Hide your cats, the Alien Life Form known as ALF is coming to a theater near you!  Sony Pictures Animation has just landed the feature rights to the 1980s television sitcom.  Along with producer Jordan Kerner (Smurfs) and show creators Tom Patchett and puppeteer Paul Fusco, the studio will develop the project as a blend of live-action and CGI.  Fusco, who voiced the furry character for all 102 episodes, will lend his vocal talents to the film as well.  Hit the jump for more on ALF. 

Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison is looking to remake Carl Reiner’s 1987 classic comedy, Summer School.  The original starred Mark Harmon (NCIS) as a gym teacher forced to give up his summer vacation in order to teach an English class to a group of remedial students.  The Paramount picture also starred Kirstie Alley (Look Who’s Talking), Robin Thomas (The Banger Sisters), Courtney Thorne-Smith (Melrose Place) and Reiner himself.  Happy Madison’s Sandler and Jack Giaraputo are currently in negotiations with the studio to get the remake off the ground, something Paramount has been trying to do since 2005.  Hit the jump for more on Summer School including Sandler’s involvement and a look at the original trailer and movie poster. 

Earlier today, I attended a Smurfs movie presentation at Sony Studios in Culver City, California. While there I got to watch a number of clips (some were in 3D) and I watched an interesting and informative behind the scenes presentation by Sony Pictures Imageworks visual effects producer Lydia Bottegoni, visual effects supervisor Rich Hoover, director Raja Gosnell and producer Jordan Kerner.  They explained the challenges of bringing Smurfs to the big screen and the technical hurdles they had to overcome.  While I love learning about new movie technology, I know most of you just want to know about the footage.  My quick answer is kids are going to love the movie and I thought the 3D looked great.

Shortly after the presentation ended, we went to a small conference room and we were able to conduct a small roundtable interview with director Raja Gosnell & producer Jordan Kerner.  They talked about the challenges of doing a CG/live-action hybrid movie, how did they decide which Smurfs would come into our world, why NYC, how did Smurfs creator Peyo influence the movie, and why is Gutsy Smurf Scottish.  In addition, they revealed they’re already writing the script for the sequel and the DVD/Blu-ray will be released this Christmas with an original 22 minute Smurfs movie with a Christmas theme.  Hit the jump to watch the video.

The first official image of the revamped and modernized smurf characters for the upcoming movie The Smurfs has hit the net.  The new film adaptation of the beloved ‘80s Hannah Barbera cartoon and original Belgian comic series will use both computer animation and live action for on its 3D release on August 3, 2011.  Papa Smurf’s looks smurfing smurf with his new makeover!

More smurf news( including one major plot change) after the jump.

Deadline reported today that How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris will be taking on the lead role in the upcoming 2011 Sony Pictures film The Smurfs Movie.

Directed by Raja Gosnell, known for such cinematic gems as Home Alone 3, Big Mamma’s House and Beverly Hill Chihuahua, the film mixes both animation and live-action and Harris will be starring in the lead live-action role. J. David Stem and David N. Weiss penned the script with Jordan Kerner producing. Sony plans on the movie being the first in a trilogy of live-action, computer-generated Smurf films. Filming begins in April with a tentative release date of July 29, 2011.

Hit the jump for thoughts on this latest bit of news.