Production Begins On Secret Of The Unicorn

VARIETY: Bell, Craig to star in 'Tintin'
Steven Spielberg sets cast for trilogy
By TATIANA SIEGEL - Posted: Mon., Jan. 26, 2009, 3:45pm PT

Steven Spielberg has set his cast for "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," the first installment in the 3-D motion-capture trilogy that Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment are co-financing.

"Billy Elliot" thesp Jamie Bell will star as the titular character, an intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure. Daniel Craig will co-star as the nefarious Red Rackham.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

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Refresh my memory here. Is "Secret of the Unicorn" a title of one of the original books, or is "Red Rackham's Treasure" being adapted under a different title?

Toy OTD: Plastoy Tintin PVC Figures: Thomson And Thompson

I'm constantly impressed by the quality of Plastoy figures - the sculpts are on-model and well-posed, the paint work is strong, and they have good taste in licenses.

I don't often get figures this small, but I was struck by the subtle differences in the two brothers, and I'm a big Tintin fan in general.

I bought these at a store in San Francisco called Karikter - both of them are available at their online store for $7.50 + shipping each.

Live-Action Tintin Films

Turns out there's a French (Belgian?) Tintin film from 1961, Tintin et le Mystère de la Toison d'Or (the picture is the novelization cover). There's another one made in 1964 called Tintin et les Oranges Bleues with a different cast. They're on DVD and everything!

Tintin And The Uncanny Valley

VARIETY: Spielberg, Jackson team for Tintin
Duo pact for adventure trilogy
By ANNE THOMPSON, PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
Posted: Mon., May 14, 2007, 8:21pm PT

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are teaming to direct and produce three back-to-back features based on Georges Remi's beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin for DreamWorks. Pics will be produced in full digital 3-D using performance capture technology.

The two filmmakers will each direct at least one of the movies; studio wouldn't say which director would helm the third. Kathleen Kennedy joins Spielberg and Jackson as a producer on the three films, which might be released through DreamWorks Animation.

Tintin has long been a passion project for Spielberg, who has been trying to get film rights to the comedic and adventurous book series for more than 25 years, a goal realized over the past year. With the rights in place, Spielberg, Jackson and DreamWorks began quietly developing the project.

Jackson's New Zealand-based WETA Digital, the f/x house behind "The Lord of the Rings" franchise, produced a 20-minute test reel bringing to life the characters created by Remi, who wrote under the pen name of Herge.

"Herge's characters have been reborn as living beings, expressing emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we've seen to date with computer animated characters," Spielberg said.

"We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honor the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created," Spielberg continued.

Official word of the three-pic pact comes just weeks after Jackson inked a deal with DreamWorks to direct "Lovely Bones," based on Alice Sebold's haunting tome about a 14-year-old girl who watches over her family -- and attacker -- from heaven after she is raped and killed.

Tintin project, announced by the two filmmakers and DreamWorks co-chair-CEO Stacey Snider, may explain, at least in part, why DreamWorks emerged the winner in the bidding for "Bones," beating out several other suitors.

Tintin also answers the question of which tentpole Jackson will turn his attention to next.

The Spielberg-Jackson project isn't likely to languish in development for long. Spielberg could become available this fall after wrapping "Indiana Jones 4." Jackson will wrap "Bones" by the end of the year.

Spielberg and Jackson have selected three stories from Remi's "The Adventures of Tintin" series, which encompassed 23 books published between 1929 and 1976. The series still attracts 2 million new fans a year.

Series, which has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide, chronicles adventures of a junior reporter who will follows stories to the ends of the earth, even though he often finds his own life in jeopardy. His able assistants include a white dog named Snowy, the lunatic Captain Haddock, the muddled genius Professor Calculus and the Thompson Twins.

Jackson said WETA will stay true to Remi's original designs in bringing the cast of Tintin to life, but that the characters won't look cartoonish.

"Instead," Jackson said, "we're making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people --but real Herge people!"

DreamWorks bought the film rights from Herge Studios in Brussels, Belgium. Company is led by prexy Fanny Rodwell, Remi's wife when he died in 1983.

"We couldn't think of a better way to honor Herge's legacy that this announcement within days of the 100th anniversary of his birth, May 22, 1907," Rodwell said.

Spielberg and Jackson are currently evaluating whether to release Tintin through DreamWorks Animation. Paramount distributes all DreamWorks Animation films.

