Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation announced today that they’ve obtained the rights to make a Smurfs movie, based on the tiny blue characters from the 1980’s Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

David Stem and David Weiss (Shrek 2 and 3) are in talks to write the screenplay, with Jordan Kerner producing the film for Sony.

The studios plan to make the Smurfs movie a hybrid live action/animated feature, using CGI like they did for Stuart Little and Spider-Man 3.

“We’re very excited to introduce a new generation to Papa Smurf, Smurfette and the other Smurfs in all of their ‘three apple tall’ glory,” said Doug Belgrad, co-president of Columbia Pictures.

Best known in the U.S. for the long-running Hanna-Barbera cartoon, the Smurfs were created in 1958 by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, known throughout the world as Peyo. The Smurfs — originally called Les Schtroumpfs in French — were created for a Belgian series of comic books, first as minor characters, but soon taking on a life of their own. The peaceful little characters were featured in a best selling line of statuettes (selling over 300 million worldwide), models, games, toys, theme parks, and, of course, the immensely popular television series. Running as part of NBC’s Saturday-morning lineup from 1981-1990, the cartoon was a huge critical and commercial success, twice winning Daytime Emmy Awards(r) for Best Children’s Entertainment Program, running for 256 episodes, and inspiring seven specials.

Sony will begin a licensing effort around the Classic Smurfs characters at this year’s Licensing Show beginning today in New York.