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!

At Comic-Con, No Tintin Mania

At Comic-Con, No Tintin Mania

by Richard Martin,

Today is the first day of Comic-Con, the huge San Diego geekfest that celebrates superheroes, starship troopers, and the fanboys who love them. And while this is not a golden age for comics themselves, never has the comics world had more to celebrate, commercially.


"Superheroes saved Hollywood this summer, boosting box office to record heights and funneling $1 billion and counting into studio coffers," notes Underwire blogger Hugh Hart. With Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, and Hellboy II finding box office gold, and with The Dark Knight becoming the rare crossover film that earns comics freaks' love plus critical respect, Summer '08 looks like the apotheosis of Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee and Batman creator Bob Kane at the cineplex.

Hart runs down a list of comics-based movies in production, including the next X-Men saga, the noir cult favorite Watchmen, Will Eisner's revered Spirit, and so on. But he misses what is likely to be the biggest comics movie of all time, and one that involves neither caped superheroes nor grotesquely made-up arch-villains. I'm referring, of course, to Tintin.

The first full-length feature film about the intrepid boy reporter and his fluffy white sidekick Snowy has been in development for years and has the biggest of Big Hollywood Names behind it: Steven Speilberg is directing and Lord of the Rings helmsman Peter Jackson is producing. A trilogy is said to be in the works, with the first installment to appear next summer.

With its bias toward caped crusaders and cutting-edge weaponry, Comic-Con is not a hotbed of Tintin love, either: comics authority Luke Y. Thompson, writing on Deadline Hollywood Daily, doesn't mention Tintin in his convention preview.

While easy to understand, the relatively unexcited response ignores that fact that The Adventures of Tintin, created in the 1920s by Belgian artist Hergé, is almost certainly the biggest-selling and most beloved comic book (or "graphic novel," to use the phrase de jour) of all time. Tintin doesn't have magical powers, his escapades tend to happen in far-off pre-video-game times, and the special effects in the Spielberg film, while sure to be impressive and delightful, will not rival those of Iron Man and The Dark Knight for explosive power or violence.

But for readers like me, Tintin was an introduction to the world's more exotic locales and cultures. Tintin outwitted evildoers in Eastern Europe (King Ottokar's Sceptre), Shanghai between the wars (The Blue Lotus), and Tibet (Tintin in Tibet). He even made it to the former Belgian colony, the Congo, in a painfully racist depiction of Africa that is often dropped from later collections. Famous for his devotion to historic realism, Hergé created intricate, detailed worlds that contain more authentic life in one panel than a Frank Miller gorefest does in an entire series.

Don't get me wrong; I'm also a fan of Frank Miller, whose masterful Ronin is on the drawing boards for a 2009 or 2010 release. But for comics freaks of a certain age (and their lucky offspring, introduced to Tintin as soon as they can read), the real comic-book movie event will involve a European kid in knickers and an odd hairstyle.

Read more of the article here.

Moffat leaves Tintin.

Stephen Moffat has left the Tintin film series to work on Doctor Who.

Moffat has finished a script for the first Tintin movie. There were some reports of a rift with the Tintin film producers; but he could not turn down the chance to work as series producer for Doctor Who.

Black Island in Tintin triology?

Insiders believe that The Black Island could be one of the Tintin films, reports the Scottish Daily Record.

Scot Steven Moffat - who will take over as showrunner on Doctor Who next year - will write the film scripts, so he may want to use The Black Island.

Spielberg said no storyline decisions had been made.

Eric Stoltz cast for Tintin movies?

The Internet and Movie Database have listed Eric Stoltz as a cast member for the 2009 Tintin movie. Surprisingly he is listed as playing Dr Krollspell, which would mean that the first Tintin film will be Flight 714.

Flight 714 is one of the later Tintin adventures, set in the 1960's. It was predicted that the producers would use one of the earlier adventures - such as Secret of The Unicorn or The Crab with The Golden Claws - and presumably set them just after World War II. So, it will be interesting to see how Flight 714 is used.

Flight 714 is often cited as an influence on the television series Lost.

Spielberg's plans for Tintin films

Steven Spielberg has talked about his plans to make three movies based on the Tintin books.

Speaking at the press conference in Cannes for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spielberg said he had never heard of the books until 1981 when a film critic compared the books to Raiders of the Lost Ark.

He said of the books the movies will be based on: "I can't announce today what those books are."

Speaking about the way the films will look, Spielberg said: "They will be animated with actors, like Ray Winstone who played Beowulf...

"That's how we'll be making Tintin."

Spielberg said it was easier nowadays to become known as a film maker than when he first started out.

He said that everyone now had a camcorder and a video camera and sites like YouTube showed films on the global stage.

"If you have something to say... there are outlets for that expression."

