John McClane did it. Indiana Jones did it. Heck, even Sydney Prescott did it. It looks as though Austin Powers is to be among the recent slew of cult classics to chance an encore on nostalgic cinema audiences (via The Wrap).

Mike Myers, International Ogre of Mystery, has allegedly signed on the dotted line to return to screens as the titular James Bond pastiche. With the chest-wig being baited by trappers and the catchphrases being duly summoned from Hell, it appears that all is in order for another sensory assault of psychedelic proportions, courtesy of New Line Cinema.

With the Bond franchise well and truly lampooned, it is difficult to imagine where the Austin Powers franchise might hope to go with a fourth instalment. With laugh-muffling darkness setting over the Hollywood hills, will Austin Powers attempt to subvert Bonds darker direction? Will it comment on the nine years between Goldmember and this belated fourth instalment? Or will it simply find something new to turn into a giant mechanical penis?

With Will Ferrell warning that Hollywood could soon wear out the superhero genre, it looks as though tinseltown has turned to another animated ensemble for source material.

Vulture is reporting that another Loony Tune is being prepped for the big screen and that this one is to be voiced by one Mike Myers. Myers has reportedly – or so it is being claimed extensively –  joked that “by the end of the day, I was Pepé Le Pew”, in reference to his tenure as Fat Bastard. The actor will follow in the footsteps of Mel Blanc and Maurice LaMarche as the voice of Le Pew.

The film, which is being set up at Warner Brothers, will star the smitten skunk using a combination of live action and CGI. With similar projects in development for fellow Loony Tunes Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny, we can only hope Warners can perfect their method in time for production on Myers’ Pepe Le Pew – and ration their adaptations to avoid superhero-esque overexposure.

Myers, who has done his fair share of voice-acting (in a series of accents), certainly seems a good choice for the role. This is particularly true when you take into account the statistics being cited by E-Poll Market Research. The poll notes that even the most prominent Loony Tunes are struggling to connect with a wide audience, with just 66 percent of Americans over the age of 13 capable of recognising Bugs Bunny.

You might have thought that casting a big-name actor for the role might boost the eventual movie’s appeal, however Myers doesn’t fare much better in the same poll – garnering only 68 percent recognition. This extra 2 percent is somewhat undermined by the likeability ratings Myres achieved; a measly 52 percent – compared to the 65 percent of Americans who have a favourable impression of Bugs.

Pepé Le Pew, who starred in the Oscar-winning short For Scent-imental Reasons, was created in 1945 and has since starred in over a dozen short animated features for Warner Bros. in addition to cameoing in Space Jam and Loony Tunes: Back in Action. We can only hope that Myers doesn’t do to Pew what he did previously to Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat.

This weekend sees the public previews of the latest movie in the Shrek series so now seems a good a time as any to give a HeyUGuys review of it!

Shrek has been a big hit in our household since the first film came out what seems like half a lifetime ago but the announcement of a new, and allegedly final, movie received a mixed reaction because for us “Shrek The Third” was to the Shrek series what “Epsiode 1 – The Phantom Menace” was to Star Wars. We desperately wanted to like Shrek the Third, we really did. We just, well, didn’t. We even bought the DVD in case the kids wanted to watch it again but I think it’s still sitting somewhere, immaculate in its shrink-wrapped perfection… if only I could remember where we put it.

This left me in a quandary. Should I let the happy memories of the first two movies lie undisturbed or should I let bygones be bygones but risk further disappointment and  disillusionment? What didn’t improve my frame of mind was reading the Daily Telegraph (online I hasten to add… I wouldn’t pay money for it) talking about Dreamworks reluctance to kill off “its monstrous cash cow”. Yikes!

I needn’t have worried. In short, I have to say that for me “Shrek Forever After” far exceeded my meagre expectations and is a really fitting finale to the series, if finale it truly is. I’m not going to get into spoilers and I’m not even going to assume you’ve seen the trailers for it but if you stick with me for just a minute I’ll tell you why I like it.

Firstly I got to see all my favourite Shrek characters but with a twist on the familiar and in the movie Shrek has to renegotiate and rebuild his relationships with them because of his unfortunate dealings with Rumpelstiltskin, who at points looks for all the world like “Syndrome” from the “Incredibles” thanks to a variety of wig changes. The core cast is on form with a top performance from Mike Myers as Shrek and Cameron Diaz as Fiona, though I find that I always have a soft spot for Eddie Murphy’s Donkey so was particularly pleased to have him reprise the role.

Secondly, it has a plot! Once you’ve seen the film you’ll probably work out why I’m using the word “Terminator” here and I hope you’ll agree with me that it really is nicely done. I genuinely did find myself wondering how the plot was going to unfold because although I knew that it was going to be a typical Shrek happy ending the fall and rise of Shrek was by no means an obvious path.

