While some animation studios take a very calculated, conservative approach to its films, DreamWorks Animation is known for churning out as many as three feature films in the span of a year; the studio has become a well-oiled animation machine. Though the Shrek franchise came to a close (maybe) with 2010’s Shrek Forever After, DreamWorks Animation kept the spirit of the series alive with the 2011 spinoff feature Puss in Boots. The pic focused on the adorably feisty titular kitty, voiced by Antonio Banderas, and grossed $554.9 million worldwide. We’ve known that the studio was developing a sequel to the fairy tale film, but extensive information on the follow-up has thus far failed to materialize.
However, when we recently spoke with Banderas in anticipation of the action sequel The Expendables 3, the actor revealed that he actually started work on Puss in Boots 2 a few days ago. Hit the jump to read on.
While speaking with Banderas in a recent exclusive phone interview last week, we asked the actor if he’d be returning to the character of Puss in Boots at some point. In his response, he revealed that work on the sequel is already underway:
“We started the new one four days ago. It did incredibly well with audiences and critics, all around the world, and the character is going to keep going. With Jeffrey [Katzenberg], whatever he wants. He’s one of my favorite producers. This character was born almost 12 years ago. We have had a lot of fun with him, and it seems that audiences do, too. So, we’re doing another one.”
This is a surprising tidbit of information, as we haven’t heard much about Puss in Boots 2 for quite some time. When we spoke with executive producer Guillermo del Toro last year, the filmmaker revealed that they had already been through a couple of drafts of the screenplay for Puss in Boots 2. At that stage of development, del Toro said they planned on taking the character to a different locale for the sequel:
“We take Puss to a completely different land which is very exotic. When Chris [Miller], the director, said ‘I don’t want Puss to happen in the same universe as the Shrek movies visually, I want to do a spaghetti western,’ he is, in this case, trying to do an adventure movie so we’re taking him to a very exotic locale.”
Projects are extremely fluid in the animation world so there’s no guarantee that’s still the plan, and we also don't know if Miller is still attached to direct. But according to Banderas, work on Puss in Boots 2 is well underway, so we could be seeing the pic in theaters sometime in the next few years.