TimSullivan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Be still my Shakespearian heart. Yes, I've written about ol' Will a lot lately, and now it's time for more, although with this round, the Bard is providing the inspiration rather than the story. Variety reports that Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Franco Nero will star in Letters to Juliet, an adaptation of Lise and Ceil Friedman's book. (Not to be confused with this Juliet-inspired project.)

Riffing on the book, which talks about Verona and the multitude of people who write letters to Juliet in care of the city, the story will follow a couple (Seyfriend and Garcia Bernal) who vacation in Italy and mistakenly get one of these letters. Written by Redgrave's character, the letter recounts her memories of being romanced during a trip to the country long ago. Inspired, Seyfried heads to Tuscany to find the woman's lost love (Nero). Man, she likes playing Cupid. Anyone want to make bets about how long it will take for her to star in a film AS Cupid?

The project was adapted by Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries and the upcoming On the Road) and Tim Sullivan, and will be directed by Gary Winick, the man behind Tadpole, 13 Going on 30, Charlotte's Web, and Bride Wars. I'm not sure what that will mean for this film -- fluffy romance, something more gritty, a little bit of both? -- but I do like the idea. Production begins in Italy on June 25.

Later this month we're getting our next helping of the green, health-promoting ogre, the parfait-loving donkey, the bubbly Fiona and the cute yet sneaky Puss in Boots. But time is a-ticking and to keep up with this Shrek-every-three-years schedule, DreamWorks is already gearing up for Shrek 4 to come out in 2010. In March, Christopher Campbell shared that the next sequel will be in 3D, as part of DreamWorks' plan to only release features with the extra dimension as of 2009. Tim Sullivan has already penned a script for the sequel, which has also gotten a rewrite by Josh Klausner, scribe of the horror film The 4th Floor.

Speeding ahead, The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Mike Mitchell is currently in negotiations to direct the next installment. The director has a varied, but applicable resume for the task -- he helmed the original Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, some television animation like an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants and my personal favorite -- the superhero high school movie, Sky High. I'd rather see him tackle a sequel for Will Stronghold, but Shrek's got a lot more box office power out there -- after the first film got an impressive gross of $484.4 million worldwide, the second did almost doubly well with $920.7 million. Whether the next two sequels do as well, that remains to be seen. I'm just wondering how long this franchise will continue. Will we get Shrek 9 in 2025? It's been Mike Myers' main gig for years now, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised.