'Smurfs' is Getting More Like 'Alvin and the Chipmunks,' and Not Just in That Both are Awful

A Smurfs movie has long loomed on the horizon, a dark shadow standing three-apples high, but it just got worse. What was once a 3-D animated project, which could be cute if you live free of standards, has just mutated into an Alvin and the Chipmunks--in that will mix live-action, CGI, misplaced nostalgia, and enraged disbelief:

Sony obtained film rights to the blue-colored characters from Lafig Belgium via Jordan Kerner ("Charlotte's Web"), who is producing. David Stem and David Weiss, who wrote the second and third installments in the "Shrek" franchise, are in negotiations to pen the screenplay.

Kerner said the genesis of the current project began during a holiday conversation with Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman-CEO Michael Lynton, who grew up with "Les Schtroumpfs" in the Netherlands. "He relished them as I do and suggested that it should be a live-action/CG film," he said. "(Studio topper) Amy (Pascal) felt equally that there was potentially a series of films in the making."

While they're at it, the live-action people might as well be other popular but unrelated characters of the '80s: Balki from Perfect Strangers, Punky Brewster, the guy who played piano on It's a Living, maybe throw in some characters from the new Transformers and G.I. Joe adaptations. Let's just get it all over with; drink the '80s as a thick, brown blend, barely identifiable, all in one go. Please?

Col, SPA send 'Smurfs' to bigscreen [Variety]