Jennifer Lopez Joins Cast of DreamWorks Animation's "Home"

Water Mill resident Jennifer Lopez will join Steve Martin, Rihanna and Jim Parsons in Home, an upcoming alien-invasion film by DreamWorks Animation.

Originally titled Happy Smekday!, the digital 3D animation film is based on author Adam Rex‘s children’s book The True Meaning of Smekday. The film should closely follow its source material, which tells 12-year-old Gratuity “Tip” Tucci’s tale of friendly aliens, called the Boov, taking over and reorganizing Earth. First her mom began receiving alien messages through a mole on her neck. Then, on Christmas Eve, huge spaceships landed on Earth and the Boov abduct Tip’s mother, they colonize the planet and rename it Smekland, in honor of their great Captain Smek, and send all Americans to Florida on rocketpods. But Tip escapes and befriends a banished Boov mechanic named J.Lo (called “Oh” in the movie) and they go on a cross-country hovercar journey south to find her mother and save Earth from another alien invasion.

Guess who Lopez plays? Wrong! The Water Mill resident and pop star voices Tip’s mother, while Rihanna and Parsons play Tip and J.Lo./Oh, respectively. Martin will voice the infallible and mighty Captain Smek.

Tim Johnson (of DreamWorks’ Antz and Over the Hedge) directs, Chris Jenkins (Rio) and Suzanne Buirgy (Kung Fu Panda 2) are the film’s producers, and Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (Get Smart) adapted the book for the big screen. Home will be distributed by 20th Century Fox, and it is scheduled for a November 26, 2014 release.