He said that "major discoveries" had been made by watching such student films.

Indielondon interview with Andy Serkis

The Cottage - Andy Serkis interview

Interview by Rob Carnevale


ANDY Serkis talks about appearing in horror-comedy The Cottage, getting into character for the role and why he thinks that director Paul Andrew Williams has a very bright future ahead of him.

He also talks about reuniting with Peter Jackson for Tintin and other projects he has coming up, including plans to direct…

Q. What was the biggest challenge with The Cottage?
Andy Serkis: When I first read the script, the thing I loved about it… Paul wrote this five years ago and it was prior to Shaun of the Dead and the modern stream of comedy-horror flicks. I just thought it was brilliantly written and a great character piece. You cared about the characters. It didn’t feel like it was a horror film – it felt like it was a real film with real events happening to real people. So, I think the biggest challenge when we came to shoot it was to keep that as a straight arrow and to allow the comedy to come out of the emotional truth of the relationship of the characters and so on. There’s a difference between reading it and actually pulling that off on screen… and yet appealing to the horror fans.

Q. Did you have long to build a chemistry with Reece?
Andy Serkis: Yeah. That was the thing we worked on the most, the relationship between the brothers, because that was the most important thing to get right and to have that as the backbone of the piece. No matter how extreme things get, it still has that ring of truth about it that backs the characters – even though they’re despicable and what they’re doing isn’t right you still care for their fate.

Q. Are you a big fan of horror films and did you recognise a lot of the nods?
Andy Serkis: Obviously, Paul wrote in those little analogies to Predator and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and you notice them. But they’re lodged very cleverly in the story so that they feel real: they don’t just feel like they’re homage moments. They’re all driven by character. The Farmer, for instance, I find to be quite a tragic character. Although he’s the monster of the movie, there’s still an element of him being this child-like being, whose become this psychologically mashed-up and disfigured animal. I mean, what life has he got? Even with The Farmer, you’re encouraged not to be judgemental in a strange sort of way.

Q. You’ve played your fair share of creatures in the past, so did you ever go on set, put your arm around the actor playing The Farmer and say rather you than me?
Andy Serkis: [Laughs] He found it really hard. Dave is an actor but he’s also a cage fighter and he wasn’t used to the make-up process, sitting in a make-up chair for hours on end. He hated it. But as you say, I’ve done a fair amount of that stuff… when we did Lord of the Rings the transformation sequence from Smeagol to Gollum was a 19-hour make-up job. You have to have a kind of zen button that you press and allow the mind to be focused in a certain way. But I know that Dave was struggling with the hour and a half that he had. He had to drink with a strawer and all that, but you kind of get used to it.

Q. You seem to have a very busy schedule at the moment. How are you finding time management?
Andy Serkis: Well, it’s funny because this year I’ve got stuff coming out but I’ve actually spent the last six months devoting to projects I’m setting up to direct, so I’m working from home a lot. That’s very unusual because I’m away a lot, sometimes working on the other side of the world for long periods of time. So, it’s hard to manage in the sense that I want to be the best dad I can be but it’s almost harder when you have your kids outside the door. Working from home is so, so hard because I want to be present for them and yet there’s so much to do work-wise. That’s the biggest challenge for me.

Q. How are your directing projects coming along?
Andy Serkis: Good. I have a number of projects that I can’t really name specifically because until they actually are underway… one of them is very, very far down the line and we’re supposed to go into pre-production in the next few weeks. We’re just waiting for the final finance to come in but until it does I can’t say this is what I’m doing. But it’s been really, really exciting. It’s the way I’ve been heading for some time now… and some of these things aren’t films, some of them are projects around which films can be made, which has been interesting.

Q. Are you going to be reuniting with Peter Jackson again for Tintin?
Andy Serkis: In fact tomorrow I’m flying out to start on Tintin. Steven Spielberg is directing the first one, and then Peter Jackson is doing the second. The bulk of the shoot starts in September but things got a little bit moved around after the writers’ strike.

Q. Do you feel a special kinship with him?
Andy Serkis: Yeah, I mean at the moment he’s doing The Lovely Bones at the moment, which I think is going to be amazing. But we do seem to be in sync, certainly in terms of collaborating and creating characters and so on. I think we have a similar sense of humour about things, so yeah we do seem to have fused in a particular way.

Q. Were you at all worried when Peter first got back in touch that having played Gollum and King Kong, he might ask you to play Snowy the dog?
Andy Serkis: [laughs] Absolutely, in fact people assume that I am, which is even more disturbing [he’s playing Captain Haddock].

