Jamie Bell Compares Tintin to Indiana Jones, Talks Motion Capture, and Steven Spielberg

Jamie Bell plays a very important role in the upcoming motion-capture, 3D epic, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. He’s the title character in the adaptation that’s helmed by the legendary Steven Spielberg. We recently spoke with Bell at the press junket for The Eagle and he talked about his love for Tintin but his initial reluctance to do motion capture because he had no idea what the technology entailed. He also spoke about the film’s story and whether or not he thinks it will appeal to American audiences.





Jamie Bell plays a very important role in the upcoming motion-capture, 3D epic, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. He’s the title character in the adaptation that’s helmed by the legendary Steven Spielberg. We recently spoke with Bell at the press junket for The Eagle and he talked about his love for Tintin but his initial reluctance to do motion capture because he had no idea what the technology entailed. He also spoke about the film’s story and whether or not he thinks it will appeal to American audiences.

When Bell was first approached to do Tintin, he was skeptical:

“What is it? That was my first thing initially. What is it? How do you do it? What does it require? How does it work? Does it even work? Let me see some evidence of it working. I watched some of those motion capture films, which were very early and primitive in terms of the technology. All props to Robert Zemeckis for kind of spearheading the industry in saying that this is something we need to take note of.”

On his first experience working with motion capture:

“I knew everything about Tintin. I was already a Tintinophile or Tintinologist. I was very into that so it was literally trying to understand the mechanics of the technology. You want me to stand in a gray room and act as though I’m in a sea plane in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the Sahara desert with nothing around me that informs anything about this character’s journey? Anything about anything in the physical world? That’s great because it just means that I can make it all up!”

On whether or not the story of Tintin will attract American viewers:

“I think anyone who understands and appreciates Indiana Jones, understands Tintin and they don’t even know what it is yet. I feel like it’s not going to be difficult. I think the characters are great because they all have human flaws. The Tintin character is a very driven and ambitious guy. The structure of the story and the adventure is something we all know and love. There’s something at the end and they’ve got to get to it. There’s a very bizarre and quirky and exciting relationship in the center of it between these two guys. And there’s Steven Spielberg at the helm, who does this story incredibly well.”

On Spielberg’s first motion capture experience:

“For Steven, it’s new technology for him. I think before Jurassic Park CGI wasn’t a common word. We didn’t really understand what it meant so he kind of invented CGI. He put it into people’s living rooms and we kind of understood what it meant. In the similar way that James Cameron has kind of made motion capture understandable. Steven Spielberg is such a household name, and so linked to childhood and fantasy for children and dreams, I think he will make motion capture something that we understand and appreciate.”

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is scheduled to hit theaters on December 28, 2011.

Secret of the Unicorn posters revealed

Spielberg's Tintin trailer wows fans

Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated big screen adaptation of the adventures of the comic book hero Tintin is set for release on December 26.

The 3D film's official trailer debuted on the internet on Wednesday and is already wowing fans with its motion capture animation, reported Daily
Mail.

Titled The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, the film is the first in a planned trilogy of motion capture movies based on the books by Georges Remi.

Directed by Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson, the film stars the British actor Jamie Bell as the young reporter.

'Bond' star Daniel Craig stars as the villainous 'Red Rackham', while Andy Serkis is Captain Haddock.

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook also make appearances. The second feature in the series is scheduled to be directed by Jackson, but it is not currently known who will take control of the third

The trailer features the intrepid 'Tintin' as he sets out in search of treasure belonging to his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock.

More than 200 million copies of the Tintin books have been sold worldwide, and the popular series has been translated into 70 languages.

Filming begins on Secret of The Unicorn

Filming has begun on the first Tintin film - an adaption of Secret of The Unicorn.

Steven Spielberg's new Tintin movie will star Jamie Bell as Tintin, replacing Thomas Sangster who withdrew when filming was delayed in 2008.

Bell isbest known for playing Billy Elliot, won the role of the intrepid boy reporter after a lengthy search.

Daniel Craig will appear as pirate Red Rackham who has a minor flashback role in the Secret of the Unicorn book. Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook will also feature. Pegg and Frost will be the Thompsons, whilst Jones will play a chatacter invented for the film.

Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, will produce the Tintin movie and direct it's sequel. A third film is also planned.

The screenplay has been co-written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. Moffat was forced to pull out of the project before the end after he was offered a job as lead writer on BBC series Doctor Who.

Spielberg's film will be made using 3-D 'motion capture' technology. The technique, in which an actor's movements are translated onto a digital model, was used for the character of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and in Beowulf, which starred Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie.

Spileberg 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 honour the distinctive look of the characters and world that Hergé created.

"The idea is that the films will look neither like cartoons nor like computer-generated animation. We're making them look photo-realistic - the fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people - but real Hergé people."

The film is planned to be released in 2011.

Cast overboard in Tintin bust-up?

It is a plot so full of misadventure it could come straight from a Tintin book - and now it may have cost the widely anticipated film trilogy one of its stars.


The Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg project has been delayed by the messy break-up between Universal Pictures and Paramount, which were to co-finance the US$135 million films.

It now seems that Paramount is in negotiations to fully finance the project, but only if Spielberg and Jackson reduce their take.

The uncertainty may have led British actor Thomas Sangster, who had been cast to play the indefatigable Belgian reporter, to withdraw.

Variety magazine has reported that cast members, including Sangster, 18, had been lost because of delays to shooting, which was supposed to start in Los Angeles this month.

Weta Digital in Wellington will do the visual effects, including motion capture technology similar to that used for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.

Variety columnist Anne Thompson said Paramount was negotiating to fully finance the project, but the delays had affected casting.

The only other cast member confirmed in Tintin was Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock. But Variety did not say whether Serkis was still involved. Neither were the claims confirmed or denied by those involved in the project.

A spokesman for Jackson in Wellington declined to comment.

Variety reported that Jackson's cut of The Lovely Bones was screened for Paramount bosses two weeks ago. A small group of select media in London was given a sneak preview of scenes from the movie last month.

The film, based on the novel by Alice Sebold, is due to be released late next year.

Universal deems Tintin movie too expensive - report

Universal Pictures has recoiled at the cost of the 3-D animated movie adaptation of the adventures of Tintin by two of Hollywood's top directors, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The two legendary directors submitted to Universal a 130 million dollar budget to produce a trilogy of films based on the beloved Belgian comic-strip boy reporter.

But Universal refused to green light the project, and production, scheduled to begin in October, is on hold until Spielberg and Jackson find other financing, the Times said.

Paramount -- owner of DreamWorks, where Spielberg has been developing the project -- had agreed to finance half the film and was hoping to partner with Universal, the Times said.

Now, Spielberg will have to ask Paramount to foot the entire bill, at a time when the director had been looking to end his association with the studio, the paper said.

Universal officials winced when they saw the two Hollywood luminaries demanding about 30 percent of the movie's total gross revenues, meaning that "Tintin" would have to rake in some 425 million dollars globally before the studios could break even, according to the newspaper.

Tintin has been a long-time pet project for Spielberg, while Jackson -- the Oscar-winning, New Zealand director of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy -- had already developed a test film which had brought the characters created by Georges Remi, better known by his pen name Herge, to life.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to be Thompson Twins?

Simon Pegg may star in Steven Spielberg's Tintin film with his Hot Fuzz co-star Nick Frost.

The actor told The Sunday Times that the Jaws filmmaker suggested he and Frost play the Thompson Twins when he visited the set of the 3-D motion capture movie.

"Steven's smoking a stogy, cap on head, like he's always been since I was a baby," recalled Pegg. "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..."

It seems a quite bizarre choice as the Thompsons are twins!