Thirdly. 3D. You know what it is and whether you love it or loathe it Shrek Forever After does a good job of it.

Lastly, it doesn’t make any mention of the third movie at all. Yes, Shrek and Fiona still have kids but there’s no mention of “Artie” or “Prince Charming”, whew.

My only remaining thought is whether it stands on its own as a movie or whether it doesn’t make complete sense if you haven’t seen the previous Shrek movies. If you’re one of the few who is in that position perhaps you can comment once you’ve seen it?

They may have a mountain to climb with the impending release of Toy Story 3promising to be a big box-office draw but it really is worth checking your local cinema’s listings and getting yourself down there to see it, particularly if you have any fondness for the first Shrek films.

Once you’ve seen it do comment and let me know if you think it’s as good as I do or whether I’m just being nostalgic….

Shrek Forever After is released in the UK 2nd July.

Last Sunday, we brought you the World Premiere of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time live from London (you can still watch it here) and one week later, we’ve got another live stream event for you. This time it’s the Shrek Forever After World Premiere live from the LA red carpet and you’ll be able to watch the stream begin from 9.30 am PST (use this time zone converter to work out what time that’ll be in your own country).

If you miss the live show, fear not as once it’s complete, the show will then be set on loop so you won’t miss a thing.

According to the press release that we’ve received, all the main cast and the men and women involved behind the camera will be there:

The live stream is expected to feature behind-the-scenes access and interviews from the red carpet. The cast of the film, including Mike Myers (Shrek), Eddie Murphy (Donkey), Cameron Diaz (Fiona), Antonio Banderas (Puss In Boots), Jon Hamm (Brogan), Craig Robinson (Cookie), Ryan Seacrest (Father of Butter Pants) and Walt Dohrn (Head of Story and Rumpelstiltskin) as well as members of Shrek Forever After’s creative leadership team, including Mike Mitchell (Director and Butter Pants), Gina Shay and Teresa Cheng (Producers), Andrew Adamson, Aron Warner and John Williams (Executive Producers) as well as Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke (Writers) are expected to be in attendance at the premiere.

Enjoy!

Here’s another Shrek Forever After clip to feed your ogre addiction until the film splats onto the silver screens in 3D.

Returning to this profitable well in Dreamworks latest fairy-talespin are the usual suspects – Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas. Also returning are John Cleese and Julia Andrews and Justin Timberlake and there’s a new clip available tonight which you can see below.

It’s all about the Pied Piper being a bounty hunter and there’s a whole load of dancing ogres and talking heads as Cameron Diaz and director Mike Mitchell talk about how great this film is.

After its premiere at the Tribeca film festival Shrek Forever After had pretty toxic reviews but as always an open mind is being kept until we see this one.

Moviefone unleashed this one into the wide world, and thank God they did.

The first clip from Shrek Forever After has been released over on Yahoo. The fourth installment has had a couple of trailers (here and here) but now we get to see Shrek (Mike Myers) be reunited with big fat Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) who has let himself go somewhat!

Shrek Forever After is the last movie in the Shrek franchise and is directed by Mike Mitchell and also stars Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Jon Hamm.

Get ready to shield yourselves from celebrity cameos and anachronisms galore as the Shrek franchise hits the skids and slides to an end with Shrek Forever After, or as this new poster puts it – The Final Chapter.

Riffing on It’s a Wonderful Life the fourth film in the Shrek series has the regular cast returning and, if this poster is to be believed, there’ll be an Ogre Vs. Witches face off to liven things up.

Here’s the trailer we posted a while ago, and it gives a fairly good indication of what Messrs. Dreamworks, Myers, Banderas and Murphy have in store for us, take what you will from that statement.

Click on the image below to see this one,

I’m going to resist the opportunity to trash the moribund third film in this series and instead clear my mind of prejudice, justified though it is, and smile politely as I present to you four new stills from Shrek Forever After.

Cashing cheques and taking names this time, Mike Myers returns as the verdant ogre along with Cameron Diaz’s Fiona with Puss-in-Boots and Donkey, played by Antonio Banderas and Eddie Murphy respectively, and there’s the regular host of celebrities voices in the mix but… are any of you really looking forward to this one?

Animation, both CG/3D and traditional hand drawn, has had an amazing few years with Pixar and Disney leading the way, with Dreamworks and the others (finally) running them a close second.

With the stellar Princess and the Frog and Up wowing audiences, and How to Train Your Dragon coming up soon with fabulous word of mouth, does the world need another Shrek movie? I’m as willing as the next person to enjoy a Shrek movie, if it’s any good of course, but cast and crew really need to pull something pretty special out of the hat this time around.

Credit to Yahoo Movies for all of this, and if this isn’t enough to push you over the edge then please check out the trailer here.

