Tintin About to Get Hollywood Treatment

Spielberg takes on 80-year-old comic strip character

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Some 80 years after his conception, a big-budget film adaptation of Herge's legendary comic strip character Tintin has been wrapped up and given a release date that is more than two and a half years away (December 23, 2011). The motion capture 3-D film was directed by the man himself, Mr. Steven Spielberg, and has been christened The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

Paramount and Sony Pictures are behind the anticipated film, which will be the first of a planned trilogy, and are expecting it to appeal to audiences more so overseas, where it will be launched about a month earlier than in domestic theatres. Whereas Paramount will focus on distributing the film in English-speaking markets, Sony will tackle Europe, India and Latin America.

The classic Tintin character, a Belgian reporter, first saw the light of day as a comic strip in 1929, spreading over another 54 years, until 1983. Since its conception Tintin-and his faithful fox terrier Snowy-has also been adapted into two dozen books (1929-86), a comic book (1972), five animated and live action movies (1947-72), a couple of TV cartoon shows (1958-62, 1991-92), two plays (1941-42), a musical (2002-07), a pair of documentaries (1976 and 2003), countless exhibitions, and even a memorabilia and merchandise store chain (1984-).

BAFTA-winning English actor Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) will take on the role of Tintin, while James Bond himself, Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace) will play pirate Red Rackham, who appeared in the 1942 book The Secret of the Unicorn. Casting directors also locked in Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Toby Jones (Frost/Nixon), Mackenzie Crook (The Office UK), Gad Elmaleh (Coco), and as Thomson & Thompson, Simon Pegg & Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).

Filmed over 32 days from January to March of this year, Tintin was produced by tinsletown heavyweights Spielberg (Back to the Future trilogy), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and Kathleen Kennedy (Jurassic Park trilogy), while its screenplay was penned by Joe Cornish, Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright.