Rihanna has been cast as the voice of Smurfette in the new live-action hybrid film “The Smurfs Movie” from Paramount Animation.
Rihanna made an in-person appearance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday to make the announcement. She joked that she “tried to get the Papa Smurf role but It didn’t work out”.
Rihanna will also write and record original songs for the film as well as produce the upcoming project. She has previously recorded songs for a number of films including “Star Trek Beyond” and “Black Panther Wakanda Forever”.
Rihanna previously lent her voice to the DreamWorks animated feature “Home” and has starred in films like “Battleship,” “Ocean’s 8” and “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”.
Sony Pictures was behind the two previous live-action/animated hybrid films in 2011 and 2013 along with the fully animated “The Smurfs: The Lost Village” film in 2017. The latter was easily the most well received of the three but even it landed mostly poor reviews (the first two scored scathingly bad reviews).
This time out “South Park” and “Team America: World Police” alum Pam Brady wrote the script whilst “The LEGO Movie” helmer and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” producer Chris Miller will direct.
The film joins Paramount Animation’s upcoming slate which includes the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film in August, along with more “SpongeBob Squarepants” and “Paw Patrol” films.
“The Smurfs Movie” hits cinemas on February 14th 2025.
Source: Variety
