Shrek 5 in the pipeline; writer hints at a big 'reinvention' in the new film

The first Shrek film was released in 2001, with three sequels that followed, the last of which hit theaters in 2010. But seven years after the series supposedly ended, Dreamworks Animation is already looking at a revival. [caption id=“attachment_1411123” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Courtesy: Facebook[/caption] In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Boss Baby screenwriter Michael McMullers revealed the status of the fifth installment of the series: Shrek 5 is being developed. I finished that script, which I really, really, really love. It’s really personal to me. It’s got a pretty big reinvention behind it that I guess I can’t really reveal, but since DreamWorks was sold to Universal in that time for over $3 billion, I imagine they’re particularly interested in it stepping up and actually figuring out the future of the franchise in that way on the corporate level. Reinvention was sort of called for. There’s been four movies and a lot of material, so the characters are pretty beloved and they’re great characters, but you also have to think of a pretty new take at that point. The last time we saw the familiar green ogre was in the forgettable Shrek Forever After (also known as Shrek: The Final Chapter). But Dreamworks can’t let Shrek live happily ever after, and with the recent success of reviving long-dead franchises (Power Rangers, Ghostbusters), the studio is still in the process of rebooting their reliable franchise, just as it was predicted. The first Shrek film was a groundbreaking children’s film — it was one of the first to approach fairy tales with a sense of humour and amazing soundtrack that led a pathway to Frozen’s ‘Let It Go.’ And it was also Dreamworks’ most critically acclaimed film until How to Train Your Dragon sparked a new era in creativity for the studio in 2010. So why not give it another shot?