Tintin Movie

According to Andy Serkis, interviewed in Indie London, Steven Spielberg will begin shooting the first Tintin Movie (almost certainly The Secret of the Unicorn) in September. With Peter Jackson directing the second ( Red Rackhams Treasure ). Serkis also confirmed that he is to play Captain Haddock.

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. 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].

The Cottage - Andy Serkis interview

Tintin movie director Steven Spielberg has a busy schedule with the latest Indiana Jones film coming out soon, a biopic of Lincoln on the cards and of course, one of the three Tintin films. He is also working on The Trial of the Chicago 7, due to star Sacha Baron Cohen. Problems with scheduling actors and a potential actor’s strike are causing problems for the production. What this means for the Tintin movie is unknown.

Source - Steven Spielberg Delays The Trial of the Chicago 7?

LeTinTinMovie.com is reporting that Kirsten Myburgh has been cast as Tintin but Market Saw 3D is reporting inside information saying Myburgh has not been confirmed. He is just another casting call.

Never heard of Kirsten Myburgh? Its not surprising as, to be brutally honest, he is currently a nobody. His only role on IMDB is in a film called Garden Party where he plays ‘Friend with money’. If he does get the lead part in the Tintin Movie then he will go from nobody to somebody very quickly.

Digging around on Kirsten Myburgh official site I found a photo that might be connected to his potential role as Tintin. The plus-fours and jumper are very Tintin but the hat isn’t. Maybe he couldn’t get his hair into a quiff?

Peter Jackson may drop the idea of directing The Hobbit to concentrate on finishing his current project The Lovely Bones and preparing for Tintin. Meanwhile, Andy Serkis (Gollum in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy) has been talking to Empire Magazine about the Tintin movie. He recently spent a week on the sound stage for Avatar, James Cameron’s latest blockbuster, along with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. Avatar is using Cameron’s Reality Camera System to film in 3-D and is likely to be part of the technology used in the Tintin films.

Its looking likely that Peter Jackson’s Tintin movie will be the first one made. According to the Slashfilm blog Spielberg has got three projects on the go once the new Indiana Jones film is done. They are Tintin, Lincoln and The Trial of the Chicago Seven. It seems that The Trial… will be the first made meaning Spielberg won’t be able to put any time into Tintin under the end of this year.

This make a fair bit of sense. Peter Jackson’s production company is doing the special effects for all three Tintin films and Andy ‘Lord of the Rings’ Serkis has been cast, probably as Captain Haddock. Spielberg has never directed anything that is 100% CGI so with Jackson going first, it he will be able to work out the kinks in the CGI more easily than Spielberg and get the actors used to the process.

Its being heavily rumored but not yet confirmed that Andy Serkis will play Captain Haddock. Serkis made is name playing Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. As Peter Jackson is directing one of the Tintin movies and his production company is doing all the CGI, I’m not surprised that the excellent Andy Serkis is on-board.

The Inveresk Street Ingrate has an excellent suggestion about which book to make as the third film.

Tintin And The Mystery Of The Golden Fleece plus Tintin And The Blue Oranges, the first and second live action Tintin films made in 1960’s seem to be available in Australia. No sign of them having a UK or US release.

Le Tintin Movie, despite its name, is an English language blog about the Tintin Movie.

Crooked Timber has a great post and an excellent discussion in the comments on advice to (American) Librarians about Tintin in America

Picked up from the Crooked Timber post is this page of what Captain Haddock says in the Danish editions of the Tintin books including “Pocket-Mussolini! Mackerel-eater! Carnival pirate! Fatbladder!” .

Dom Joly is mad about Tintin.

A Tintin fire escape on Flickr.

Casting for the Tintin Movie has begun and we can be sure that The Secret of the Unicorn / Red Rackham’s Treasure will be the basis for one of the films at least. They are casting the Bird Brothers, Nestor, Sakharine (one of the people after the model ship), Aristides Silk (the pick pocket) and Red Rackham himself who are all in The Secret of the Unicorn. Mrs Finch (Tintin’s Landlady) and two kidnappers (presumably Allen & Ernie from the cast list) have a seen on page 35 of Secret of the Unicorn. Presumably Mr Crabtree is the market stall owner Tintin buy’s the ship from.

