Last year I reported that there was a Smurfs movie in the works and now How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris has joined the project.

The movie will part animation-part live action and Harris will be taking the lead. Unfortunately, he’s the live action star so we won’t get to see him as an itty-bitty Avatar styled smurf.

Previous casting rumours included John Lithgow signing on to play the evil Gargamel but this is yet to be confirmed.

The film will be under the control of Beverly Hills Chihuahua director Raja Gosnell and has had it’s original release date of winter 2010 pushed to July 2011.

Big smurfing deal, we prefer The Snorks anyway.