Q. You’ve shot big budget pictures and low budget films, so do you notice many differences?
Andy Serkis: The difference between the big budget films I’ve done is the length of time. King Kong was about a year’s worth of work whereas this was six weeks. You know, you’re away from home on the other side of the world, so you move into a house, the whole family moves there and your kids go to a different school. It’s a different operation. This was going away from home for a few weeks and they could come and visit. But in terms of the day-to-day, you’re still going on to set, you’re getting into character, and you’re going and doing your job, so there’s absolutely no difference. It’s just the structure around it and the length of time. But in terms of budget and money, it doesn’t really manifest itself.

Last year, I did a film called Sugarhouse, which was a very low budget – and by that I mean £200,000, which is nothing. Or Rendition, which was also a low-budget film by a first-time director. But again, those were driven by very passionate, hungry first-time filmmakers and there’s an excitement and thrill that comes along with that which you don’t get on huge budget films. For me, it’s always about the character, the story and the script. Whatever job I’m doing, I don’t really pay attention to the gubbins that goes around it.

Q. Do you get more chance to play around with the characters on a smaller budget film? Are they less set in stone?
Andy Serkis: Well, if you’re talking about something like Lord of the Rings or King Kong that was a fairly collaborative process because I was working with animators and other people that were going to shape the character. It was a very different relationship, and I loved working in that way. On lower budget things you’re still working collaboratively, but the investment and your level of creative importance is higher on something like this.

Q. Having worked with such big-name directors, did you ever find Paul [Andrew Williams] coming to you for any advice?
Andy Serkis: No, not at all. He’s a very accomplished filmmaker and director as well as a great actor’s director. He knows what he wants but is also clever and expert enough to know that if a performance is working, he’ll bow to that. He’s really sound and great fun and provided a great atmosphere for the crew to work in. He respected everybody’s jobs and was a good, natural leader. I think he has a massive future ahead of him. This was going to take place before London To Brighton even happened, so people are going to now judge this in a different way.

But he’s a filmmaker who can go from London To Brighton to this [The Cottage] and when you see his next one, it’ll be different again. People will then really be able to see that he is eclectic and can do it in lots of different arenas. I think we can be very narrow-minded in this country; you see something that someone’s done and immediately want them to do the same thing again – but if they don’t, they’re criticised for not doing the same thing again, but if they do they’re just repeating themselves. Second films are, you know, like ‘difficult second albums’, so it’s a tricky position to be in but I think he’s made a highly accomplished film.

IndieLondon link

Thomas Sangster to play Tintin?

17 year old Englishman Thomas Sangster has been signed up to play Tintin, according to some reports.

Sangster starred as Liam Neeson's stepson in Love actually, and appeared in Nanny McPhee. He is about to start work 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.

It has not been confirmed, but rumours seem to point towards his casting.

Filming on the first story involving Tintin begins in the autumn, with Spielberg directing. Peter Jackson will make the second movie.

Other rumours suggest that James Cameron will direct the third film.

The Technology Behind the Tintin Movie

As you may know, the Tintin movie is not a traditional live action film, but will include CGI:

"Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital is the Oscar winning digital effects studio created by Peter Jackson for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Based in New Zealand that have reportedly already created a 20 minute show reel of how the Tintin movie might look.

Dreamworks is Steven Spielberg’s animation and production company and is probably most famous for the Shrek films. Expect the Tintin movie to be as visual rich as Shrek but with far more of the photorealistic detail found in the Lord of the Rings films."

Personally, I would have preferred a live action film. It could have been like Indiana Jones but with Tintin. Speilberg has said he would lose the essence of the books if it was alive action film, but by using CGI he will be creating a pale imitation of the books rather than creating a Tintin film in a completely different medium.

I'm not a fan of the new CGI films such as Shrek. But, I am still looking forward to how it turns out and I may love it!

Steven Moffat

Steven Moffat is writing the scripts for the new Tintin movie series. He is a Scot, and has worked on Doctor Who and Coupling (creating and writing all episodes in the latter).

He was born in 1961. Other works include the famous UK childrens' programme Press Gang and a variety of other works - some more successful than others!

He is a big Doctor Who fan. His Doctor Who episodes were: "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances"; "The Girl in the Fireplace"; "Blink"; Children in Need "special scene" "Time Crash".

Although he has good source material to work with (!) I'm sure he will do an OK job with the Tintin films.

Steven Spielberg and Tintin

Steven Spielberg procured an option on the rights to the Tinitn characters before Hergé died in 1983. Herge was not too keen on Spielberg's proposed Tintin adaption because Speilberg did not plan to direct!

Dreamworks bought the film rights to the Tintin series in 2002. Spielberg decided that a live action version would not be able to capture the essence of the books, and decided to use motion capture instead, and along with Peter Jackson plans to make a Tintn trilogy....

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog which wil follow the progress of the new Tintin movie!

Steven Spielberg is finally making a Tintin film, and it will be interesting to see how it turns out, and if Tintin becomes even more popular!