I suppose this is only tangentially related to Spielberg, since the odds of him actually directing it are about the same as the odds that I'll start shitting winning lottery tickets, but I didn't want to start a Grapevine thread until there was a little more development. Anyways, here's the article that was on Yahoo:
Tintin Finally Does Tinseltown
Thursday March 8 4:12 PM ET
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.
___
On the Net:
Tintin:
http://www.tintin.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
While normal people get excited about things like Batman and X-Men... I get excited about Tintin. I may be the only one, but I'm excited enough for all of us. As long as they don't try to gear it towards kids too much, or cast Shia Lebouf as Tintin or hire Breck Eisner to direct, or anything else that might severely fuck up this film's potential, the books are perfect for cinematic adaptation. I'm going to stay on top of this one.
i have a family member who is OBSESSED with tintin and has been informing me on tintin movie updates for the past five years. :shock:
...they'd better not fuck this up....
tintin is fantastic. he's one of the reasons i wanted to be a journalist :oops:
Spielberg, Jackson team for Tintin
Duo pact for adventure trilogy
Source: Variety
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.
Did my pants just get tighter?
I really hope this is as amazing as it has the potential to be. I can't wait to see which of the comics gets adapted. And I'm so glad that it's not live-action....
Quote from: polkablues on May 15, 2007, 01:08:18 AM
Did my pants just get tighter?
Probably from all the diarrhea scratchers your ass just leaked:
Quote from: polkablues on March 09, 2007, 01:30:16 AM
I suppose this is only tangentially related to Spielberg, since the odds of him actually directing it are about the same as the odds that I'll start shitting winning lottery tickets
Amazing... I guess I had just gotten so used to Spielberg not directing movies that he was talking about directing, it never occurred to me that he might actually do the one that I really wanted him to do.
Let's take bets on how long before that WETA test footage ends up on YouTube. *crossing fingers*
are they gonna use james cameron technology or better?
i'm thinking not better.
British writer on "Tintin" case
British scribe Steven Moffat, best known for writing the new "Doctor Who" series, is turning his hand to "Tintin," the DreamWorks movie trilogy collaboration from Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg.
Tintin, created by late Belgian artist Herge, is a young reporter and world traveler who is aided in his adventures by his faithful dog Snowy. He later was joined by such colorful characters as Captain Haddock, Professor Cuthbert Calculus and bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson.
The books, hugely popular in Europe, have been translated into 50 languages with more than 200 million sold.
Jackson and Spielberg are each directing an installment, with the helmer of the third movie to be determined.
don't know this moffat guy but i heard the new doctor who series SUCKED.
also, doctor who who? do americans even know the character?
hope they adapt that really racist episode about tintin in papua new guinea or whatever.
Andy Serkis set for 'Tin Tin'
'King Kong' actor reuniting with Jackson
Source: Variety
Peter Jackson is set to reteam with his performance-capture muse Andy Serkis for DreamWorks' trilogy "Tintin," which is based on Georges Remi's Belgian comic-strip.
Steven Spielberg and Jackson will each helm at least one of the three films, though DreamWorks declined comment on the specific lineup.
Serkis, who has collaborated with Jackson on several films by providing the human expression and movements behind such CG characters as Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the big ape in "King Kong," has signed on to star in the films. DreamWorks was mum on which character or characters the actor will play but said it will not be the titular Tintin.
Pics will chronicle the adventures of Tintin, a junior reporter who will follow stories even though he often finds his own life in jeopardy.
Principal photography on the first film is scheduled to begin in September.
Films will be based on three stories from "The Adventures of Tintin" series by Remi, who wrote under the pen name of Herge, and will be produced in full digital 3-D using performance capture technology. Jackson's New Zealand-based WETA Digital will provide the f/x work, which will commence before the September start date.
Spielberg and Jackson are producing "Tintin" alongside Kathleen Kennedy.
Serkis was nominated for a Golden Globe last week for his supporting role in the TV series "Longford."
Either Captain Haddock, or (crossing fingers) the Thompson twins.
Quote from: polkablues on December 15, 2007, 04:07:19 PM
Either Captain Haddock, or (crossing fingers) the Thompson twins.
I think he'd do a great Prof Calculus
serkis will be the dog, obviously.
what i really wanna know is who the third director is gonna be..
i know! it'll be a digital creation by WETA. THAT"S THE GENIUS PART! who better to make a digital 3D cutting edge movie than someone who is NATIVE to that world?? i'm serious. this is the secret james cameron has been keeping. that's why he's been able to leap ahead of everyone in the digital arms race. i can see it now.. the idea came to him during one of his expeditions to the bottom of the ocean, in his fortress of solitude, maybe it was the salt water in his veins or the oxygen bubbles in his brain, he's not sure, but the heart of the ocean spoke to him and gave birth to the future. not only that, in keeping with his leading-lady trademark, his secret co-director is also FEMALE! that's why he didn't hav to marry or divorce anyone before making Avatar. he's been making digital love.
andew niccol must be spinning in his bed.
I'm getting really antsy with the lack of new information about these movies. Seriously, how has the WETA test footage not leaked somewhere already? In this day and age, if footage exists, it should be on the internet already. I demand footage!
Was never a fan of Tintin as a kid, so just went down the library and got 'Tintin in America,' 'Cigars of the Pharaoh,' and 'The Blue Lotus.'
"Cigars of the Pharaoh" is one of my favorites. "Blue Lotus" is one of the weaker of the books, and "Tintin in America" is kind of goofy, but a lot of fun, clearly inspired by (and perhaps somewhat of a spoof of) the Western serials of the time.
I recommend reading all the books if you can find them, but the ones I suggest most highly, both in terms of quality and because I'm convinced they will comprise the stories of two of the movies, are both of the two-book story arcs: "Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure", and "Destination Moon" and "Explorers on the Moon". "King Ottokar's Sceptre" is another of my personal favorites, and I would guess the third movie is probably a tossup between it, "Cigars", or "The Calculus Affair".
Quote from: polkablues on February 02, 2008, 02:34:50 AM
how has the WETA test footage not leaked somewhere already?
it leaked (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylGQhQI9HGk).
I will hunt you down and physically hurt you for the shattered hope you just caused me.
Quote from: polkablues on February 03, 2008, 06:47:40 AM
I will hunt you down and physically hurt you for the shattered hope you just caused me.
Les Adventure De Polky
Quote from: 72teeth on February 03, 2008, 05:21:17 AM
Quote from: polkablues on February 02, 2008, 02:34:50 AM
how has the WETA test footage not leaked somewhere already?
it leaked (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylGQhQI9HGk).
:lol:
It's funny, you put up the portuguese version of it. "as aventuras de tim-tim"
Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on February 04, 2008, 08:49:04 AM
Quote from: 72teeth on February 03, 2008, 05:21:17 AM
Quote from: polkablues on February 02, 2008, 02:34:50 AM
how has the WETA test footage not leaked somewhere already?
it leaked (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylGQhQI9HGk).
:lol:
It's funny, you put up the portuguese version of it. "as aventuras de tim-tim"
that's because Wes Anderson is directing the third one...
Quote from: 72teeth on February 04, 2008, 05:59:31 PM
Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on February 04, 2008, 08:49:04 AM
Quote from: 72teeth on February 03, 2008, 05:21:17 AM
Quote from: polkablues on February 02, 2008, 02:34:50 AM
how has the WETA test footage not leaked somewhere already?
it leaked (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylGQhQI9HGk).
:lol:
It's funny, you put up the portuguese version of it. "as aventuras de tim-tim"
that's because Wes Anderson is directing the third one...
Now that would be sweet :-D
There's a rumor going around that Djimon Honsou is telling people he's in talks to be in the Tintin movies. Who he would be playing is anybody's guess.
http://chud.com/articles/articles/13877/1/WILL-DJIMON-HOUNSOU-BE-IN-TINTIN/Page1.html (http://chud.com/articles/articles/13877/1/WILL-DJIMON-HOUNSOU-BE-IN-TINTIN/Page1.html)
So the Djimon Honsou thing was total bush-league bullshit that bore no resemblance to reality. But finally there's some real news (a little bit, anyway) via CHUD, via some other site, via some interview with Andy Serkis. Here's the scoop:
-The first movie will be directed by Spielberg, the second by Jackson, and the third by whoever ends up being the third director (Oh, I hope it's me...).
-Shooting will begin in earnest in September.
-Andy Serkis will be playing Captain Haddock. Pretty sure I called that one.
Still no word on that WETA test footage. I just want to know whose office I have to pull a daring daylight robbery on to get ahold of that stuff...
Thomas Sangster Cast as Tintin?
Source: Daily Mail
17-year-old Thomas Sangster (Nanny McPhee, Love Actually) has been cast to play comic book hero Tintin in the trilogy of performance capture films to be directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, according to the Daily Mail.
Sangster, from South London, has already been to Los Angeles to work on pre-production test sequences with both directors.
He'll be joining Andy Serkis, who has been cast as Tintin's sidekick Captain Haddock.
Filming on the first story involving Tintin begins in the fall, with Spielberg directing. Peter Jackson will direct the second movie.
At the end of this month, Sangster begins working with Oscar-winning director Jane Campion on her film Bright Star, a love story with Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish portraying John Keats and his lover Fanny Brawne.
The kid from Love Actually is 17?!? How fucking old does that make me feel....
I'm not sure how I feel about this. I would have to hear what his voice sounds like now. At least they didn't cast an American. Where's the goddamn WETA footage???
