The live action/CG Smurfs film has just gone into production, and to announce the fact, Sont sent out a press release (via /Film which has the full text), which also offers a few previously unknown titbits. While it’s previously been announced that Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara and Hank Azaria would have live action roles, and Jonathan Winters, George Lopez, Katy Perry and Alan Cumming would be voicing Smurfs, the press release says there’ll be a couple more people playing little blue men.
Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek star Anton Yelchin will play Clumsy Smurd, while SNL’s Fred Armisen will be Brainy Smurf.
And while there’s been much speculation over the plot of the film, we also now get the first official plot synopsis, which states: Audiences everywhere are in for a Smurfy good time as the Smurfs make their first 3D trip to the big screen. When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world and into ours in fact, smack dab in the middle of Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them down… In the live-action roles, Azaria will play the Smurfs nemesis, the evil wizard Gargamel. Harris and Mays star as an expectant couple whose lives are turned upside down when the Smurfs cross over from their magical village to New York City. Vergara plays Odile, Harriss boss, a cosmetics executive.
It’s all sounds a bit like Enchanted really, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The movie is scheduled for release on August 3rd, 2011.