Looks like the franchise isn't over just yet
The Smurfs 2 is already in production, with the story being taken international as the blue creatures that the live action characters go to Paris, along with some new roles in tow. While we’ll have to wait over a year to see just how the sequel does, it seems Sony is really enthusiastic about the series as a whole. Now, it seems the studio is ready to make an even more long term commitment as they’ve just decided that a third film will move into development as well.
Variety reports that Sony has hired Karey Kirkpatrick and Chris Poche as writers for The Smurfs 3, with an unknown timetable as to just when the film would be released. With the time between sequels, there’s a chance The Smurfs 3 could hit theaters in Summer 2015, if greenlit. Kirkpatrick was a writer and co-director of Dreamwork’s 2006 animated film Over The Hedge, as well as screenplay work on James and the Giant Peach, The Iron Giant, and even this year’s The Secret World of Arietty.
With Kirkpatrick’s work on The Smurfs 2, the story finds the evil wizard Gargamel creating a couple of mischievous Smurf-like creatures called the Naughties that he hopes will let him harness the all-powerful, magical Smurf-essence. But when he discovers that only a real Smurf can give him what he wants — and only a secret spell that Smurfette knows can turn the Naughties into real Smurfs — Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette and brings her to Paris, where he has been winning the adoration of millions as the world’s greatest sorcerer. It’s up to Papa, Clumsy, Grouchy, and Vanity to return to our world, reunite with their human friends Patrick and Grace Winslow, and rescue her.
There’s no word if Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara, and the rest of the cast will return for a third outing should the sequel be successful, but it only seems extremely likely that the voice cast will return.
Co-written by J. David Stem, David N. Weiss., Jay Scherick and David Ronn, The Smurfs 2 is scheduled to be released on July 31st, 2013.