Quote from: polkablues on March 24, 2008, 02:23:21 AM
Where's the goddamn WETA footage???
Trust (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwiYZ3PmmlM&feature=related) me
?.
72teeth is just gonna keep getting broken legs every time he stumbles in this thread. :-D
What can i say, casts are warmer than socks!
Steven Spielberg reveals more Tintin plans
Source: The Dominion Post
Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson may go a step further in their plans for three Tintin movies - by jointly directing the third instalment.
Spielberg raised the possibility before the release of his latest film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival at the weekend.
"We are going to make three Tintin movies back-to-back. I'll direct the first one, Peter will direct the second one. We'll probably co-direct the third one."
It was too early to say which of the Tintin books would be filmed. The first would start in September.
Spielberg had never heard of Tintin till 1981, when a film critic compared his first Indiana Jones adventure, Raiders of the Lost Ark, to the books.
Spielberg Still Taking First Tintin Shift
The Tintin tag-teaming has begun.
Steven Spielberg is still slated to direct the first of three planned films about the mystery-solving Belgian reporter and his trusty fox terrier Snowy, despite recent word from the Brussels studio that owns the rights to the characters that Peter Jackson would be doing the honors for Tintin's first outing.
Reps for both filmmakers say that Jackson—who will serve as a producer on the Spielberg-directed installment—is still onboard to helm the next film in the would-be franchise, based on the classic European comic strip by George Remi, who published his creations under the pen name Hergé.
A rep for Hergé Studios had said earlier Tuesday that Jackson would be the first to step behind the camera and Spielberg would be indirectly involved in the filming, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Either way, the first movie will be adapted from two books in the Adventures of Tintin series—The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, written between 1942 and 1944. Dr. Who scribe Stephen Moffat penned the script.
And now Tintin's signature carrot top will reach new heights: The originally 2-D traveler is being brought to the big screen with Polar Express-style motion-capture animation technology.
British teen Thomas Sangster (Liam Neeson's lovestruck son in Love Actually) will wield Tintin's heavily stamped passport and motion-capture veteran Andy Serkis, of Gollum fame, is stepping into the role of his crusty sailor pal, Captain Haddock.
Before it's Jackson's turn to fashion a Tintin adventure, he will finish postproduction on The Lovely Bones and cowrite The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro, who was tapped to direct the Lord of the Rings prequel after Jackson dropped out.
Studio says no to Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson
Squeezed by rising costs and leveling revenues, Universal Pictures declines to finance 'Tintin.'
By Claudia Eller, Los Angeles Times
Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson don't hear "no" very often.
But after they submitted a final budget of $130 million for their 3-D animated movie "Tintin," based on the Belgian comic strip, to Universal Pictures, the studio balked. The decision has left the two powerful filmmakers scrambling to find another financial partner.
When even Spielberg and "The Lord of the Rings" director Jackson, who have made some of the biggest blockbusters in history, can't get their movie made, you know something is up in Hollywood. Universal's refusal to finance "Tintin" underscores how in today's tough economic climate, bottom-line concerns trump once-inviolable relationships between studios and talent.
Until now, however, filmmakers of Spielberg's and Jackson's stature were thought to be immune to the brass-knuckles tactics of the studios. Squeezed by a business trapped between rising costs and leveling revenues, the two filmmakers are Hollywood's latest -- and most prominent -- victims of cost containment.
Movie studios have long entered into financial arrangements with talent for reasons other than pure economic reward. Sometimes a deal is made for the prestige of associating with a famous actor or director; sometimes it is done in the belief that half a financial loaf from a proven hit maker is less risky than a whole one from an untested filmmaker; and still other times it happens simply to keep relations warm so the talent will want to work for the studio.
The particular problem for Universal with "Tintin" is that Spielberg's and Jackson's involvement comes with a huge price tag. The two filmmakers together would command such a large percentage of the movie's revenue as part of their compensation -- without putting up any of the capital themselves, as is typical in Hollywood -- that it takes a substantial slice of the profit off the table for the backers.
Studios in recent times have shunned some costly deals with filmmakers and stars. Fox decided not to make the comedy "Used Guys" in 2006 with Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller after concluding the deals with the actors outweighed the odds of making its money back. And many in Hollywood also remember how Paramount Pictures just barely broke even the same year on "Mission: Impossible III." Even though the movie grossed nearly $400 million worldwide, its star and producer Tom Cruise pocketed more than $80 million.
And "Tintin" is arguably a very risky project. It is based on the 1929-to-1976 book series written by the late Georges Remi, under the pen name Herge, about the global adventures of a young reporter and his dog, Snowy. The comics have a loyal following in Europe but are mostly obscure to U.S. audiences.
Paramount, which owns DreamWorks, where Spielberg has been developing "Tintin" for many years, had agreed to finance half the film but was hoping to have a financial partner in Universal. Paramount, a Viacom Inc. unit, has shouldered the vast majority of the more than $30 million spent on scripts, character design and initial animation and 3-D tests -- even before the movie had officially been given the green light for production. (Those costs are included in the $130-million budget.)
Spielberg has wanted to make "Tintin" since 1983, when he optioned the movie rights at his Universal-based production company, Amblin Entertainment. He has conceived the project as a trilogy, with the first film to be directed by him, the second by Jackson and no plans yet for the third.
Spielberg hoped that "Tintin" would be the next movie he would direct, with production to begin this month. The first two movies, using so-called motion-capture technology, were to be filmed back to back, similar to how Jackson made the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
But in a surprising move, when Spielberg and Jackson approached Universal, which has had a long-standing option to co-finance the picture, the studio decided that the deal made no financial sense. According to several people close to the project, "Tintin" would have to rake in $425 million worldwide in ticket sales before the studios could break even.
The reason: Spielberg and Jackson, who would also produce both movies, would together grab about 30% of the studio's total gross revenue from box-office, DVD, television and other sales. Under that scenario, the pair would walk away with more than $100 million before Universal and DreamWorks could make a profit.
To add embarrassment to injury, Universal's decision to pull out of "Tintin" thrusts Spielberg into a highly awkward situation. The director, along with his partner David Geffen, is getting ready to extricate himself from Paramount after a stormy 2 1/2 -year association.
As a result, Spielberg is having to go hat in hand to ask Paramount to finance all of "Tintin" at the same time he faces delicate negotiations regarding his and Geffen's split from the studio. Those talks, among other things, are likely to involve scores of projects that the director wants to take with him to his new home as well those he could produce at Paramount.
Universal, as it turns out, is also the leading contender to distribute DreamWorks' new movies once it breaks free from Paramount. But as solely a distributor, Universal would not have any investment in the movies and would have no money at risk.
In deciding not to back "Tintin," Universal may have been swayed by the spotty box-office track record for motion- or performance-capture movies. "Tintin" would be produced in digital 3-D animation using performance capture technology, in which actors wear body sensors that record their movement. That information is then fed into a computer and digitally manipulated.
Such motion-capture films as "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and "Monster House" have performed considerably below the $425-million box-office gross benchmark that "Tintin" would need to reach to break even.
Late last month, Spielberg and Jackson showed a group of 10 Paramount executives, including Chairman Brad Grey and Vice Chairman Rob Moore, a 10-minute sample of what the movie would look like that was produced at Jackson's New Zealand visual effects company, Weta Digital.
Paramount executives are analyzing the economics of "Tintin" and are expected to decide shortly whether to bankroll the entire movie. If they do, Spielberg hopes to begin shooting next month.
Pegg, Frost for Tintin?
Spielberg considering duo for film.
Rumours are buzzing around the internet that Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have been cast in Steven Spielberg's upcoming Tintin film.
The talk stems from an interview Pegg gave to English rag The Times, where he said he met up with the bearded director on set. He said: "I shook his hand and chatted about films. He gave me the mo-cap [motion-capture] camera, and I had a play around with it. Then he said, 'Hey, maybe you and Nick Frost could play the Thompson Twins.' In Tintin. A Spielberg movie. To work with him is beyond..."
Thompson and Thomson were a pair of bumbling mustachioed detectives who provided comic relief throughout Herge's comics, usually because they were trying to arrest the wrong man.
We're not sure how the rather different looking Pegg and Frost could play the duo who, despite having different names, looked almost identical and were often referred to as twins.
Spielberg is currently filming the first installment of a planned trilogy of motion-capture adventures revolving around the young Belgiun detective (Thomas Sangster) and his friend Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis).
Sony, Paramount financing 'Tintin'
Steven Spielberg directing first film of series
Source: Variety
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures are in talks to co-finance "Tintin," Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's digital 3-D pic based on the Belgian "Tintin" comics.
After resolving the Paramount-DreamWorks divorce, putting together a studio deal for "Tintin" was next on Spielberg's agenda. After Universal balked at partnering on what's hoped to be the first installment in a franchise, with Spielberg to direct, Par offered to fully back the movie with a reduced backend at $135 million for the two gross participants. When the filmmakers held out for a better deal, a partner became a viable alternative.
While neither Sony nor Paramount would comment, both confirmed talks are under way for one film.
Spielberg had hoped to be in production by fall. However, when financing fell apart at U on the eve of the DreamWorks/Par divorce, he lost the participation of his lead actor, Thomas Sangster. Nonetheless, "Tintin" is expected to be completed in time for a 2010 release. The original plan was for Jackson to direct the sequel.
In the deal being negotiated, Paramount is planning to distribute in North America and some other English-speaking territories, while Sony would handle the foreign release. "Tintin" would no longer have any association with DreamWorks.
