SAM MENDES - MENDES TO LAUNCH SHREK BROADWAY MUSICAL

OSCAR-winning director SAM MENDES is bringing animation hit SHREK to Broadway in a musical adaptation of the DREAMWORKS movie.

The ROAD TO PERDITION star will have creative control of the New York production, while TONY-nominated stage director JASON MOORE, who took charges of puppet musical AVENUE Q, will direct the show in 2006.

Mendes told the NEW YORK TIMES newspaper, "There isn't the sort of corporate pressure being exerted that this has to be done for a set pre-release date."

Moore enthuses, "'There's a supreme challenge in bringing an animated world to the stage and making it theatrical.

"But what's so wonderful about Shrek is that anarchic attitude placed in a fairy-tale world that I think will thrive onstage."