Latest in The Smurfs

Jered Barclay, a longtime stage and screen actor who found a second career as a TV voice-over artist for series including The Smurfs and The Transformers, has died. He was 91. His longtime friend Myra Turley said Barclay died July 23 of MDS leukemia in North Hollywood, CA. Hollywood & Media Deaths In…

The Smurfs are coming to Nickelodeon. The ViacomCBS-owned network has partnered with LAFIG Belgium and IMPS, the worldwide licensors for The Smurfs, on a new original CG-animated series based on the iconic property, along with a consumer products line. Under the deal, Nickelodeon has licensed the global rights to The S…

Patti Deutsch, a comic who was a regular on the last season of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, appeared often on the 1970s Match Game and went on to a successful voice-over career, has died. She was 73. Her family said she died Wednesday at her Los Angeles home after a long battle with cancer. Born in Pittsburgh on…

Gordon Hunt, a TV helmer, animation recording director, acting coach, voice actor and father of Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt, has died. He was 87. He died Saturday of Parkinson’s complication at his Sherman Oaks home. “Gordon was a master of reinvention — a journeyman artist,” Helen Hunt said in a statement. “He…

One thing that’s become evident. It’s hard to kill a Smurf. After a sequel that saw its business nosedive next to the original,  Sony Pictures Animation is changing course and planning a new take on its Smurfs franchise, tapping Shrek 2 and Gnomeo & Juliet director Kelly Asbury to helm an all-animated film with new…

Posting a record loss of $5.7B for the fiscal year ended March 31, Sony today reported a quarterly loss of $3.2B. However, the company also expects a return to profit, predicting that net income for the fiscal year to end March 2013 could be about $376M. Still, that figure lags behind what a group of Bloomberg analyst…

On December 26, Warner Bros' Final Destination 5 will become the first UltraViolet-enabled title to be released in the UK via DVD, Blu-ray and Triple Play. From then on, all of the studio's future home entertainment releases in the UK — including Happy Feet Two, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and The Dark Knight Ri…

That’s the most interesting part of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s announcement today about its video plans for the movie starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane. Yes, it’s noteworthy that people who buy a Blu-ray disc will also be able to access digital streams of Moneyball from the industry…

Sony delivered a gloomy report as it reeled from problems that ranged from surprisingly low sales of TV sets to floods in Thailand. For the quarter that ended in September, the fiscal 2Q, Sony had a net loss of $350M on sales of $20.5B. But it also slashed its projection for fiscal-year results to a $1.2B loss from a…

UPDATE: The question about whether Apple devices can show UltraViolet films is complicated, it seems. The folks at Warner Bros say that iPhones and iPads can handle them — but not through the traditional channel, the iTunes Store. Users must  download an app to also register with Flixster, a site that Time Warner…

His movie may have ultimately been successful in edging The Smurfs for the weekend box-office crown, but Cowboys & Aliens star Harrison Ford still has a lot of rage towards the blue gnomes bottled up and let some of it out on Conan…

MONDAY 12 PM: It’s now official. According to today’s actuals, DreamWorks/Universal’s Cowboys & Aliens narrowly beat Sony Pictures’ Smurfs for the weekend win $36,431,290 vs $35,611,637. Previous: ‘Smurfs’ Vs ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Still Too Close To Call With $36.2M Each: Who’ll Win? ‘Crazy Stupid Love’ Opens #5 With…