Spielberg and Jackson were originally teaming to direct and produce three consecutive features based on Georges Remi's beloved comicstrip hero Tintin. Spielberg and Jackson selected three stories from Remi's "The Adventures of Tintin" series, which encompassed 23 books published between 1929 and 1976 about an intrepid junior reporter and his dog Snowy, who track down stories to the ends of the Earth.
The director of the third film in the planned trilogy was always up in the air, and a script was never written.
Kathleen Kennedy joins Spielberg and Jackson as a producer on the three films, but the deal under discussion appears to be for the first one.
"Tintin" has long been a passion project for Spielberg; he and Kennedy have held various film rights to the comedic adventure book series off and on for more than 25 years. Jackson also has long been a fan of the comicbooks. His 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.
The films are expected to be lensed using photorealistic performance-capture techniques.
With Sony on board and a second Jackson lensed film not yet financed, it is unclear what Weta Digital's involvement will be on the "Tintin" franchise.
Jackson has delivered to Paramount his DreamWorks film "The Lovely Bones," based on Alice Sebold's bestseller. It's set for a fall 2009 release.
Pegg and Frost in Spielberg's Tintin!
Source: Aint It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News has received word that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz duo) have landed the roles of Thomson and Thompson in director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson's Tintin.
The movie will be animated with motion-capture technology and star Andy Serkis as Tintin's friend Captain Haddock. Thomas Sangster was previously set to play Tintin but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts. A new Tintin has not been announced.
DreamWorks' first "Tintin" feature, targeted for a 2010 release, will be based on two of the books, "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure," written by Tintin creator Herge between 1942 and 1944.
The second film will be directed by Jackson.
Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig Join Tintin!
Source: ComingSoon
Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced the start of principal photography on the 3D motion capture feature The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig. The full press release:
Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment have announced the start of principal production in Los Angeles on the 3D Motion Capture Film "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliot," "Defiance") as Tintin, the intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure, and Daniel Craig ("Quantum of Solace," "Defiance") as the nefarious Red Rackham.
Bell and Craig are joined by an international cast that includes Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook.
"The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," from a screenplay by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, is produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy, is the first in the series of 3D motion capture films based on the iconic character created by Georges Remi, better known to the world by his pen name "Herge" and is due for release in 2011. Executive producers are Nick Rodwell, Stephane Sperry and Ken Kamins. Paramount Pictures will release domestically and in all English speaking territories and Asia, excluding India. Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute the film in Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and the remainder of the world.
The second feature in the series is scheduled to be directed by Jackson, with a potential for a third film as well.
Eighty years ago, Herge introduced the world to a unique cast of characters who have been embraced by readers of all ages. The Adventures of Tintin - a series of 24 books, the final unfinished adventure was published after Herge's - death became Herge's life's work. The first adventure was published in 1929. Over 200 million copies have been sold worldwide. The popular series has been translated into 70 languages and still attracts thousands of new fans each year.
Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson will bring Herge's stories to life employing state-of-the-art performance capture technology developed by Jackson's Weta Digital.
A few things:
- Jamie Bell as Tintin makes me much happier than Thomas Sangster. I don't even like saying Sangster. "Sangster". Ugh.
- Pegg and Frost is great news and all, but I'm more excited about Edgar Wright as co-writer. Let him direct the third movie, Spielberg! I'm assuming there's still going to be a third movie... I'm an optimist and shit.
- It's been over a year; where's the goddamn WETA test footage???
Oh yeah, just quietly re-enter the XIXAX family after having abandoned us for almost a year.
STOP BEING LIKE MY DAD, POLKA!
I didn't want you to find out this way, but... I AM YOUR DAD.
Hug?
i knew you'd be back. :-D
Quote from: polkablues on February 04, 2009, 09:04:04 PM
I didn't want you to find out this way, but... I AM YOUR DAD.
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Wait! The paternity test results are back....
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(Dramatic reenactment)
This is too painful for me. Let's talk about Tintin.
So I went back and reread "Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure". The casting of Daniel Craig as Red Rackham seems to be a signal that the past story of Sir Francis Haddock is going to be much more fleshed-out in the movie than in the books. Which is probably a smart move; it'll make it a lot easier to fill a feature running time. I'm really curious as to who they're going to bring in to play Professor Calculus. Besides Thomson and Thompson, Calculus is the primary source of comedy in the books, and he plays a very prominent role in this story (even more so in the Moon books, which I'm pretty damn sure are going to be the basis for the second movie). Certainly he's the most important character that hasn't had an actor announced yet. Jim Broadbent would be a pretty amazing choice, and when he's announced you can remember that you read it here first.
I'm still on the fence about which book would be the best choice for a third movie, were one to be made. "Cigars of the Pharaoh" would be a good one, with its wide span of settings and a very unique, memorable story, but might get passed over because it took place before most of the main secondary characters were introduced (no Captain Haddock, no Calculus, the Thompsons are actually on a mission to arrest Tintin...). "Land of Black Gold" would be an interesting choice, and its Middle East setting would be a good contrast with the other stories, but it's not one of the more memorable books. I like "The Calculus Affair", which is kind of a Le Carre-style spy thriller, but it wouldn't be as visually interesting as the other two movies. It's a tough call. They could always dig way back and go with "Tintin in the Congo", which is notable for its old-fashioned colonial attitudes and hilariously adorable racism. Spike Lee could direct.
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^haha what the fuck?
It was a simpler time then. A much, much, much simpler time.
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Spielberg, Jackson dig into 'Tintin'
Duo's motion-capture film quietly in motion
Source: Variety
Steven Spielberg this week will quietly wrap 32 days of performance-capture lensing on "Tintin," then hand the project to producer Peter Jackson, who will focus on the film's special effects for the next 18 months.
Although the baton-pass is stealthy, "Tintin" is anything but a low-profile project. And that's just the first of many contradictions inherent with the film, which brings together two of cinema's visionaries.
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.
Just don't ask too many questions.
Spielberg's longtime spokesman Marvin Levy, who welcomed a story on "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," said, "You have to see it to understand (the technology). It really can't be described."
But he quickly nixed the idea of a visit to the set. "That wouldn't be feasible," he says.
The film's other producer, Kathleen Kennedy, is happy to talk about "Tintin," but admitted the world Spielberg and Jackson are creating is hard to describe.
"It's extremely difficult to explain to someone unless they are standing here next to me," Kennedy says from the Los Angeles set. "And usually then their reaction is, 'Oh my god.' "
Kennedy and Spielberg acquired the project in 1983 after Spielberg's interest in the project was piqued by critics' insistence that his "Raiders of the Lost Ark" harkened back to Tintin's escapades in exotic locations.
But the pair couldn't realistically begin developing the pic until about two years ago, when motion-capture technology finally caught up with the demands of the story. Spielberg received his introduction into the fledgling technology via his producing role on "Monster House." But Jackson, who joined Kennedy and Spielberg on the project in early 2007, is clearly a master of the form. Both the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "King Kong" elevated performance-capture to never-before-seen realism.
Jackson's role as mo-cap mentor to Spielberg, however, prompts the question: Who exactly is steering the "Tintin" ship?
Spielberg will receive sole directing credit on the first film, though even that distinction seems murky given that Jackson is doing the more time-consuming work, spending a year and a half creating the Tintin's world vs. Spielberg's one month on set. Jackson also traveled to Los Angeles for rehearsals and for the first week of shooting.
"It's hard to delineate between directing and producing on films like this," explains one project insider.
Kennedy insists that the transitions between the two creative talents are relatively seamless. "They are amazingly collaborative, even more so than Steven and George (Lucas were on the 'Raiders' films)."
And then, there are the two filmmakers' differing styles and thematic vibes: Spielberg is more character-oriented and relatively lean while Jackson revels in lavish visuals ... and running times.
The conventional wisdom has always been that Spielberg would direct his "Tintin" film, and Jackson would have his own. (It has long been reported that Jackson will helm the second chapter of three "Tintin" films.) There was even speculation that the two films would be shot back to back, much like Jackson's "Lord of the Rings." However, there is no second film in the immediate future or even a script for one at this point.
Paramount and Sony, the first film's co-financiers, have yet to greenlight a followup to the $120 million project and are waiting for a script before making a decision.
The first film, which was No. 11 in Georges "Herge" Remi's 24-book Tintin series, was written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish.
Jackson is currently taking a stab at the second film and sketching out ideas, though he wouldn't necessarily take screenplay credit for that film and could possibly hand script duties back to Moffat, Wright and Cornish.
Even the casting of the first film suggests a strong Jackson influence: Beside the inclusion of "LOTR's" Andy Serkis, the helmer made a personal call to enlist star Jamie Bell, who played a supporting role in Jackson's "King Kong."
But Spielberg's camp insists he will have a firm handle on all aspects of the film, including its special effects. Jackson and Spielberg have rigged a video conferencing system by which Spielberg is able to see everything Jackson sees at the Weta facility in New Zealand.
Spielberg and Kennedy also are making their presence felt with the project's early marketing decisions.
Paramount, which will distribute the film in all English-speaking territories and Asia, has the bigger challenge, with much lower awareness of the property in these territories, particularly the United States.
But one Par top exec downplayed any perceived challenges.
"It's not like there was any awareness on 'Kung Fu Panda' either," the exec says. "We had to go out and introduce this property to the world."
Still, "Kung Fu Panda" enjoyed a high-profile voice cast, with stars Angelina Jolie and Jack Black tubthumping in the film's behalf. By contrast, the only household name in "Tintin's" cast is current James Bond incarnation Daniel Craig, who is notorious for eschewing press junkets.
