While a live action movie of The Smurfs wasn’t on my list of things to see before I die, there’s something interesting about this project.

Not least the casting which has a number of talented actors attached to the project and today we’ve got an excellent look at Hank Azaria as the villainous Gargamel.

Transported to the streets of New York, the little blue Smurfs and their black robed nemesis will be joined by Neil Patrick Harris and wide-eyed Jayma Mays, who you may know from Glee, in this modern day update of the quaint animation series.

Though it’s a little obvious to transport the cartoon creations into the real world, and of course to set it in  New York, I like the make up work done on Azaria to get him to look like this…

I’m not seeing a ginger cat anywhere in these pictures so if the character of Azriel is in this movie there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be a CG creation. Yes, just like Garfield.

Here are the pics.

These photos came from Splash News and Coming Soon.