What Do ‘Shrek 5,’ ‘Hotel Transylvania 3,’ and ‘Boss Baby’ Have In Common?

What do these three upcoming animated features have in common: Sony Picture Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3, and Dreamworks’ Shrek 5 and Boss Baby.

All three films have the same writer: Michael McCullers, who co-wrote the Austin Powers sequels with Mike Myers, and wrote and directed the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy Baby Mama. While it was previously known that McCullers was writing HT3 and Boss Baby, his involvement with Shrek 5 became clear only yesterday from an article published in The Hollywood News.

Online entertainment outlets jumped on the story, among them Comicbook.com, Cinema Blend, Comingsoon.net, IGN, Collider, and /film—and every single source ran a similar headline proclaiming that Shrek 5 was being written by an Austin Powers scribe.

While it’s understandable that there might be interest in the Austin Powers angle, given the fact that both Shrek and Austin Powers are portrayed by actor Mike Myers, there has nevertheless been an inordinate amount of headlines in the last 24 hours connecting Austin Powers to Shrek. It’s especially striking given that there were few, if any, article headlines about McCullers’ Austin Powers connection when stories ran about his assignments on Boss Baby and Hotel Transylvania 3.

While it’s amusing that Shrek 5 and the Austin Powers sequels share the same writer, the bigger story might be that McCullers is writing three upcoming Hollywood animated features to be released in a four-year span. That’s a groovy streak for any writer.