Sony, which is handling all overseas regions outside Asia, will likely have an easier time selling the film ahead of its planned 2011 release because the comicbook, which has been translated into 50 languages, remains hugely popular in the territories Sony will handle, including non-English-speaking Europe and India.
If anyone can overcome the film's challenges and silence the questions, it's the combined superpower of Spielberg and Jackson. Still, this highly anticipated collaboration continues to beg more questions than it answers.
I know I called Jim Broadbent to play Professor Calculus, but I just thought of a name that hadn't occurred to me before: IAN HOLM. Mark it in pen, it's as good as cast.
And for fuck's sake, people. TEST FOOTAGE! It's been two years... I can't deal with the anticipation. I could get hit by a bus any day now.
And what is it with people referring to Tintin as a teenager? Nowhere in the books is he referred to as being that young, and there's a whole lot to suggest that he's older than that. At the very youngest I would say he's supposed to be in his early twenties. He just happens to be very young-looking. Perhaps he has low testosterone levels or something. I don't know, I'm not a doctor.
Anyway, to summarize: Ian Holm; test footage; not teenager.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
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BAHAHAHA
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Approximately six weeks ago Tintin partners Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were seen in a private taped message shown to attendees of the International Comic Strip Festival in Anglouleme, France, which is on the Atlantic coast. They say they're just about to start motion-capture photography on the first of two movies, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The video surfaced today via VanityFair.com. Here it is:
http://www.tintin.com/#../tintinTV/tintinTV.swf&lang=fr/&mc=_root.ban2&SSPJ
Polka, what do you think of the Jamie Bell casting as Tintin?
Pretty happy with it. I was terrified with Thomas Sangster that Tintin would end up sounding way too precocious, but with Jamie Bell I don't have to worry about that. The character is kind of a goodie-goodie in some ways, but he's also kind of a badass... he can shoot and fight his way out of situations just as well as he can think his way out of them. I don't think that aspect of the character would have been believable with Sangster, but it is with Bell. Plus, Jamie Bell is just flat out a good actor. I was thinking a while ago that James McAvoy might have been a good choice, but so far I'm happy with all the casting that's been announced.
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I have zero excitement for this until I see some footage. It's just silly to have Spielberg at this stage of his career doing this thing. He should be still exploring his dark side in Kubrickian films or something. The Lincoln thing sounds great too. I don't know, Indy 4 was so bad I just want him to stay away from this adventure shit.
Quote from: Alexandro on March 19, 2009, 03:03:17 PM
I have zero excitement for this until I see some footage. It's just silly to have Spielberg at this stage of his career doing this thing. He should be still exploring his dark side in Kubrickian films or something. The Lincoln thing sounds great too. I don't know, Indy 4 was so bad I just want him to stay away from this adventure shit.
I've accepted that the kiddie stuff is just part of his personality. If it isn't in overt comic stuff like Tintin, it's with an array of action/adventure films. Speilberg only dabbles in serious films. He does it with the same kind of infrequency that Scorsese has with doing religious films. I wish both filmmakers were more serious about these once-every-ten-year subjects, but they never will be.
I kind of feel like Spielberg's gotten over his serious side. He's at the point where he doesn't give a shit about making movies to establish some sort of legacy, he just wants to make whatever he feels like making. And it's always been the case that what Spielberg enjoys most are fun movies. Ironically, there are a ton of filmmakers out there who are very good at making serious, intense films, but very few who are actually good at making the sort of popcorn blockbusters of which Spielberg is the master (disregarding a few missteps along the way). So leave the big serious dramas to the Malicks and the Inarittus and the Scorceses of the world, and leave Spielberg to putting his childhood fantasies on the big screen.
And if his childhood fantasies include lots of Tintin movies, all the better.
Quote from: Gold Trumpet on March 19, 2009, 03:41:16 PM
Spielberg only dabbles in serious films. He does it with the same kind of infrequency that Scorsese has with doing religious films. I wish both filmmakers were more serious about these once-every-ten-year subjects, but they never will be.
It's because most of the 'serious' films don't make much money at all. I'm sure they are very interested, its just that the overall public isn't. The public would rather see adventure films and gangster pictures.
'Tintin' project brings moguls together
Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are pooling their tech-savvy talents to bring a 3-D motion-capture version of the book series to the big screen.
By Rachel Abramowitz; Los Angeles Times
How do Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the two titans of pop culture, collaborate on the new 3-D motion-capture version of "Tintin"?
With lots of high-tech wizardry.
Spielberg, who's directing the first installment, "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," recently wrapped 32 days of performance-capture shooting in Los Angeles. Producer Jackson traveled from his New Zealand home base to L.A. for rehearsals and the first week of shooting, and then appeared via an elaborate video-conferencing setup for the rest of the shoot, using a specially designed iChat-type system in which the Kiwi filmmaker can see everything on the set in real time and simultaneously talk with Spielberg. The film is scheduled to hit theaters in 2011.
Spielberg first became intrigued with the cub reporter and his dog Snowy back in the early '80s, when reviewers of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" noted the similarity between Indiana Jones' derring-do and Tintin's globe-trotting escapades. He and producer Kathleen Kennedy have been involved with the books intermittently since that time, but it wasn't until the maturation of motion-capture technology that a serious avenue opened up for re-creating author Hergé's world.
In fact, Spielberg had called Jackson in his office to discuss the intricacies of motion capture -- which Jackson had used to create both Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" and Kong in "King Kong." When he broached the topic of "Tintin," Jackson, born and bred in a part of the world that reveres Hergé's creation, yelped, "I have all the books in back of me."
That's the genesis of this behemoth collaboration, according to Spielberg's spokesman Marvin Levy.
Neither Spielberg nor Jackson nor producer Kennedy would talk further, though the plan is for Jackson to take on the directorial reins for the next film. Of course, both are still multitasking away. Jackson is finishing the Christmas 2009 film "The Lovely Bones," which he adapted from the novel, directed and produced for Spielberg's DreamWorks. He's also writing and executive producing the new "Hobbit" films to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Spielberg reportedly has his long-planned Abraham Lincoln feature in pre-production, as well as the running of DreamWorks. The Tintin film encompasses "The Secret of the Unicorn" as well as elements from the other books (such as the sequel "Red Rackham's Treasure"), which carry on the tale of Tintin's hunt for the pirate Red Rackham's hidden bounty.
Thomas Sangster, who played Liam Neeson's son in "Love, Actually," was initially cast as Tintin, but he fell out. The filmmakers turned to 23-year-old Jamie Bell, who first broke into films as the title character in "Billy Elliot" and later appeared in Jackson's "King Kong." Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" and Kong in "King Kong," takes on the role of Tintin's closest friend, the friendly alcoholic Captain Haddock. Daniel Craig plays the villainous Red Rackham. The filmmakers have also imported the British comedy mafia behind the wacky satire "Hot Fuzz," including actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as the bumbling detectives Thompson and Thomson, and Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright to pen the latest version of the script.
Discussing performance-capture shooting last summer with an English newspaper, Spielberg said, "The actors have green dots on their faces and wear a kind of wetsuit, and the computer reads every movement and every facial expression." He said computers can also manipulate facial appearance. "It means we can freeze the age," he said. "Tintin will never age."
Next up will be 18 months of work at Jackson's New Zealand-based effects house, WETA. There, the team will re-create much of the look of Hergé's original graphic novels.
Unexpectedly for a Spielberg-Jackson collaboration, "Tintin" has had a tough time finding financing, not only because of its questionable appeal domestically but also because of the $135-million price tag and a deal that allots both filmmakers a humongous portion of the back-end profits. What's more, other motion capture pictures, including "Monster House," "Beowulf" and "The Polar Express," have not been blockbusters.
"It's a very easy-flowing collaboration," said one person involved in the Spielberg-Jackson project who declined to be named. "They bring different energies."
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At 80, comic-book hero Tintin is ready for Hollywood
Tintin is beloved in Europe and barely known in America. That poses a double challenge for Steven Spielberg's movie adaptation.
By Henry Chu; Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Brussels -- He turns 80 this year but still looks 18, with the same fair-haired quiff. Like Madonna and Sting, two other famous blonds, he goes by one name. Mention him and a European is likely to cheer, while an American is more apt to go, "Huh?" But that's destined to change now that Steven Spielberg is making a movie based on his life.
He is Tintin, intrepid cub reporter and nemesis of evildoers, whose long career in numerous cartoon strips and comic books, with faithful dog Snowy at his side, has made him one of Belgium's most celebrated exports (up there with chocolate and waffles).
His slightly nondescript but instantly recognizable face is everywhere in Brussels these days, stamped on magnets, posters, key rings and other souvenirs to commemorate the 80th anniversary of his creation. Academics comb the cartoons for clues to Tintin's ontological meaning and his sexuality. A $20-million museum devoted to his creator is set to open in June outside the Belgian capital.
And amplifying all the buzz -- the Tintin-nabulation, you might say -- is a big-budget 3-D adaptation (using a high-tech motion-capture process) from Spielberg, who bought the movie rights to Tintin's adventures more than 25 years ago. Joining Spielberg on the project, envisioned as a trilogy of films, is director Peter Jackson of "Lord of the Rings" fame. The first part of filming just wrapped in L.A. (see accompanying story).
In a neat bit of foreshadowing in 1932's "Tintin in America," his sole voyage to the States, a victorious Tintin finds himself surrounded by paparazzi and a Hollywood agent who shouts: "Paranoid Productions are starring you in their billion-dollar movie spectacular!" Spielberg's first Tintin film is budgeted at $130 million.
