Variety.com reports that Paramount Pictures are “getting the blues, acquiring film rights to vintage cartoon characters the Smurfs and set up development of a 3D CG feature with producer Jordan Kerner and Nickelodeon Movies. They’ve conceived the project as a trilogy and are aiming to release the first film in 2008 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Smurfs. The studio has hired Herb Ratner to script. He recently wrote Mr. Lucky for Revolution and co-wrote Focus’ Clean Break with Trevor Sands”. The Smurfs originated in 1958 as a Belgian comic strip from Peyo (Pierre) Culliford and made a theatrical appearance once before, in 1976’s Smurfs And The Magic Flute, released in a dubbed version in the US in 1983. NBC launched Hanna-Barbera’s The Smurfs in 1981, spawning 256 episodes and multiple Emmy awards.