While producer Chris Meledandri prepares for casting Super Mario Bros.: The Movie in theaters – in Argentina it opens tomorrow Wednesday, a day earlier than usual Thursday), the founder and CEO of Illumination is simultaneously juggling several new films and sequels in his ever-expanding animation empire.
This all goes from tracking their franchises sing, My favorite villain AND the secret life of petsas well as original films such as Migrationthe story of a family of ducks who live on a pond in New England and no longer have to migrate because the winters are milder.
But first, there’s the plumber movie, supposedly a big Easter hit around the world.
Meledandri, who discussed all this with Varietyand Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto for this week’s cover story Super Mario Bros.: The Moviehe also serves as a creative partner for DreamWorks Animation as it tries to reboot Shrek Like a new franchise. He says he can’t wait for the return of the film’s original voice cast (which includes Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy) to Shrek 5.
“It’s not that different from the process we’ve been through Mariowhere you look at what are the building blocks that the audience loved and do everything possible to honor those building blocks,” Meledandri said. “And then you’re hard at work building story elements and new characters that take you to entirely new places. The original cast is a big part of that.”
Negotiations going well
While there is no deal, he said negotiations with the actors are going well. “We expect the return of the cast. Talks are starting now and every indication we’ve received is that there is tremendous excitement from actors to return,” she said.
And Meledandri has good reason to be optimistic. After the success of the sequel derived from Shrek, Puss in Boots: The Last WishMurphy said in January, “If (DreamWorks) ever came up with another one Shrek, would do it in two seconds. I love donkey. They made movies of The cat with the boots. I was like, ‘they should have made a movie about Donkey.’ Donkey is funnier than Puss in Boots. I mean, I love Puss in Boots, but he’s not as funny as Donkey…”
Meledandri said he was “thrilled” when he read Murphy’s comments, adding, “It’s testament to his great enthusiasm for a role that he played so brilliantly and really created together with the artists at DreamWorks. I found that comment very moving”.
When asked if he thought Donkey was a character who could support his own film, similar to the feline spin-offs starring Antonio Banderas, Meledandri replied, “Definitely.”
During her in-depth interview with Variety, Meledandri also referred to the other animated projects that Illumination is preparing. He’s looking for a new way back into the world of dogs, cats, goldfish, and all other forms of pets.
“We’re developing a couple of scripts in the world of the secret life of pets, She said. “While we’re not quite ready to start a movie yet, we are absolutely continuing to build on that franchise.”
Source: Clarin