Not too shabby a fate for an illustrated, French-speaking eternal Boy Scout whose humble origins trace to a conservative Roman Catholic magazine in Belgium between the world wars. "Tintin is a pure Belgian product, with a universal impact," said Claude Javeau, a professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels.
The character's action-packed international romps gave Belgians a window on the wider world from their tiny country, while fans across the globe, especially fellow Europeans, embraced his unassuming, kindhearted and resourceful personality. It also helped that Snowy was adorable.
Tintin sprang from the brain and pen of a young man named Georges Remi, who drew under the name Hergé (his initials transposed and pronounced in French). The budding artist worked for the 20th Century, a newspaper run by a right-wing priest who sought to promulgate Catholic values.
At the time, that meant anti-communism, and so Tintin's debut in "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" was a breathless thriller set in a Russia full of boorish apparatchiks and "poor idiots who still believe in a 'Red Paradise.' "
Hergé would later regret those depictions, as well as less-than-flattering portrayals of Africans and Jews in subsequent tales. But his hero's first outing was a hit, and Hergé went on to rework the formula in 23 more adventures over the next 50 years, in books that have been translated into dozens of languages.
His knickerbockers-clad protagonist gets whisked around the world, from China to Egypt to Australia, and even into outer space to foil the nefarious schemes of crooks, coup plotters and master criminals. Threats and bribes do not deter him; neither do a pair of bumbling, bushy-mustached cops called Thomson and Thompson.
In every adventure, Tintin lands in hot water -- "This time I'm done for!" is a frequent refrain -- but a combination of quick thinking, luck and help from Snowy enables him to outfox his enemies. He manages to evade even his editors, for, despite being a reporter, he is only ever once shown writing anything.
Children devour the exciting plots and the hair-raising escapes aboard planes, trains and automobiles (speedboats too). Their parents are charmed by the good humor and the artwork, which, though seemingly simple, is a model of lucidity and detail. Hergé's mastery of the so-called ligne claire style, or "clear line," influenced numerous European cartoonists after him.
"When I was a young child, I read 'Tintin' and loved it. When I was older, I continued to read it. And now I am much older, and I continue to enjoy them," said Benoit Peeters, a Belgian cartoonist who knew Hergé well. "This is very rare. You have some comics for children, others for adults. This is for everyone. You can say 'Peanuts' by Charles Schulz has the same quality. Not many have."
Like "Peanuts," the Tintin books are unremittingly wholesome. Modest to a fault, Tintin himself is almost never less than a paragon of old-fashioned virtue, which is unsurprising, given that Hergé modeled him on a previous creation named Totor, a Boy Scout leader. "Tintin is above reproach. He is trying to save the widows and orphans," Javeau said.
Hergé's own strong moralizing impulse meant that his stories contained hardly a hint of sex or alcohol -- except, in the latter case, as a comically corrupting influence. Toward the end of his life, Hergé eliminated depictions of smoking from his cartoons as well, Javeau said.
But there was a darker side to the conservative rectitude. During World War II, Hergé agreed to publish his Tintin strips in the newspaper Le Soir, or the Evening, a mouthpiece for Nazi occupying forces that spewed pernicious anti-Jewish propaganda. His defenders contend that Hergé was simply being politically naive, but a recent authorized biography suggests that, though not a Nazi, Hergé was not unaware of what Le Soir stood for.
Traces of anti-Semitic stereotypes crop up in some Tintin books but were excised from later editions. Even more distasteful, at least to modern eyes, is Tintin's adventure in what was then the Belgian Congo, in which the Africans are rendered with ludicrously large red lips and portrayed as little more than savages in need of civilization and a proper work ethic.
Americans did not fare too well under Hergé's hand either, which could help explain why Tintin never caught on in the U.S. In "Tintin in America," he jousts with "Red Indians," rapacious oil barons and a gaggle of Chicago mobsters, including Al Capone, the only real-life villain ever to be featured in a Tintin story.
American comics fans were already following the exploits of Dick Tracy and Superman by the time the indefatigable, squeaky-clean Tintin was making it big across the Atlantic.
"America has its own traditions, very rich, through comic strips or comic books with superheroes," Peeters said. " 'Tintin' is in a way a graphic novel, but the style of the books was very far from American standards. . . . The graphic style is different. There is no equivalent. You can find some people in the United States interested in that type of comics, but not a large audience."
Tintin's relative obscurity in the U.S. and his huge reputation in Europe will pose a double challenge to Spielberg and his "Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," which stars two British actors, Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig, as Tintin and the villain, respectively.
Many American viewers will be encountering Tintin for the first time, while many Europeans are extremely protective of a hero they consider their own and suspicious of how an American filmmaker might tamper with the image of him they have built up.
A taste of that defensiveness came in January after a well-known British columnist, who is gay, suggested that Tintin might be similarly inclined. After all, the world depicted in the books is almost exclusively male, Tintin is devoted to his fluffy white terrier, and he eventually moves in with his friend, the middle-aged sailor Captain Haddock.
"What debate can there be when the evidence is so overwhelmingly one-way?" columnist Matthew Parris asked in the Times of London.
That Tintin might be gay is not a new idea, though the books themselves determinedly steer clear of sex or romance of any sort. "Perhaps there was a horizontal relationship between Tintin and Captain Haddock, but you never see it," Javeau said.
Still, Parris' column was met with cries of Gallic horror in France, where the newspaper Le Figaro complained in a headline: "They have walked on Tintin."
Although some alterations to the original Tintin will probably be inevitable in the film, Hergé himself apparently approved of a Spielberg-produced movie version of his famous creation. Whatever ambivalent attitudes seem to mark "Tintin in America," the artist dreamed of success in the U.S. and once contacted Walt Disney about working together, to no avail, Peeters said.
Spielberg bought the movie rights not long before Hergé's death in 1983.
"Hergé was very enthusiastic. He liked the first films of Spielberg," Peeters recalled. "Hergé said, 'Yes, I think this guy can make this film. Of course, it will not be my Tintin, but it can be a great Tintin.' And I think it was one of the last happy moments in Hergé's life."
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Is Peter Jackson dying?
Quote from: Ghostboy on April 17, 2009, 01:25:49 PM
Is Peter Jackson dying?
Hahah right? I miss pudgy Peter Jackson.
I'm not sure I've ever even heard of Empire Magazine before, but I'm damn sure buying a copy.
they're the one with that top 500 greatest movie list that made internet puke.
Apparently none of the stores near me care for it either, because I can't find a copy of the damn thing anywhere.
Anyway, here's a few bullet points pulled out of the article by tintinmovie.org:
* The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn will cover parts of the Crab withe Golden Claw and Secret of the Unicorn.
* Red Rackham's Treasure will be the second film ...
* ... and is currently in pre-production and has financing.
* A third film is not planned at the moment
* An additional week's shooting will happen in New Zealand in June
* In the original 20 minute test reel, Jackson played all the parts
* The film will "have this film noir kind of look. Something very atmospheric" - Spielberg
My take on this:
I'm intrigued by the idea that the movie will be a combination of different books, but I don't like the idea of splitting up Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure. They're fundamentally a single story, and if the two films are being spread out between them, that means they're passing up the possibility to do one of the many other stories that are begging to be adapted (the Moon books, specifically).
I'm saddened but not surprised that the third movie is officially not part of the plan at the moment. I'm sure it will all depend on whether these two can somehow find an audience. Edgar Wright has already shot down an IMDb-started rumor that he was on tap to direct the third film.
Finally, I'm a little perplexed by the phrase "film noir kind of look". That's kind of the exact opposite of the visual style of the Tintin books. It's all moot until we see some footage (20 minute test reel!!!!), but something about that just doesn't sound right.
Scans:
page one (http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/polkablues/tintin1w.jpg)
page two (http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/polkablues/tintin2.jpg)
page three (http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/polkablues/tintin3.jpg)
page four (http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/polkablues/tintin4.jpg)
page five (http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/polkablues/tintin5.jpg)
Spielberg's 'Tintin' sets a date
'Adventures' to hit theaters in December 2011
Source: Variety
Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" will hit U.S. theaters in December 2011 -- long after bowing internationally.
Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment unveiled plans to release the motion capture pic Stateside on Dec. 23, 2011. But in an unusual move, film will launch internationally in late October and early November 2011, with Sony Pictures Releasing Intl. handling Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and India, and Paramount distributing the film in Asia, Australia, the U.K. and all other English-speaking territories.
The two studios also revealed that they will release "Tintin" in 3-D, a move that had been mulled for several months. Insiders said the dailies convinced them that 3-D would offer the best rendition.
Film, which began production in late January, is the first of a planned series based on the iconic character created by Georges Remi, better known to the world by his pen name "Herge." The second feature in the series is scheduled to be directed by Peter Jackson.
The decision signals the two studios' belief that the property, which has been translated into 70 languages, shows stronger potential overseas than domestically. Not surprisingly, the film's cast skews international with Brit Jamie Bell starring as the intrepid young reporter. Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook round out the cast.
Spielberg, Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy are producing the pic, which will compete for North American audiences against Warner Bros.' "Happy Feet 2" and Disney/Pixar's "The Bear and the Bow." Nick Rodwell, Stephane Sperry and Ken Kamins are exec producing.
hey polka, don't know if you read the int. of PJ at aicn, there's a very brief mention of tintin.
Quote from: caponeWhile we're cleaning the closet of all project Jackson has a hand in, he did mention that Steven Spielberg had just finished his first cut of TINTIN.
