Nothing new to report, just a change of hands. Paramount are taking more of a backseat on The Smurfs 3-D live action/animated project than we previously thought as they are now only helping to finance the film after Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation jumped on board this week.

David Stem and David Weiss, the scribes who wrote the last two installments of the Shrek franchise are in talks to scribe the adaptation.

“The Smurfs are one of the best-known franchises, and among the most beloved collection of characters in the world,” Columbia co-president Doug Belgrad said. “We’re very excited to introduce a new generation to Papa Smurf, Smurfette and the other smurftastic Smurfs in all of their ‘three-apple-tall’ glory.”

Variety reference the recent Alvin and the Chipmunks as being the benchmark for what they aiming to produce.

Oh dear.

A live action Gargamel and then 3-D animated Smurfs? Sounds like a disaster to be, why they just couldn’t have kept the 2-D style from the popular cartoon and made a feature from that I don’t know. 2-D is not dead people, it’s just studio execs are too scared to use it anymore!