IT TAKES a giant cheque to win over a large green ogre. Mike Myers, the comic actor, is to receive a record £10m for the use of his voice in video games based on the next two Shrek films.

Although the games will not be released until the third and fourth movies in the series come out, probably in 2007 and 2010, the deal marks a recognition in Hollywood of the growing importance of the £4 billion-a-year video games business.

Myers, 41, who was born in Canada but carries a British passport courtesy of his Liverpool father, was paid £7m for the films Shrek and Shrek 2. This included only a “nominal” payment for making bestselling games promoted alongside the movies.

Like many other actors and directors, however, Myers, who made his name in Wayne’s World and Austin Powers, now wants a bigger slice of the proceeds from games sales.

“Mike realised that parents are paying five times as much for a video game as a cinema ticket, so he is striking a very tough deal,” said an executive at DreamWorks, the studio bankrolling Shrek 3 — which features Justin Timberlake, the singer, as a young King Arthur — and Shrek 4.

Myers has “agreed in principle” on the game fee, but is still discussing a substantially larger sum for the films.

Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy, who also provide voices for the series, are seeking lucrative games deals too, as is Antonio Banderas, who will return as the sword-swinging cat in his own spin-off film Puss in Boots in 2008.

Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild is trying to establish a standard cut from video games for its members, but only the stars now have enough muscle to demand lucrative rewards for the two weeks of voicing sessions required for most games.

Apart from Shrek, the biggest deals have involved actors who are not part of the video game generation. Clint Eastwood, 74, agreed a £3m deal to voice a game based on his 1971 film Dirty Harry and potential sequels. Sir Sean Connery, also 74, will reportedly earn £1.3m for a game based on From Russia with Love.

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