Full interview: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41848
Tintin is Peter Jackson and Spielberg's dream movie
Source: SciFi Wire
We love Steven Spielberg, so when we heard that he wants to adapt Tintin, the beloved Belgian comic strip by Herge, we were intrigued.
Tintin isn't a household name in the U.S., but it's been hugely popular in the rest of the world for 80 years. Basically it's about the adventures of a young Belgian reporter (Jamie Bell) and his faithful fox terrier Milou (that's Snowy in English), 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 may be credited as director, but he's not alone. Peter Jackson is producing the film with him. The film's co-star, Shaun of the Dead's Nick Frost, said that Jackson was always around to put his imprint on the film. That's potential for the best of Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings in the same movie! Add to that the creative minds behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and we're in.
"They co-directed, so Peter was in the studio on iChat every day," Frost said in an exclusive interview over the weekend in London, where he was promoting Pirate Radio. "So we had a laptop with Peter's face on, and he had kind of two, three cameras pointed at the action and pointed at us, too, so we could actually talk to him via some link or hookup. So it was odd. It was quite weird."
Frost plays the film's Inspector Thomson, with his Shaun co-star and frequent collaborator Simon Pegg (Star Trek's Scotty) as Inspector Thompson with a P. Their characters even look alike.
The casting of Frost and Pegg gives us hope that the Tintin movie will have room for grown-up humor. Their frequent partner, Shaun director Edgar Wright, even co-wrote the script. Frost confirmed that Tintin will work on two levels.
"I think it's that Simpsons thing that children will get one thing and adults will get the other," he said
Don't expect Hot Fuzz genre riffs, though. Pegg and Frost said that they deferred to Spielberg and Jackson on Tintin. As uber-fanboys themselves, it's just a dream to be in a movie from not one, but two of the genre's heavyweights.
"Steven Spielberg, I think I'd probably come and clean the kitchen in his house just to hang around him," Frost said. "Peter as well. He was a really big advocate of Hot Fuzz. He really helped us out and hosted screenings and stuff down in New Zealand and was kind enough to let us hang out with him in the house. Just to actually be working with those people is such an eye-opener."
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.
Steven Spielberg on 'Tintin': 'It made me more like a painter than ever before'
Rachel Abramowitz had a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times this week on the angst among Hollywood actors as they watch more major filmmakers embrace performance-capture techniques and animation approaches. Here's a great follow-up as she talks to Steven Spielberg about the making of "Tintin."
Source: Los Angeles Times
Steven Spielberg says there was only one reason to make his new "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" with the cutting-edge performance-capture technology that James Cameron used on "Avatar."
"It was based on my respect for the art of Hergé and wanting to get as close to that art as I could," says the director, referring to Tintin's author-illustrator, who created the international blockbuster graphic novel series (200 million copies in print) starring intrepid cub reporter Tintin, and his irrepressible canine companion, Snowy, as they venture through the pre-WWII world.
"Hergé wrote about fictional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe," Spielberg said. "It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. It just seemed that live action would be too stylized for an audience to relate to. You'd have to have costumes that are a little outrageous when you see actors wearing them. The costumes seem to fit better when the medium chosen is a digital one."
"Tintin" stars Jamie Bell ("King Kong") as the title character, Andy Serkis (Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy) as his buddy Captain Haddock, and Daniel Craig (Bond, James Bond) as the evil Red Rackham. Produced by Peter Jackson, with the animation done by Jackson's Weta Workshop, the film is due in theaters in 2011.
Like Cameron, Spielberg shot the actors on a special performance-capture stage. The performers donned lycra suits, covered in reflective markers, and their every movement was tracked by more than 100 cameras. They also wore a head-rigging with a camera near their jawline that recorded intensely detailed data of their faces -- enough detail to avoid the "dead eye" faces that had an unsettling lack of movement or emotion in many previous motion-capture films. Ultimately, all the camera data was fed into a computer to create a 3-D replica of the actor. The digital document of the actor and the performance is so all-enveloping that the director, in this case Spielberg, can go back and change the "camera" movement and orientation long after the actor has left the set.
For the director of such films as "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List," the new experience was transporting.
"I just adored it," he says. "It made me more like a painter than ever before. I got a chance to do so many jobs that I don't often do as a director. You get to paint with this device that puts you into a virtual world, and allows you to make your shots and block all the actors with a small hand-held device only three times as large as an Xbox game controller."
With that small monitor, Spielberg could look down and watch what the actors were doing -- in real time -- on a screen that showed them in the film universe. Working on the motion-capture stage -- which is called the volume -- Spielberg was routinely dazzled by the liberating artistic value of the new science.
"When Captain Haddock runs across the volume, the cameras capture all the information of his physical and emotional moves," the director said. "So as Andy Serkis runs across the stage, there's Captain Haddock on the monitor, in full anime, running along the streets of Belgium. Not only are the actors represented in real time, they enter into a three-dimensional world."
So though Jamie Bell will be digitally made to look exactly like Hergé's classic renderings of Tintin, "it will be Jamie Bell's complete physical and emotional performance," Spielberg said. He added: "If Tintin makes you feel something, it's Jamie Bell's soul you're sensing."
Quote from: MacGuffin on February 19, 2010, 11:34:43 AM
"If Tintin makes you feel something, it's Jamie Bell's soul you're sensing."
Creepy!
they've been calling it emotion capture for a long time.
something doesn't feel right about it..
I feel like Spielberg always utilizes new technology in the most affecting ways, thinking back to ET, Jurassic Park, AI, even Minority Report. His enthusiasm makes me very excited.
I'm in a zen place with this movie right now. I refuse to resume getting excited about it until I see some actual footage.
i got your footage righ' he' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBqREzP-24c&feature=related)!
he stold my heart.
This must be the weirdest movie to act in ever.
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HAHAHA. Love how they switch camera operator/dog walker/RPG roles.
Tintin teaser poster just came out. Not very exciting but a teaser nonetheless...
http://spielbergnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/spielbergs-tintin-teaser-poster.html
that's not even worth clicking on. or posting about.
Quote from: picolas on August 16, 2010, 02:14:55 PM
that's not even worth clicking on. or posting about.
False!
EDIT: Assuming this is actually official promotional material, that is. If it turns out to be something that some bored fan (I swear it wasn't me) threw together, it means nothing. If it's really real, though, it tells us that, at least at this early stage, they're willing to let the source material sell the film, which excites me.
Polka! Hope (http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=29355) is on the way!
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Thank you for posting that.
It looks a little... weirder than I anticipated. I was thinking it was going to lean a little further towards the cartoon look, rather than making them look like oddly deformed real people. Captain Haddock especially looks a tad grotesque in his picture. I'll wait until I see it motion, though. My enthusiasm is undampened!
It's all recent Zemeckisy. Can't really tell much for a few stills, but going by those it doesn't look like anything special. Almost gimmicky.
Tepidly disappointed. I'm going to allow myself to be influenced by Polka's unwavering optimism though, and hope that the more we see the better I'll feel.
Anyone able to upload pdfs of those Empire pages?
i agree with stefen.
even the dog doesn't look right. the cute design on 2D translates to a lifeless creature whose eyes are too close together.
tintin's face also seems less detailed than what they've done to the captain, which i'm sure is intended, but it really makes me wonder why go to the effort of casting Jamie Bell at all -- any weirdo could've done it (nevermind i'm sure it was a scheduling thing and bell is the modern day mickey rooney).
I found a few more scans from the Empire magazine feature. Not the highest quality, but I'm just happy to be getting actual information finally.
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those look better.
Still looks Zemeckisy.
Judging by the screens, could be cool when guns are drawn and John Williams swells, but still doesn't exude groundbreaking. Maybe story, since this is a GREAT one, can deliver this film, but a gimmick from 7 years ago won't.
I want to be AMAZED. Like when I was 12. When the T-Rex was breaking out of its pen and nobody was there to stop it, that was a cinematic experience.
All right, I haven't gotten my hands on the actual magazine yet, but I managed to come across shitty scans of three pages from the middle of the article. Whether or not anyone besides myself actually has an interest in reading them, I'm transcribing them anyway.
Quote... Bell. "I think, bizarrely, he's looking for stability in something that's very shaky. Also, Haddock is looking for the same thing. Tintin is emotionally unavailable to some degree. So they are both searching for these primal things from each other."
Haddock is played by Andy Serkis, the Laurence Olivier of performance capture. Given his groundbreaking PC work as Gollum and King Kong, it would seem obvious that Serkis was a Jackson shoo-in. Not so. It was Spielberg's idea to have Serkis bellow the Captain's trademark esoteric outbursts, such as "Blistering barnacles!" and "Thundering typhoons!"
"Andy understands how to express himself through every pore," says Spielberg. "He is brilliant at extending himself just to the point of burlesque and farce, but never crossing that line. He had the courage to take Captain Haddock as far as we felt he should be taken."
With Quint in Jaws, Spielberg is the creator of cinema's greatest seadog -- "Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged wimmin" -- yet Haddock presents a whole different challenge: he is an unapologetic alcoholic paired with a young man at the centre of a Hollywood tentpole release.
"I think that audiences today are certainly mindful enough to know that Captain Haddock is not anyone's example of how to walk a straight line," says Spielberg. "His affair with the bottle never embraces alcoholism as a comic tool, but was certainly a 19th century and 20th century value to tell stories about the town drunk. In this case, it ends up with the town drunk finally coming to his senses."
Beat.
"I'm not sure he'll stay sensible after the film."
