Although some still seem to cling to the idea that he’ll always be Doogie Howser, Neil Patrick Harris is now all grown up and fast becoming one of the most popular celebrities in Hollywood. He’s been praised to the hilt for his roles in the likes of How I Met Your Mother, the Harold & Kumar movies and in Joss Whedon’s online Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. In fact he can currently seem to do no wrong.
Now he’s making the move into bigger roles in more prominent, big budget movies, with Deadline Hollywood reporting that he’ll play the main live action role in the upcoming Smurfs movie. They don’t say exactly what the role will be, although previous suggestions have said that the film will be about a father who accidentally brings some Smurfs home as a souvenir for his daughter, with the film following the the girl and then her family’s attempts to get the little blue ones back to their home. Presumably then, Neil would play the father character.
Filming on the live action/CG movie is set to start in April, when the actor is on hiatus in-between seasons of How I Met Your Mother. Some seem to be suggesting The Smurfs will be a blot on Neil Patrick Harris’ career resurrection, but to be honest, it might be just the thing he needs to breakthrough into mainstream leading film roles.