'Shrek' producer joins Zynga board

Zynga on Monday said the film producer behind "Shrek" and other DreamWorks Animation hits has joined the board of directors at the hot online social games startup.

DreamWorks chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg's first assignment at Zynga is to find a seventh board member, with the San Francisco startup hinting that actors Jack Black and Mike Myers could be in the running.

"Jeffrey and I have been friends for some time, and I knew he'd be a great fit for the board after he suggested that the blockbuster of 2011 could be ShrekVille," Zynga founder Mark Pincus said in a blog post.

"I'm looking forward to his guidance, his leadership, and about 1,500 tickets to the opening night of Kung Fu Panda 2," he added in a joking reference to coming DreamWorks film sequel.

Zynga was founded in July 2007 by Pincus, who named the startup after his late American bulldog "Zinga."

Zynga boasts more than 250 million players, most of them at online social network Facebook. Its titles include FarmVille, Mafia Wars, CityVille, Café World, Zynga Poker, and Vampire Wars.

(c) 2011 AFP