GIANT STUDIOS, The capital of performance capture, 2009
The very same Captain Haddock is running in a serpentine shape across a palatial Arabian hall on a huge monitor, as Andy Serkis does the very same around a huge, white space. It is February 24, 2009, and Steven Spielberg is just out of a lunchtime editorial meeting about Empire's 20th Birthday issue and back in 'The Volume'. This is the crucible of performance capture, the much-misunderstood process of using Tron-like bodysuits and headgear to harness the precise nuances of a performance as the basis for 3D animation. Or that thing what Avatar did.
Tintin shifted from live action to performance capture under Jackson's auspices and seems to be the key to the entire project. Perhaps the biggest factor in Spielberg's prevarication over Tintin were the limitations of live action to do justice to Herge's vision. The notion of an actor sporting Tintin's gravity-defying quiff or his baggy plus fours is too close to Robert Altman's Popeye for anyone's tastes.
"With live action you're going to have actors pretending to be Captain Haddock and Tintin," says Jackson. "You'd be casting people to look like them. It's not really going to feel like the Tintin Herge drew. It's going to be somewhat different. With CGI we can bring Herge's world to life, keep the stylised, caricatured faces, keep everything looking like Herge's artwork, but make it photo-real."
There are swarms of technicians buzzing around -- think the end of Close Encounters without the flares -- but there is no doubt it is the actors who are injecting the humanity into Herge. Performance capture means Simon Pegg and Nick Frost can play identikit idiots Thompson and Thomson ("When people first heard that bit of casting they thought that we'd gone barking mad," says Jackson) with all the chemistry and comedic talent the pair bring. "The Thompson Twins can't be clones of each other," says Spielberg. "Nick and Simon provided all the differences we needed to be foils for each other. They have a wonderful moment in the movie where they start to have an argument about whose sidekick is whose."
Equally importantly, Herge's artwork is also given due care and respect. All around The Volume, panels from Tintin are on hand for instant inspiration. While Spielberg will be homaging specific images ("If you look at some of the frame grabs in the Sahara desert, they are right out of The Crab With The Golden Claws"), he has filtered the author through a lens darkly. "The first part of the film, which is the most mysterious part, certainly owes much to not only film noir but the whole German Brechtian theatre -- some of our night scenes and our action scenes are very contrasty. But at the same time, the movie is a hell of an adventure."
Unlike other Spielberg adventures, Tintin has not been at the mercy of a mechanical star that didn't work, Harrison Ford's turista, a hurricane on set or anything other than the director's muse. Performance capture has allowed Spielberg a measure of directorial control he has never had before, both over his visuals, and his cast. "You're not watching a monitor miles away, you're right in The Volume,' he says. Spielberg operates the virtual camera himself with what looks like a souped-up Xbox controller.
"I saw somebody who is used to traditional filmmaking and who obviously has a intuitive grasp of cinema just take control of motion capture and own it," says Jackson. "It's been great watching Steven make this film. We're finally getting him into the 21st century."
LOS ANGELES, The capital of movies, 1994
Back in the 20th century, Steven Spielberg first met Peter Jackson at the kind of meet-and-greet that makes Hollywood go round. Jackson's much-fancied Heavenly Creatures was getting good buzz Stateside, and the director flew the 6,714.23 miles from Wellington to Los Angeles for what Jackson describes as a "quick, half-an-hour, get-to-know-you meeting." Their next was under slightly different circumstances -- in front of 1 billion people.
"I handed Peter the Academy Award for Best Picture for The Return of the King," remembers Spielberg. "Then we went backstage together for Peter to do the press room. I spent a long time talking to Fran (Walsh, Jackson's wife and co-collaborator), getting to know her."
The friendship started to bond when, impressed with Weta's work on Gollum, Spielberg contacted Jackson about the possibility of creating a CG Snowy for a live-action Tintin. If he wanted proof of what a big fan Jackson was, the clincher came when, in the comfort of Amblin's swish screening room, Spielberg sat down to watch Weta's test of Snowy.
"Peter had put on Captain Haddock's costume and a big beard and performed with the digital Snowy in the test. Peter's a good actor. I love that he does stints in his own movies. I don't have the courage to do that. I'm not a very good actor. I'm not anywhere near as good as Peter. I would just humiliate myself and my fellow cast-mates. So I don't go there."
"I've got a horrible premonition that that will end up on a DVD somewhere," rues Jackson.
It would be glib to say the classicism and derring-do of Spielberg (say, Raiders) plus the nutty energy and absurdity of Jackson (Braindead) equals Herge's Tintin. After all, Spielberg's back catalogue is filled with inventive pratfalls, just as The Lord of the Rings sings with traditional heroism. Something feels right about the two titans coming together on Tintin, a collaboration built on similar backgrounds and shared sensibilities. Both men made precocious home movies as kids, fired up by Forrest J. Ackerman. Both worshipped Harryhausen, Hitchcock and Connery's Bond. Both are technical virtuosos with an underrated skill with actors. Both (like Herge) helped legitimise the unfashionable genres they mastered. Now both stand as the public perception of their national cinemas.
Collaboration with a big-name director is obviously nothing new for Spielberg. His partnership with George Lucas is the stuff of movie lore ("George and I have the completely daft arguments that kick up some dirt, but somehow we wind up agreeing with each other"), but that was a friendship for at least ten years before it became a professional partnership. This was two Oscar-winners getting to know each other in the hothouse of making a movie.
"Peter and I instantly had a collaboration," offers Spielberg. "We just literally worked together without ever giving a thought that I was collaborating as a director with another director. I can't separate the creative sharing on Tintin. I simply don't remember who had the idea that wound up in The Volume."
"There is no ego," is Jackson's take. "I don't care if my ideas are taken on board or not, and Steven is the same. The problems with collaboration, in my experience, only occur when one of the parties is insecure or has an ego. That's what creates the problem, and that's not really true of Steven or me."
After Spielberg had decided on performance capture as an MO, he proposed a triptych of Tintins, to be directed by Jackson, Robert Zemeckis and himself (Zemeckis dropped out after signing an exclusive deal with Disney). As a co-author, Jackson spent the first week in The Volume bedding in the new technology. The rest of the time he would appear over iChat -- "It would be five or six in the morning for him," ...
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Those two names at the top sure don't mean what they used to.
Sadly, no, but the three names toward the bottom should be encouraging.
Still, none of this means shit until we get a trailer.
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ay yo polka: first teaser. (http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=31007)
man that punch was weak.
and the way he jumped through the doorway was awkward too.
and americans are still saying "tin who?"
Looks pretty awesome though
Except for the last shot. It's really too bad they went for that creepy uncanny valley look.
Sure, I'd watch that.
Watching in low res at work, but that early shot of him walking down the street looks almost just like the book. Much of the rest is pretty naff, but at least I have time to temper my expectations before this comes out. Still excited.
International Trailer here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTnCE_SaU38)
Can't really see how that's different from the teaser..
Oh except that international audiences are like "yay le tintin!"
The Secret Of The Unicorn Full Movie Trailer here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEj3UsAl0K8)
It looks great. :yabbse-thumbup:
Agreed.
I hope polka's happy.
less awkward version of the entire adventure here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prDK-s5KSZE&)!
the camerawork (by which i mean the way it looks handheld but at the same time carefully composed, because handheld requires hands) could be this movie's grace. i'm in if it's pastel-y and shiny, and it looks like it's going to be that. stopped watching the trailer at half because i didn't wanted more shots ruined by it, a general good sign.
Quote from: The Perineum Falcon on July 11, 2011, 03:52:18 PM
Agreed.
I hope polka's happy.
I am. I wasn't entirely sold on the teaser trailer, too dark and mysterious and not at all Tintiney, but I'm convinced now. My high expectations were not in vain.
UK Trailer here. (http://movies.uk.msn.com/features/the-adventures-of-tintin-exclusive-trailer)
Empire's review. (http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=135271) Very excited again :yabbse-grin:
Quote from: Sleepless on October 13, 2011, 11:34:09 AM
Empire's review. (http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=135271) Very excited again :yabbse-grin:
yes even though most of the commenters seem to cast aspersions on that dude's ability to review a film, i think what he's described is enough to stay positive. it sounds like fun, and that's what the movie needs to be if they're gonna sell it to the american public and have a chance of a franchise. not expecting much else really.. kinda over mo-cap at the mo.
That review is something else. It's like an Englishman tried Ritalin for the first time then started writing in Oxford French.
Handicapped review aside, I really want to see this. Everything I've seen of it has been awesome. It's one of my most anticipated movies for the holiday/awards season. Spielberg and Jackson have been terrible lately. I want to see them join forces and beat the shit out of everyone else.
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Spielberg you sonofabitch!
Fan made opening credits:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/this-unofficial-tintin-openingcredits-sequence-sho,63539/
they're actually pretty good.
Quote from: Fernando on October 17, 2011, 01:51:32 PM
Fan made opening credits:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/this-unofficial-tintin-openingcredits-sequence-sho,63539/
they're actually pretty good.
So. Many. References.
That was awesome.
Here's the latest US trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3w_ICK4us (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3w_ICK4us)
This definitely shows the most action of any of the trailers. And say whatever bad things you will about mo-cap (I'm sure I've already said them all myself), but this movie is looking gorgeous. It's going to be stunning on a big IMAX screen.