It happens every night, I’m literally about to head off to bed, got my PJ’s on and my teddy under my arm and a brand new trailer will come out…. but we do it for the love of the fans guys, for you, remember that!

Here’s a brand new trailer for Dreamworks’ Shrek Forever After, the fourth and final installment of the Shrek franchise. The movie has all the regulars back including Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas. This time, Justin Timberlake, Jane Lynch and Julie Andrews come along for the ride.

Shrek Forever After is released 9th July. You can view the trailer below or head over to Yahoo to view in HD.

The latest movie given to us by NBC Universal to review from the iTunes library is Quentin Tarantino’s Basterds, that would be in the Inglourious ones! Inglourious Basterds is one of the movies of 2009 for me. I saw an advanced preview of the movie and was desperate to see it again but for some reason that took me about six months to do! Unfortunately life gets in the way and so do many many other movies which meant that I didn’t get to watch it until I had some time over Christmas and the second viewing was better than the first!

After rigging my laptop up to my TV, plugging in the surround sound and turning it up to 11, I was in for a treat as my wife and two friends were there to experience this wonderful movie for their first time. Often a movie like this may not need a second watch as you saw everything there was to see the first time round, but with any Tarantino movie, you could watch them 100 times and still get something different out of it.

Inglourious Basterds is about a plot to kill Hitler during the 2nd world war. It’s a completely made up story but Tarantino lets his mind go wild thinking up loads of ‘what-if’ storylines’ to create a wonderful film. The cast is rather vast but every character has been carefully and perfectly picked to fulfil their role. The movie could not have worked without a genius performance from top class badie, Christoph Waltz who plays Col. Hans Landa aka, ‘The Jew Hunter’. Other members of the cast include Eli Roth, BJ Novak, Mike Myers, Michael Fassbender, Daniel Brühl and Til Schweiger.

Synopsis: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

Each of the different scenes in the movie is broken up into chapters, something that Tarantino has used before and it really works well. Without giving anything away, my favourite chapter is when the Basterds, let by Brad Pitt go to a bar to meet Diane Kruger’s character. Suffice to say the meet doesn’t fully go to plan and some of the best dialogue in the movie is exchanged between Brad Pitt and Gedeon Burkhard.

It’s hard to write a review about the movie in itself without giving various plot-lines away so I might leave it there and just encourage you to go out and rent or buy this movie as soon as possible. It really is a Tarantino classic and is one of my favourite movies of 2009. Watching it with people who hadn’t seen it before was wonderful as you got to see the expression on their faces that I no doubt had the first time I saw it. Watching it for a second time was just as good, if not better than the first and this will be a movie that I’ll throw on time and time again to keep enjoying the wonderful acting and dialogue that Inglourious Basterds brings. There’s talk of a prequel and I hope it happens!

Inglourious Basterds is available on DVD and Blu Ray here or to download from iTunes here.

Images © 2009 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

I would have thought that after the Lifeless Shrek the Third the only suitable fourth movie would involve Shrek and Donkey discovering an enormous cow in the forests of Far, Far Away and then spend the next 80 minutes beating it and watching the coins fall out, laughing maniacally to themselves. In 3D.

Not so. Amidst rumour of a Puss In Boots spin off the fellows at Dreamworks have unleashed the trailer for the fourth film entitled Shrek Forever After and have wrapped it up in a tidy looking new poster. Both can be seen below.

My feelings are simple. I’d happily sit through another Shrek film, I enjoyed the first, thought the second was self parodic but found the third to be a CG wasteland, barren of ideas, mocking of its own characters, and substituting celeb cameos for jokes. If the fourth film is any good I’ll be a very happy man.

Strangely enough I just caught the TV festive special, Shrek the Halls and found that to be a slight return to form, though perhaps due to the borrowed charm of the seasonal atmosphere. I’m just hoping that this spin on It’s A Wonderful Life is a worthy end to the series.

The trailer is embedded below, and head on over to Apple for the HD version. Thanks to the awesome guys at /Film for the news.

Dreamworks Animation have released a couple of new images from the fourth installment of the Shrek franchise, ‘Shrek Forever After’ via USA Today. It’s scheduled for release 9th July and will end the long running series of movies that has been with us since 2001. I can;t believe it was that long ago that the original came out…. a lot has happened since then! The usual cast including Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas and Cameron Diaz  are back to voice their characters with John Lithgow (who I saw on a London tube a couple of weeks ago!) returns to voice Lord Farquaad. The other character in the image is that of Rumpelstiltskin voiced by Walt Dohrn.

Head of creative production at Dreamworks, Bill Damaschke said: “All that was loved about Shrek in the first film is brought to the final film,”

Click the image above to enlarge or head over to USA Today to view the full story.