DreamWorks principal Jeffrey Katzenberg announced at the Cannes Film Festival that work has already begun on SHREK 3 and SHREK 4. Katzenberg said that after the first film the studio worked out the story of Shrek and the unanswered question left open in the original. SHREK 2, which hits theaters on May 19, 2004, answers the issues surrounding how Princess Fiona was left in the tower and how her parents would react to Shrek as her husband. The third film will address issues not yet announced, but the fourth installment Katzenberg says will deal with why Shrek came to live in the swamp in the first place."

Disney announced its plans for the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise at the North American Theatre Owners annual meeting. Production will been on booth the second and third film soon with both film arriving in theaters in 2006 released six months apart. ComingSoon.net has also confirmed that Johnny Depp's wish of Rolling Stones' Keith Richards playing Captain Jack Sparrow's dad in the sequel will come true. Depp has long said that he modeled his performance on the legendary rocker.

Warner Bros. has snatched up the rights to the fantasy novel series XANTH to be produced by TROY helmer Wolfgang Petersen along with TROY writer David Benioff and Diana Rathbun of Petersen's Radiant Prods, reports VARIETY. Radiant's Samuel Dickerman will exec produce.

A SPELL FOR CHAMELEON is the first book in the series, which chronicles a boy named Bink in the world of Xanth, where all the inhabitants must possess magical or face banishment.

"When LORD OF THE RINGS finally got made and THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE got set up, I felt that the XANTH series was the last great one," Benioff said.

"What excites me about A SPELL FOR CHAMELEON is that it is a classic hero's journey in a very fun fantasy setting," Petersen said. "Today's technology gives us the ability to make a great film from a series of books that has been entertaining readers for 25 years."