Sony Already Smurfing 'The Smurfs 3'; Script Being Smurfed By 'Over the Hedge' Smurfs

Talk about planning ahead. Before our megaplexes can even be graced by the currently in-production sequel to 2011 children’s flick “The Smurfs,” the film’s studio Sony is really eager to turn the epic saga of these little blue individuals into a trilogy.

We heard about “The Smurfs” sequel awhile back as it added talent like Christina Ricci, Brendan Gleeson and J.B. Smoove to the mix, but Variety is reporting that Sony is getting a little ahead of themselves as the studio is already developing a script for "The Smurfs 3" with scribes Karey Kirkpatrick and Chris Poche onboard. Both were responsible for DreamWorks Animation’s “Over the Hedge,” and we’d guess they will probably be joined by many of the principal cast and creatives because this is the sort of films just screams “PAYDAY!” for all involved. We’re sure “The Smurfs” creator Peyo would never have believed that his beloved blue people would turn into such lucrative business for the film industry, but with a gross of $563 million worldwide for the first film, we understand it’s a genius business move to pull these creatures from their village a few more times.

The sequel has a release date of July 31, 2013 pegged, so we’d assume that given a year for production and animation, this threequel could be out by 2015. We’d like to try and feign interest, but this writer willingly admits to having sat through the first and will say it’s a pile of Smurf. Perhaps the addition of these scribes, who made a somewhat enjoyable animated feature already, could turn “The Smurfs” franchise into something more engaging and humorous. Here’s to hoping!