Stars line out for Shrek 2 premiere

The cast of Shrek 2 was getting ready for a monster premiere tonight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers have reunited for the sequel to the animated hit of 2001.

The movie is in official competition at the festival and all the stars have flown in for the premiere, which will be followed by a glitzy party in a private villa on the Cote d’Azur.

Diaz, who voices Princess Fiona, will attend the event with boyfriend Justin Timberlake.

Besides the three main stars, Shrek 2 also features the voices of Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Jennifer Saunders and John Cleese.

All are in Cannes except Cleese, and Banderas will be joined at the premiere by wife Melanie Griffith.

Movie giant DreamWorks has paid Diaz, Murphy and Myers a cool $10m (€8.5m) each to reprise their roles.

The first Shrek film made its debut at Cannes three years ago and went on to gross nearly $500m (€423.6m) worldwide.

It ended with Princess Fiona finding love with grumpy (but with a heart of gold, of course!) green ogre Shrek (Myers), and Shrek2 begins with the happy couple returning from honeymoon.

Along with Shrek’s donkey sidekick (Murphy), they accept an invitation to visit Fiona’s parents Queen Lillian and King Harold, played by Andrews and Cleese.

But King Harold is horrified that his daughter has married an ogre and hatches a plan to get her together with Prince Charming (Everett).

Diaz was last in Cannes two years ago with the Martin Scorsese movie Gangs of New York.

The 31-year-old actress and her pop star boyfriend have checked in to the exclusive Hotel du Cap, along with the rest of the Hollywood A-list here for the festival.

After an appearance at the Shrek 2 party she will head along the coast to another star-studded bash, this time hosted by MTV.

The music channel have hired out the one-time holiday residence of Elizabeth Taylor and George Clooney for the event.