Shrek 2

[Just Withnail]

See if you can find one mistaking tagline on this (actual) cover:

[matt35mm]

Uh...

TOP TEN ALL-TIME BOX OFFICE GROSSES

1. Titanic

2. Star Wars

3. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

4. Shrek 2

5. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

6. Spider-Man

7. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

8. The Passion of The Christ

9. Jurassic Park

10. Spider-Man 2
---------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, Shrek 2 DID beat out The Phantom Menace by a spot, so yes, it is now technically the number 1 comedy of all time.

[Just Withnail]

Yeah, I know, but that quote screams "best!" not "highest grossing", I never said it was wrong. Which I just realised I actually did. Sorry, I meant to write 'misleading' in the previous post, not 'mistaking'.

[matt35mm]

Oh.  Well movie studios do that all the time.  Last week, The Village was the #1 movie in America.  This week it's Collateral.

But I agree, it's not the best comedy of all time.  It is interesting how misleading studio comments can be though.  Apparently The Door In The Floor is the most talked about movie all year.  How many people have you heard talking about The Door In The Floor?

[modage]

Apparently The Door In The Floor is the most talked about movie all year.  How many people have you heard talking about The Door In The Floor?

including you?  one.

[bonanzataz]

i was watching this on an airplane and took out my headphones halfway through to read a david sedaris book ("dress your family in corduroy and denim" which was a million times more entertaining). puss in boots made me laugh, but the rest of the movie bored me to death and/or made me so angry. i just felt like the writers were saying to themselves, "oh my, we are so delightfully tongue in cheek!" i hated that. i did look up at the screen and saw the aforementioned catnip joke. i really thought puss in boots was a toker and thought it very distasteful until i remembered what you guys had been saying. i still think it was kind of distasteful, but it gave me a chuckle.

[Chest Rockwell]

'Shrek 2' Bested Only by 'Titanic' at Aussie Box Office

Shrek 2 has become only the second film in history to gross more than $50 million at the Australian box office, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday, noting that the only film to earn more was 1999's Titanic ($57.6 million). According to the newspaper, almost 25 percent of the Australian population has purchased tickets to see the green ogre.

[Pubrick]

i havn't.

[MacGuffin]

"Shrek" on Deck for Broadway

Everybody's favorite ogre is headed for the boards.

Oscar- and Tony-winning director Sam Mendes is teaming up with DreamWorks Animation and one of the masterminds behind the puppet-powered hit production Avenue Q to bring Shrek--The Musical to Broadway.

Prince Charming will no doubt be jealous.

Jason Moore, the Tony-winning director of Avenue Q, will helm Shrek's stage debut, while David Lindsay-Abaire (Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World) has been hired to pen the book. No word yet on a composer, but producers say they hope to make an announcement soon.

"To have a book writer as witty and talented as David Lindsay-Abaire is a great gift, and I am particularly thrilled that the ship is being steered by someone as gifted as Jason Moore," said Mendes in a statement Friday. "I know that they and their chosen collaborators will come up with something that is intensely theatrical, yet retains all the warmth, imagination and comic invention of the movies."

No immediate word on the show's plot, but it will likely blend elements from both Shrek and Shrek 2 and perhaps expand the scope of Shrek's fairy-tale world.

While Mendes is best known for his Oscar-winning work directing 1999's American Beauty, his roots are in the theater. He served as artistic director of London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre from 1992 to 2002, overseeing more than 70 productions there and importing several of his award-winning plays to Broadway, including The Blue Room headlining Nicole Kidman. He won a Tony in 1998 for his revival of Cabaret.

Mendes' company, SCAMP Film & Theatre, will shepherd the project, with Mendes on board as creative producer. Shrek and Shrek 2 director Andrew Adamson and producer Aron Warner have signed up as creative consultants.

Shrek--The Musical marks DreamWorks' first stab at the theater. The project is the result of a first-look deal between the studio and Mendes that was inked after the studio released his second film, 2002's The Road to Perdition.

Moore could not be reached for comment, but told the New York Times Friday that he's psyched about adapting the fractured fairy tale to the stage.

"There's a supreme challenge in bringing an animated world to the stage and making it theatrical," Moore told the newspaper. "But what's so wonderful about Shrek is that anarchic attitude placed in a fairy-tale world that I think will survive onstage."

Presumably, that world will include Shrek's gal-pal, Princess Fiona,and his verbose sidekick, Donkey, along with other characters from the two 'toons, including Puss In Boots, Pinocchio, the Three Pigs, Dragon and Gingerbread.

