Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson Bring Tintin Adventures to the Big Screen

Steven Spielberg, whose characters range from Indiana Jones to Private Ryan, has dream-teamed with Peter Jackson, who brought the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy to the screen (and will return to Middle Earth as producer of two films of The Hobbit), to lens three adventures of Tintin, the most famous comic book character most Americans have never heard of.

Tintin is about to become as big a celebrity in the US, as he is in many other countries, since these two Hollywood legends are throwing amazing technology (and even more amazing sums of money) into a motion-capture trilogy for which the technology of the trans-Pacific collaboration itself is as complex as that of the film. It's quite a show for Tintin, a rather bland kid reporter, who has never changed his distinctive quiff coiffure, although in his last book, he covered it with a motorcycle helmet decorated with a peace symbol.

Tintin (first name?last name? no one knows) was "born" in 1929 in Belgium in the pages of a conservative Roman Catholic magazine, created by Hergé, penname of Georges Remi (1907-1983), in response to his priest-editor's request for a good role model for children. Tintin, a reporter of indefinite age, travels from the Soviet Union to the Belgian Congo (as it was then called) to the United States - and those are his first three (of twenty-four) adventures - who does not report much but gets involved in adventures and intrigues that would make Spielberg's Indiana Jones envious.

Spielberg, director of the first film, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (premiering 2011), recently completed a thirty-two day shoot in Los Angeles. Jackson, as producer, joined Spielberg for the first week, then returned to his native New Zealand but maintained a virtual presence with the aid of a high-tech communications system to keep his eyes on the proceedings and to confer with Spielberg throughout.

Although many Tintin fans are concerned about the Hollywooding of Tintin, Spielberg bought the rights to film the stories from Hergé himself. Only now is he making the films, since he feels that technology has at last made the project possible. Jackson teamed up with him out of his lifelong love of Tintin, whose popularity in New Zealand and Australia is much greater than it is in the United States. Jamie Bell, who worked with Jackson on King Kong, will play the role of Tintin. At twenty-three, he is about the appropriate age for Tintin, but some wonder whether he will be right for the adventures to be filmed in coming years.

Check a video of Spielberg and Jackson here. The video is in English, but the site is in French, so click "Voir en entire" under the picture. You can consider the video a test of your knowledge of Tintin's adventures: why do they introduce themselves as "Steven Spielberg with an s" and "Peter Jackson with a p," and what's with those umbrellas and bowler hats?

As a fan (though American) of Tintin, I'll be keeping you up to date on Tintin as he undertakes his greatest adventure ever. Check my ongoing guide to Tintin here.

Check the Internet Movie Database for -
Jamie Bell - Go there.
Peter Jackson - Go there.
Steven Spielberg - Go there.
The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn - Go there.

Check my writing on other films here... and my Tintin blog here.

So, what's with the video? Jackson and Spielberg allude to Hergé 's bowler-topped, umbrella-toting detective duo, Thomson and Thompson (in the original French, Dupond et Dupont). Since they look alike, except for the shape of their mustaches, Thompson typically introduces himself as "Thompson with a p." Now, for extra credit, which musical group named themselves in honor of these bumbling detectives? (Stay tuned.)