It’s not exactly surprising that the upcoming live action/CG Smurfs movie is going to involve a little more human involvement than the cartoon version. Anyone who remembers the Hanna-Barbera animation will know the only real person we saw was Gargamel, who always had some evil scheme that the little blue ones had to thwart.
Now, thanks to Backstage we have a bit more news on what the movie will actually be about, as a casting call has gone out for the two main kids that Sony wants for the movie. It appears the film will be about 8-10 year-old Sophie, whose father brings her back a toy from Belgium that turns out to be a living, breathing Smurf. She takes ‘Clumsy’ in as a member of the family and tries to get the family to embrace their mini-new friends. Sophie also has a 14-15 year-old brother who’s sullen and withdrawn, but who reconnects with his family due to his involvement with trying to get the Smurfs home.
Quite how the movie gets from one Smurf ending up in America to lots of them isn’t explained, but it seems their cute little world of toadstool houses won’t feature much in the movie. The Smurfs is due to be directed by Raja Gosnell and is currently scheduled for release on December 17th, 2010.