In the Crab With The Golden Claws, Mrs Finch makes an appearance plus there are Lt. Delacourt and Ahmed from the fort in Afghar (page 33). Omar Ben Salaad is the leader of the smugglers. The unnamed seaplane pilot & co-pilot are probably the ones who attack Tintin & Capt Haddock.

Some roles are new and not in the books. Barnaby (an American Interpol Inspector), Merrydew (a rival reporter) and Wetherbuck (Tintin’s Editor). Merrydew and Wetherbuck will possibly appear in multiple films so presumably they have been added to make Tintin’s world a bit more believable. Barnaby may be replacement for Bunji Kuraki, the Japanese police inspector who is kidnapped by the smugglers.

In The Crab With The Golden Claw, Tintin meets Captain Haddock for the first time and in The Secret of the Unicorn, the pair first meet Professor Calculus. By the end of Red Rackham’s Treasure, Captain Haddock owns Marlinspike Hall so this makes a nice development of characters across the films and nicely sets things up for any future films. It is still not clear if this is the cast and plot-lines for just the Jackson and Spielberg films or whether these will cover all three films.

Still, it looks like I was wrong about my predictions of which books would be made in to the films.

Its been reported that casting has begun in LA for the Tintin Movie. It is believed that the following parts are up for grabs.

• Aristides Silk, a seemingly friendly British or international pickpocket with a memorable face who is balding and has a mustache
• Allen & Ernie, two seamen smugglers disguised as workmen;
• Barnaby, a fat and sweaty American Interpol inspector who’s better at his job than he looks;
• Lt. Delacourt, the amiable, pipe-smoking British commander of the Afghar outpost who helps Tintin and Captain Haddock;
• Max & Gerontium Bird, these brothers’ businessman-like appearance bely the fact that they’re gun smugglers on the Karaboudjan;
• Merrydew, an the anxious, nerdy and envious reporter rival of Tintin’s;
• Mr. Crabtree, a stall keeper/vendor at the Old Street Market;
• Mrs. Finch, Tintin’s landlady with a fierce, beaky face and personality to match;
• Nestor, a kindly, efficient butler who works for the Bird brothers and finds himself in troubled circumstances;
• Omar Ben Salaad, a larger-than-life arms dealer with 14 wives and a commanding voice;
• The pilot and co-pilot of Omar Ben Salaad’s seaplane;
• Red Rackham, described as tall and thin, larger than life with a sinister edge;
• Sakharine, a tall, thin and mysterious stranger with a foreign accent that can’t be placed;
• Ahmed, an obedient soldier under Lt. Delacourt’s command;
• Wetherbuck, Tintin’s big, bellowing, cigar-chomping editor and mentor;
• Thomson & Thompson, two ineffective, narrow-minded policemen described as more stupid than mean, moronic yet pretentious, comical and clumsy. They are identical and can only be distinguished by their mustaches.

It possible that Wetherbuck, Merrydew, Nestor, Mrs. Finch and Thomson & Thompson will appear in multiple films, while one actor could play both Thomson & Thompson.

Motion capture will take place for 30 days in the US and 30 days in New Zealand allowing both Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to shoot their footage. Afterwards, Jackson’s Weta Workshop will process the motion capture and produce the final film.

The rumor mill about who will play Tintin is picking up. Latest to be linked to the role is British actor Simon Pegg. Best known to international audiences as the star and writer of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and is soon to be appearing in next Star Trek film playing a young Scotty. Before becoming a big movie star, he co-wrote and co-starred in the British TV comedy Spaced where he played a comic reading, computer game playing, SF fan. This wasn’t much of a stretch for the computer game playing, comic reading, SF Fan Simon Pegg who drew heavily on his own life as inspiration for the script. He has also appeared in an episode of Dr Who, though not one written by the Tintin Movie and Dr Who script writer Steven Moffat.