Tom Cruise A Villain In Shrek Goes Fourth?

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann Sep 4, 2008

Will Tom Cruise join the ever-swelling cast of Shrek?

According to a source whispering in Cinemablend's ear, DreamWorks Animation is "considering" having Cruise voice one of the villains in their upcoming CGI flick, Shrek Goes Fourth.

Cinemablend claims that Shrek Goes Fourth will have an "origins" element, which explains how the titular ogre ended up in the swamp. Some are speculating this could be a prequel, which means that DreamWorks can scrap over half the cast accumulated over Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third.

This seems unlikely, considering that Shrek Goes Fourth will be directly competing with Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3 in theatres. It seems likely that DreamWorks will hang onto their all-star cast (consisting of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Julie Andrews, Antonio Banderas, Eric Idle, Justin Timberlake, Larry King, Ian McShane, and Regis Philbin, just to name a few).

DreamWorks will tout its cast as one of Shrek Goes Fourth's advantages over Toy Story 3, but that sword has two edges. It also means one hell of a salary budget for DreamWorks (names like that don't come cheap), even if one doesn't include the fact that actors, or their agents, tend to ramp up their rates by about 30% when it comes time to talk sequels.

Right now, Tom Cruise's involvement in the movie is strictly rumour territory, but I will keep an eye on this one.

Shrek Goes Fourth comes out May 21, 2010.