Moore's goal is to make those critters as real as possible, as he did for the puppet stars of Avenue Q, which was the surprise Tony winner for Best Musical this year, and in the same way Julie Taymor was able to breathe life into puppets in her Broadway translation of Disney's The Lion King.

And when it comes to the task, Moore's not exactly green.

With Shrek--The Musical on deck, the director's slate is getting pretty crowded. In addition to supervising an Avenue Q TV series and a Las Vegas production, Moore is also signed to helm a TV adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and mount a Broadway revival of Steel Magnolias.

DreamWorks' original Shrek gobbled up nearly $480 million in worldwide ticket sales and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, while its sequel nearly doubled that, tallying $880 million worldwide to surpass Disney's Finding Nemo as the top-grossing animated movie of all time.

If all goes as planned, Shrek will be making his debut on the Great White Way in 2006.

[Ghostboy]

I don't have anything constructive to add to this thread, but I would like to do my part in countering Shrek 2's massive success by reiterating how much I dislike it.

[MacGuffin]

Puss Steps Out on His Own
DreamWorks developing a direct-to-video release of a film featuring Shrek 2's popular Puss in Boots.

Antonio Banderas' Puss in Boots, as played in Shrek 2, has become so popular that DreamWorks is giving him his own film, currently slated for a direct-to-video release. Maybe it was the amount of votes he got on Far Far Away Idol, as presented on the Shrek2 DVD.

Ed Decter and John Strauss have been hired to write the script, and the exact storyline is unknown at this point. No deal has been signed yet, but Banderas has often said he loves the role and will likely return to voice the character.

Writers Decter and Strauss wrote Disney's The Lizzie Maguire Movie and are also writing and producing The Jane Plan for the Mouse House. They just finished Rebound, a basketball movie for Fox.

[©brad]

it's never going to end.

[MacGuffin]

it's never going to end.

Wouldn't you keep milking at the teat of your cash cow until it's dry?

[MacGuffin]

'Shrek 3' hibernating until '07

DreamWorks Animation Studios announced Wednesday that it will postpone the release of "Shrek 3" from a November 2006 playdate to May 2007.

The announcement comes immediately on the heels of another date shift, announced Tuesday by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation, that moved "Cars" from a November 2005 bow to May 2006.
 
The rival animation companies have shifted their future potential animated blockbusters from a fall release to an early summer bow with the hopes of capitalizing on both the large summer audience and the holiday DVD market that follows.

For DreamWorks, the move allows the newly public company to stick with a formula that has worked incredibly well for the first two "Shrek" movies. Both films were released in early May and went on to a combined domestic gross of more than $708 million.

"The sheer magnitude of the 'Shrek' franchise has led us to conclude that a May release date, with a DVD release around the holiday season, will enable us to best maximize performance and increase profitability, thereby generating enhanced asset value and better returns for our shareholders," DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said in a statement.

According to DreamWorks executive chairman Roger Enrico, the company had been thinking of shifting its release slate but decided to make the change official after Pixar's announcement Tuesday because it suggests that Pixar's future strategy will be to release all of its films in the summer. That meant that the untitled Pixar feature to follow "Cars," which was set for November 2006, will now likely shift to summer 2007.

According to Enrico, that left an opening for DreamWorks' "Flushed Away," the animated feature from Aardman Animation, which will now bow in November 2006.

"Shrek 3's" move to early summer 2007, however, may find it competing with Pixar's first post-"Cars" movie, though no date has been set for that untitled feature.

But while "Cars" and "Shrek 3" are opting for summer releases, that doesn't mean late fall releases for family-oriented fare are no longer in fashion.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release its fourth "Harry Potter" film in November, even though it broke from its "Potter" holiday release pattern to open the third film in the series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," this past summer. According to Dan Fellman, president of distribution for Warners, the move back to November for the next "Potter" is more a factor of production schedules rather than release issues. "These films are very difficult to make in one year," said Fellman, whose first two "Potter" films were released in the November frame. "The push (to November) just gives it more time. Our video will be strong regardless of when we release it."

Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox will bow its upcoming animated film "Robots" from Blue Sky Studios in March. The computer-animated film about a town of robots will open in the same time period as Blue Sky's previous production "Ice Age," which earned $176 million in 2002.

"We were so pleased with 'Ice Age,' we're going on the same date," said Bruce Snyder, president of distribution at Fox. "Sometimes it's better to be alone in March than competing for the kids with three other films in May or June."

[©brad]

can't...take...any...more...please stop...kill..ing...poor...c......brad...c...me...dead...soon....