Sony's Animated SMURFS Reboot Set for March 2017 Release

Deadline reports that Sony Pictures Animation's SMURFS reboot, directed by SHREK 2's Kelly Asbury, is getting a March 31, 2017 global release.

"With a fully animated feature close in tone and design to Peyo's original creation, we're embracing everything that has made the Smurfs so special for audiences worldwide," said Rory Bruer, president, SPE Worldwide Distribution.

As previously reported, Tony winner and HOMELAND star Mandy Patinkin will voice 'Papa Smurf'. The film will "tell the origin story of the Smurfs. Papa Smurf is supposed to be the wise, paternal leader of the Smurfs, but that is not always the case."

The original 1980s cartoon series spawned Sony Pictures' live-action/animated SMURFS trilogy, with the first two installments out in 2011 and 2013, featuring Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara, Tim Gunn and more.

In his 1980 Broadway debut, Mandy Patinkin won a Tony Award for his role as 'Che' in Andrew Lloyd Webber's EVITA and was nominated in 1984 for his starring role as 'George' in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. In 1991, he returned to Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical THE SECRET GARDEN and, in 1997, played a sold-out engagement of his one-man show, MANDY PATINKIN IN CONCERT.