Now minted with an Oscar for directing SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE with Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, Bob Persichetti is looking to bring some magic to even more animated movies, and news is he will be trading in his Spider-suits for a cat in some boots, as Deadline is reporting that he’s been tapped to take on the sequel to the 2011 SHREK spinoff, PUSS IN BOOTS.
[SEE MORE]
Starring Antonio Banderas as the smooth-talking, sword-fighting feline in a feathered hat and matching footwear, the first PUSS IN BOOTS movie did well at the box office with over $550 million around the world and securing an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature in 2012. A veteran of animated films for over 20 years, Persichetti was also Head of Story on BOOTS, making this a reunion of man and cat.
Puss made his first appearance in the wildly successful SHREK 2 back in 2004 and has since appeared in the following two sequels. While always a money maker, there hasn’t been a new movie in the Shrek-verse for years as Dreamworks Animation has pounced from distributor to distributor, but now that it’s owned by Universal there have been plans to resurrect the series through their Illuminationwith DESPICABLE ME’s Chris Meledandri overseeing. Latifa Ouaou, a producer on the first BOOTS, will oversee the sequel on behalf of Illumination.
A sequel to the first BOOTS had been in the works not long after the first debuted (titled Puss in Boots: Nine Lives & 40 Thieves), but it was shelved in 2015 as DW went through some corporate restructuring. Now it’s the first movie to be announced after news broke of new Shrek movies being planned, and it’s not a bad call. The character is still popular, and there’s plenty of adventure to surround him in – letting him slice things with his cat sword and cough up furballs. The original also featured the voices of Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris, but no word on if any of them would come back.
DreamWorks' latest movie HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD is in theaters now.