The cute little blue guys with the high voices are headed to the big screen.
The Smurfs, those lovable cartoon characters that had their own Saturday morning show on NBC from 1981 to 1990, are being resurrected for a new live action animated motion picture.
According to reports, “Shrek 2” and “Shrek The Third” writers David Stem and David Weiss will pen the screenplay. This after their bosses at Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures bought the rights to the Smurfs movie.
Of their decision to purchase the rights to the popular cartoon Columbia execs told Variety, “The Smurfs are one of the best-known franchises, and among the most beloved collection of characters in the world and we’re very excited to introduce a new generation to (characters) Papa Smurf, Smurfette and the other smurftastic Smurfs in all their glory.”
The Smurfs were originally created by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford back in the late 1950s and went on to invade the world via smart marketing by companies that plastered the blue elf-like creatures on everything from lunchboxes and backpacks to tees and towels.
I should know… I still have my Smurf collection packed away at my parent’s house.
Moving on… there’s one item movie collectors won’t be adding to their stash anytime soon—-the book Carrie Bradshaw is seen reading in the new “Sex and the City” movie.
If you are one of the millions of moviegoers who has been desperately trying to obtain a copy of “Love Letters of Great Men,” which appears in the current “Sex” movie, save your energy—it doesn’t exist.
According to movie producers, there is no such book. The closest text in the real world is “Love Letters of Great Men and Women: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day,” first released in the 1920s and reissued last year by Kessinger Publishing, which specializes in bringing back old works.
That’s the word from online book sellers who have been inundated with queries from “Sex and the City” fans looking to get their hands on the same book Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw is poring over during an early scene in the movie.
In the film Carrie pages through the imaginary collection citing real letters by Beethoven and Napoleon among others. The book appears again in the movie when Chris Noth’s character Big takes passages from it as he expresses his love in an e-mail to Carrie.
Interestingly, according to online booksellers, enough readers have been directed to the Kessinger anthology, that it is now ranked No. 134 on Amazon.com.