animation hybrid.
"I am going to be doing a narration for Disney on a movie called Enchanted, and that happens in June for me," Andrews said. "I love the team."
Enchanted follows a young princess (Amy Adams) who gets banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her animated fairy tale world to real-world Manhattan. Patrick Dempsy (Grey’s Anatomy), James Marsden (Cyclops in X-Men) and Timothy Spall (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) also star in the flick, which is directed by Kevin Lima (Tarzan) from a script by Bill Kelly (Premonition).
“It is very modern,” Andrew says about Enchanted, “as well as (being a) fairy tale."
Shrek the Third opens May 18th.
