April 6, 2006 - The Shrek franchise shows no signs of slowing down. The first Shrek brought in $42 million during its opening weekend. And while $42 million is nothing to sneeze at, Shrek 2 posted numbers that made the original film pale in comparison. The sequel more than doubled the first film?s opening weekend box office take, bringing in a phenomenal $108 million which meant greenlighting a third film was a real no-brainer.
Will Shrek 3 prove to be too much of a good thing or will audiences embrace another tale featuring a smelly ogre, his equally interesting bride, and two annoying yet lovable animal sidekicks?

We won?t know until DreamWorks releases the animated film in May 2007 but according to Antonio Banderas (the voice of Puss in Boots), at least working on the third film has been just as much fun as working on Shrek 2.

While doing press for the music-driven family drama Take the Lead, Banderas took a few questions about the upcoming Shrek 3:

His Feelings About Puss in Boots: Asked to share how he feels about being the voice of the cute little Puss in Boots Banderas laughed and said, ?I hate that guy. I hate him for different reasons. People used to, women especially, used to approach me before and say, ?I love you in Zorro.? Now they come up to me and they say, ?I love your cat.??

The Status of Shrek 3: ?I did already two sessions and [will be going] back to the studio to do a third session. The first one was like five, six sessions. I suppose the movie may be ready by Christmas, but I don't know. Christmas, this next Christmas or the next summer? It takes a long time but it?s a lot of fun.

We?re going to have a lot of fun, I know, because those guys are amazing.?

Banderas said sometimes he?s alone in the studio and sometimes he has people around to work off of. ?It depends. Normally I do it by myself. When I say ?those guys? I?m not talking about Mike [Myers] and Eddie [Murphy]. I?m talking about not only the producers, but the guys who actually [animate]. They?re like a bunch of hippies. They?re amazing.?

Will We See More of Puss in Boots in Shrek 3 Than We Did in Shrek 2?: ?I don't know, as I didn?t know in the first one because the script is so open. In fact, I didn?t even get the script. We are given the scenes that we?re going to record next, and then what we do is improvise a lot. They take that improvisation, they put it together and then they show it. They show you what you need. They say, ?What do you think your character should continue now?? So you talk about that and then you start throwing new lines with respect to what you talked [about]. I think that is the secret actually of Shrek and I think that?s why it is so fresh and so different to all the cartoons. It?s because it?s made practically with no script, practically made out of improvisations.?