Quote from: polkablues? on October 18, 2011, 10:09:02 PM
Here's the latest US trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3w_ICK4us (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3w_ICK4us)
This definitely shows the most action of any of the trailers. And say whatever bad things you will about mo-cap (I'm sure I've already said them all myself), but this movie is looking gorgeous. It's going to be stunning on a big IMAX screen.
yes my god that looks amazing.
only weird thing is i just kept staring at their eyes and noticing they never blink. even cartoons usually get this right, blinks usually happened in classic simpsons when characters turn their head or just appeared naturally.. here i saw none and it made me very self conscious.. now i'm having a panic attack and overblinking like that bit at the end of Gondry's Let Forever Be (http://youtu.be/s5FyfQDO5g0#t=3m26s) video.
also there was a nice Last Crusade reference when the Capt was next to Tint.
I could have done without the "Two Greatest Storytellers of our time" titlecard but otherwise looks great.
Quote from: ©brad on October 19, 2011, 10:29:56 AM
I could have done without the "Two Greatest Storytellers of our time" titlecard but otherwise looks great.
Yeah I LOLd at that.
Maybe they meant moneymakers.
Quote from: polkablues? on October 18, 2011, 10:09:02 PM
Quote from: Fernando on October 17, 2011, 01:51:32 PM
Fan made opening credits:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/this-unofficial-tintin-openingcredits-sequence-sho,63539/
they're actually pretty good.
So. Many. References.
That was awesome.
well, apparently they just paid off...
Guy who made those unofficial Tintin credits gets a job working for Steven SpielbergLast week on Great Job, Internet!, we drew your attention to a fan-made Flash animation title sequence for Steven Spielberg's upcoming adaptation of Herge's The Adventures Of Tintin. Today comes word that that video, from James Curran of SlimJim Studios, was apparently so impressive that it got the animator an invite to the première of Tintin from Spielberg himself and, as if that wasn't enough, Spielberg even offered Curran a job on one of his upcoming films. The news came via a tweet from Tintin co-writer Edgar Wright, who didn't share any more details beyond that. Anyway, the only takeaway from Curran's story is that posting speculative work on the Internet in the hopes of getting a dream job offer from a Hollywood titan always works out in the end. So keep it up, entire YouTube community.
haha, i came here to post that. Keep it up entire Youtube community!
For some reason this is already playing in Oslo. Saw it yesterday in 3D and loved it. First time since Coraline I've really enjoyed the 3D.
I'm glad Spielberg has found a place to vent his adventurous spirit, where George isn't breaking ideas so badly there's no self-respect left in them and anyone would say "fuck it, nuke the fridge." (Or maybe he's nuking them all the time in Tintin, but since it's animated it fits the universe better.)
I've never read the comics, so can't really comment on the faithfulness to the material, but there are some interesting tonal oddities I can imagine being attempts at capturing their spirit.
Set pieces are extraordinary, the centerpiece being a five-minute (at least) one-take that gives some of the best sense-of-location in an action sequence I've seen in a long time.
I'm almost completely sold on mo-cap. Faces look great now (though it was a bit distracting recognizing Andy Serkis' digital mouth), but there's something really weird about the hands. They never seem to be gripping anything properly, and when all other movement seems incredibly human, everyone just seems to have retarded hands.
Pace is really fast – except when it really isn't and cuts away to a completely unexpectedly long digression, which works because it's fresh, weird and wonderful.
Both score and visuals have plenty of nods to Indy.
tl;dr: retard-hands but great set-pices.
Quote from: Just Withnail on October 31, 2011, 05:25:50 PM
retard-hands but great set-pices.
That's the headline of my eHarmony profile.
This is already out in the UK. My parents and sister saw it last week in IMAX 3D. They really, really liked it.
Why did this open so much earlier in Europe than in the US?
Quote from: Ravi on November 04, 2011, 05:34:55 PM
Why did this open so much earlier in Europe than in the US?
Spielberg's 'Tintin' off to a solid start at European box officeSource:Los Angeles Times
"The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" doesn't open in U.S. theaters for nearly two months, but the Steven Spielberg-directed film already has the makings of a hit overseas.
This weekend, the animated 3-D film opened in 19 foreign markets and collected $55.8 million, according to an estimate from international distributors Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures.
The studios decided to launch the Peter Jackson-produced film so far ahead of its U.S. debut on Dec. 21 in part to boost ticket sales in Europe, where the 82-year-old Belgian comic book series is a beloved part of the cultural history. If the film is successful abroad, the studios are hopeful that it will fare well domestically, where the cartoon character is foreign to most moviegoers.
This weekend, the film about a young reporter seeking hidden treasure was No. 1 in 17 of the 19 markets in which it opened. The movie had the strongest debut in France, where it grossed $21.5 million, marking the second biggest debut of the year behind the eighth and final "Harry Potter" film. It also did solid business in Britain, Spain and "Tintin's" native Belgium, where the movie grossed $2.1 million.
Despite its respectable start abroad, the movie still has a long way to go before it can be considered a success. The picture cost its financial backers between $150 million and $175 million after tax credits, according to people close to the production. The studios will also spend more than $100 million to market and release the movie worldwide, and about 30% of "Tintin" revenue will go directly to Spielberg and Jackson.
it's kind of obvious why they are releasing it in countries that have actually heard of Tintin before they release it in their riskiest market.
they're going to make a killing on this. releasing it in countries that are salivating at the mouf to see it will generate very good global word of mouth. they are recreating the phenomenon that has already existed for generations, that Tintin is loved around the world, but that americans never noticed because at best it would only make them buy the comics for their kids. this way they will think "hey the whole world loves this movie.. which must be some kind of new craze.. lets watch it!"
also the risk of bootlegging is minimal because even if a good 2D version was released, avatar and especially tim burtons biggest piece of shit proved audiences will pay a pretty penny to watch something in 3D if it has enough hype. and that is what this very smart release schedule is going to generate.
if it were to open in the US first, or even at the same time as everywhere else, it would overwhelmingly skew the figures by showing a disappointing return domestically and then treating the international success as an afterthought. isn't that what happened with Knight and Day? everyone acted like it flopped and then it made like 200 million internationally.. who knows why, something to do with scientology i'm sure, but you flip the perspective and the movie is a huge hit that the US just didn't get onboard with.
also it's kinda typically american to need an explanation for why a film was not released there FIRST, just as a matter of principle.
A few notes on this:
- Visually, it's amazing. The best motion capture animation I've ever seen, which also works great in 3D.
- Narrative wise, it gets kind of boring at a certain point, and it ends up feeling overlong, also because of...
- The action sequences, which are very Peter Jackson-esque, in the sense that they usually start great, but then go on and on and on, in endless battles/chases/etc...
- The tone is more childish than the books.
- Spielberg takes his obsession with reflections (in mirrors, water, lenses...) to a whole new level here.
In the end, it's a somewhat entertaining, great to look at but ultimately forgetable movie.
Quote from: Pubrick on November 06, 2011, 05:15:03 PM
also it's kinda typically american to need an explanation for why a film was not released there FIRST, just as a matter of principle.
AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!
I really enjoyed this, it felt like the Indiana Jones movie Spielberg wanted to make. The tone is a little strange, as it is very childlike in mood but very adult things happen. I was at a matinee screening filled with kids and parents and the biggest gasp of the film came when Tintin brandished a gun in the beginning of the film (mostly from the parents, kids ate it up). The action scenes are inspired and memorable though, with the aforementioned "long take" chase scene taking the cake. I know it's a mo-cap film so a long take sequence isn't really that impressive, but it was a well imagined chase nonetheless.
Serkis steals the show, again.
the most fun i've had at the movies all year. the action/adventure is incessant and thrilling, and spielberg finally goes for pure kinetic momentum and showmanship, and it pays off. a delightful cinematic confection that offers nothing more than showy thrills, and as long as you don't expect more than that it's a lot of fucking fun.
samsong did you see it in 3D or peasant?
Also were you sambong our regular samsong during the screening.
sambong is no more. and i saw it in 3d.
Fingers crossed I'll be seeing this in real IMAX next weekend with my folks. I've tempered my expectations over the past four years, but I'm still psyched for it. A couple years ago I was with a friend when he was getting a tattoo, and I came very close to getting a Tintin tattoo on impulse. Then I looked at the example books of the guy's other tattoos and thought better of it. If I had wanted a flaming Stratocaster with bat wings, he would have been my man, though.
So I've seen this twice now. I have a handful of reservations, but overall it's as good as I could have reasonably hoped it to be.
I never thought I would say this, but motion capture has officially been validated as a legitimate cinematic tool.
Quote from: polkablues on January 04, 2012, 04:01:03 PM
So I've seen this twice now. I have a handful of reservations, but overall it's as good as I could have reasonably hoped it to be.
word. it's not that good, but it's definitely awesome. i find myself perpetually in the mood for grandiose, candy-colored hollywood escapism and this certainly delivers that.
I liked how it didn't try to modernize Tintin in an awkward way, no snarky comebacks or pop-culture references, and it didn't kiddify the whole thing. When the characters are in peril, they're in real peril. It's apparent that Spielberg and Jackson actually respect Tintin for what it is, and were willing to fight to keep it that way.
Quote from: samsong on January 04, 2012, 04:10:27 PM
it's not that good, but it's definitely awesome.
^ Marquee?
Glad to hear what Polka has said about this. All sounds good and I'm definitely excited to see this. Did you see it in IMAX, 3D or both? Did it add anything to the experience. I really don't care to see it (or anything else) in 3D at all anymore because as good as Hugo was, I really didn't feel the 3D added anything of worth.
I saw it in IMAX 3D. The 3D was good, as far as 3D goes, but the movie certainly doesn't need it. Just see it on the nicest 2D screen you can find and you're good.