Today in 2001, the young Dreamworks studios releases the movie Shrek. The film is based on a 1990 children book written by William Steig. However what makes the film unique, is that it twisted the genre upside down by making characters like ogres and Dragons heroes instead of villains. Chris Farley was originally signed on to play Shrek, however when he passed away Dreamworks was set back as the character was written strongly for Farley’s personality. Mike Myers was later signed on and put his own spin on the character, including the famous Scottish accent. Dreamworks entered the film into the Cannes Film festival, although it won no prizes word of mouth began to generate. When it was officially released in 2001, Shrek raked in $42 million in its opening weekend, even beating the Historical film Gladiator.