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"Instead," Jackson said, "we're making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people --but real Herge people!"

Hmm. Good luck with the dot eyes.

Children To Stop Reading Another Book Series In Favor Of Viewing Aggressively Marketed Films

Spielberg’s DreamWorks moves to bring cartoon hero Tintin to the big screen
By RAF CASERT - Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — It was a quarter-century in the making but then again, nothing is easy for cartoon heroes such as Tintin.

Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks, a division of Viacom Inc., has committed to produce at least one movie about the adventures of the intrepid Belgian reporter, said Nick Rodwell, head of Moulinsart NV, Tintin’s commercial studio, on Thursday.

“After 25 years, they finally said, ‘OK, let’s go,”’ Rodwell said of the protracted talks with Spielberg. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rodwell said the Hollywood company will go into preproduction for a movie, which should appear in theaters in about two years.

It wasn’t clear whether the film would be cartoon animation, computer animation or a movie with actors, or which of the 24 cartoon books of Tintin’s adventures would be picked.

“If movie No. 1 works, we will continue,” Rodwell said.

Talks about a Hollywood movie on Tintin, who saves the lives of countless people and makes sure criminals end up behind bars, have long stalled on financial issues and production questions.

The first plan surfaced just before Tintin’s creator, Georges Remi, aka Herge, died in 1983. Even at that time, Remi, one of the world’s foremost cartoon strip authors, delighted in Hollywood’s interest.

“If Steven Spielberg wants to make a Tintin film I cannot imagine anything better,” Rodwell said of Remi’s thoughts, and he fully realized that a movie adaptation might well change the way Tintin looks.

“Let’s see what he comes up with,” Rodwell said.

Tintin books have sold 220 million copies worldwide and have been translated in 77 languages.

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Well, we'll have to see what develops. I know Spielberg's been interested in making a Tintin film for a long time, so it makes sense that he'd land it eventually. I'd love to see a 2-D animated feature, but I have a feeling that's the least likely of the options (i.e, 2-D animation, live-action, or 3-D animation). The graphic novels are beloved all over the world (and rightly so), but I wonder if they're too violent for a PG-13, family-friendly American film.

Apocalypto Found To Be 'Just Like Tintin'

FOXNEWS.COM: Mel Gibson's 'Apocalypto' Eclipsed by Tintin?
Monday, December 04, 2006 By Roger Friedman

At the end of last Thursday night’s one and only screening in New York of Mel Gibson’s excruciatingly violent "Apocalypto," a woman in the audience exclaimed, "It’s just like Tintin, you know!"

I didn’t know, but since then I’ve looked into her idea. Yes, "Apocalypto" appears to have a big scene in it that is also integral to other pieces of work in fiction: Mark Twain’s "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court" and the Belgian illustrated books by George Remi (aka "Herge") called "The Adventures of Tintin" about a young man (the title character) and his dog.

In "Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun," a book that is still wildly popular all over the world, and has been for several decades, a scene depicts a solar eclipse that takes place in Mexico over the Mayan ruins.

An almost identical scene is pivotal to the story in "Apocalypto," in which a sudden eclipse darkens a maddening crowd scene and helps those who’ve been taken prisoner during continual warring to escape.

The eclipse is so important to the movie and such a visual hook that Disney has used it as a key part of the film’s promotion. It’s part of the film’s animated logo in trailers and ads.

Now it’s not like Twain (in his book an eclipse is also used to hide an escape) or Herge were first to think of this device. The Mayans were obsessed with eclipses and studied them, so Gibson and his screenwriter assistant Farhad Safinia were right to be thinking about them. Some people call this "being influenced." Others call it "stealing."

At the same time, though, the Tintin business is a little surprising. In "Prisoners of the Sun," it’s as if "Apocalypto" is actually story-boarded.

Not only that, but the woman in the audience was thinking not just of the book but of a 1969 animated film called "Tintin and the Temple of the Sun" in which that scene, from the same perspective as it’s seen in "Apocalypto," takes place.

Conveniently, none of the Tintin movies are available on video in the United States.

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... a woman in the audience exclaimed, "It’s just like Tintin, you know!"

Except for the scene where a human heart is cut out and sacrificed - they had to tone that shit down from the comic. Hey, that's how Tintin rolls.