Jordan Kerner on Smurfs movie
CG animated movie tentatively scheduled for 2008
Nov 28, 2006 Dominic von Riedemann
(Source: www.moviehole.net)
Hubris, thy name is Jordan Kerner. The movie producer (Charlotte's Web, George of the Jungle 2) was hyping his upcoming CG animated movie adaptation of The Smurfs on Moviehole when he dropped this bomb.
Kerner says he wants to make a trilogy out of The Smurfs (the first movie may or may not hit theatres in 2008). He claims it will be “the animated Lord of the Rings – through the world of these idiots. Because they’re sweet characters but they’re goofs. It’s a comic version, but still very heartfelt, version of Lord of the Rings – though not literally Lord of the Rings, but an epic story like that.”
(Yeah, you'll need to read that quote again. I sure did. Go ahead, take your time. I'll wait. Are you still with us? Do you need to lie down? No? Okay)
It's not every day that you see someone first compare The Smurfs to the greatest novel of the 20th Century in one sentence, and insults them in the next. Especially when that person is the producer of such overlooked classics as Inspector Gadget 2 and D3: The Mighty Ducks.
Other than that piece of unintentional hilarity, what else can I say about this movie? There's very little information up on IMDb: as I've said before, the first edition of The Smurfs trilogy is tentatively scheduled for a 2008 release.
Saturday Night Live alumnus Julia Sweeney is rumoured to be in the movie (the voice of Smurfette perhaps?). Rumour has also attached John Lithgow (Shrek, Third Rock From the Sun) to the movie, mainly due to the fact that he's a fan favourite to voice the villainous Gargamel. Not surprisingly, Kerner won't alienate Smurfs fans by rejecting their choice. “I love John Lithgow,” he says.
Kerner said that Gargamel’s back-story will be fully examined in the trilogy, following the beginnings of “Gargamel and Smurf Soup and how all that began and what really goes on in that castle. What his backstory really was. There’s an all-powerful wizard… there’s all sorts of things that get revealed as we go along.”
Kerner admitted that the process of getting the rights to The Smurfs was tough. “[It] took me five years of negotiation to get the rights. And then, I.M.P.S., who owns The Smurfs copyright) were very uncertain about what story we wanted to tell – we weren’t going to tell them until we had the rights, either. Then we got the rights on everyone’s faith that they also had an ability to veto, and presented them with the treatment. They just loved it. To be told that they loved it – not just liked it – and to be told that [creator] Peyo would’ve loved it, is a huge blessing and a great thing to have happen”
Kerner says that the movie will be "a 3-D/CG Smurfs. You just can’t make those guys live – it’d be a little weird, but a 3-D Shrek world of them - that’s fantastic.”
And as an added bonus, here's The Family Guy's take on what goes on in Smurf Village.
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