Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

The Adventures of Tintin

11/2/10 - Empire Magazine scored the first glimpse of Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the Herge comics, The Adventures of Tintin.  The movie is being done in CGI with actors such as Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in an effort to faithfully capture Herge's clean linework and not just have actors shoehorned into the part.  The movie is expected to release Dec. 28. 2011.

10/22/09 – SCI FI Wire reported that Steven Spielberg wants to adapt Tintin, the Belgian comic strip by Herge.  Tintin is about the adventures of a young Belgian reporter (Jamie Bell) and his faithful fox terrier Milou, and it spans genres from adventure to fantasy to mystery to science fiction, liberally dosed with humor.  The franchise has been Spielberg's dream project for decades, and the first of his planned Tintin films, Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, is now in production, with Spielberg directing. The movie is being made in 3-D motion-capture animation.  Spielberg is credited as director.  Peter Jackson is producing the film with him.  Nick Frost plays the film's Inspector Thomson, with his co-star Simon Pegg as Inspector Thompson.  The casting of Frost and Pegg gives us hope that the Tintin movie will have room for grown-up humor.  The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn combines both of Herge's stories, "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure." The 3-D animated feature is due Dec. 23, 2011.

3/9/09 - Steven Spielberg will wrap 32 days of performance-capture lensing on Tintin, Variety reported, then hand the project to producer Peter Jackson, who will focus on the film's special effects for the next 18 months.  The Tintin comicbook series about a globetrotting teenaged boy reporter, which originated 80 years ago in Belgium, is wildly popular in many countries around the world. In the U.S., however, the character is little-known, especially among children.  Spielberg and Jackson's respective camps have tried to keep a lid on the details of what is expected to become a three-film franchise while hyping the one-of-a-kind aspects of Tintin's motion-capture technology, which is being created by Jackson's New Zealand-based effects house Weta.

AlienAlmanac.com  -  Living Among You Since 2004