FIRST LOOK: Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s TINTIN

I'm currently hyperventilating. 

After a weekend of thumbnail teasers of sky blue woolen jumpers and sock texture, Empire magazine has unveiled the first images from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's first Tintin film. Directed by Spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a 3D motion-capture adaptation of Herge's 1943 comic. Jamie Bell provides the voice for intrepid boy journalist Tintin while Andy Serkis salts it up as the helplessly profane Captain Haddock. Rounding out the cast are Nick Frost (Thompson), Simon Pegg (Thomson) and Daniel Craig (Red Rackham).  It's a pirate story and it's basically the cornerstone of my childhood (and I managed not to turn out to be a massive racist or anything at all, so that's terrific). So, no pressure whatsoever. 

This spotlight cover, an homage to perhaps the most iconic Tintin image, gives me double-decker goosebumps. Alright, Snowy!

It's only slightly odd to see some of my favorite comic characters without their trademark dot eyes, and Haddock looks a slight bit bloated and trollish, but otherwise I'm bewitched. Mostly I'm just excited to share one of my favorite comics with more of the world.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is set to debut in theaters in late 2011. 

Comments

  1. Oh my. Sign me up for this as well. I didn’t discover the Tintin books until my undergraduate days, but it’s held a special place in my heart ever since.

    And how cute is Snowy! 

  2. This looks like its spot on, Also Snowy looks like he was plucked out of the book. Black dot eyes or not, I will look forward to this when ever it comes out.

  3. I would have preferred a larger than life live action movie but this works pretty well. Excited.

  4. Will Tintin actually manage to file a story in this one?

  5. This is the one comic movie I’ve been looking forward to the most for the past couple years.

  6. I just hope we don’t lose Jackson and Spielberg to mocap the same way we lost Zemekis.

  7. was that Popeye?  Looks great

     

  8. I know nothing about Tintin and this doesn’t entice me to learn anything.

  9. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    There’s a winning attitude. 

  10. The mo-cap worries me… really anxious to see it in motion.

  11. It’s looks good. I’ve never read any of the Tintin books, but I wouldn’t mind in seeing a new action adventure movie from Speilberg and Jackson.

  12. I never read a single page of TinTin; but these images make me excited for some reason.

    Although ‘Secret of the Unicorn’ is definitely not going to get a strong 18-49 Male following. 

  13. Tintin was my first foray into comics. I still pick one up every so often and read through it. I can’t wait to watch it on the big screen. Thanks for the heads up, Paul. Any word on if they’ll be doing multiple movies? And, if so, which ones?

  14. never read tintin but I enjoyed the cartoon alot as a kid

  15. Looks fantastic. that Peter jackson knows his shit 

     

    I also like the idea of a different kind of huge comic book movie. I mean my Sister, my dad, my pop culture hating gay friend, my primary school buddies are all going to want to watch this  

  16. This looks great! Anyone think we can convince The Powers That Be in an Asterix short?

    And while I’m wishing, how about a Terry & the Pirates TV show?

  17. Oh, how I hate CGI, though.

  18. Ten Thousand Thundering Typhoons!

     I completely forgot about this project, but am glad to see that all goes well. As a child I spent many hours delving into Tintin and Asterix books from the library.  I’m with Caeuzokul; let’s see the same treatment for Asterix and Obelix! 

  19. Huge Herge fan. Didn’t realize it was going to be computer animated, though. I’m sure i’ll still watch it. Look and style of the screenshots seem loyal to the source material. It’ll be interesting if this movie makes today’s youngsters intrigued with the Tintin mythos. As it stands only middle aged people and hard-core appreciators of sequential narrative really have any affinity for Tintin’s adventures.

  20. @CaeuZokul There already have been three Asterix live action films

  21. @paul lol

    I’ve only heard of this by name, but it looks to be something that would be up my alley.  Time to do some research…

  22. I’m not seeing any recent collections.  Everything off of Amazon is used.  I’m assuming this has a smaller cult following?

  23. Can not wait. This looks great.

  24. @Paul: Have you ever watched the Tintin animated series from the 90’s? It’s a very close adaptation of Herge’s style and they cover all of the book. The complete collection is only £11.95 from play.com in their sale at the minute.

    http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/163423/The-Adventures-Of-Tintin-75-Year-Anniversary-Box/Product.html 

  25. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    @vadamowens – You can buy Tintin in big, oversized paperbacks (my preferred format) or smaller digest-sized hardcovers which collect three stories each. Those hardcovers are more recent, having been released in the past few years. I just did an Amazon search for "Tintin" and they all seem to be available new. 

    @davidtobin100 – I have seen the animated series. They aired it on Nickelodeon. Adored it.  

     

  26. My fingers are very, very crossed.  Tintin and Asterix brought me into comics as they were the only comics you could get in a library back then.  That cover is fantastic.  Here’s hoping…

  27. Thanks

  28. ahh TinTIn brings me back to french classes. Here’s how you teach kids a foreign language…give them cool comics! I’m sure it will be very good, especially with Speilberg and Jackson on it. Completely disappointed that it will be CGI animated…for me its very soulless…its trying to hard to look real. I wish they would have gone a more stylized classic animated route, but i understand thats the world we live in and not what kids like anymore. 

  29. Not digging the first images, the Empire cover already lacks the vitality of the cartoon sketch of the same image. It looks as if it will fall down the path of the Christmas Carol, Polar express etc. type of animated films.

  30. why don’t they make a film version of Tintin in the Congo…? oh yeah, that’s right it was just a tad racist wasn’t it.

  31. Tintin comics, more then anything made from DC or Marvel ARE what comics were to me as a kid.  I loved these books. 

  32. @Crippler: I’m with you. Tintin and Uncle Scrooge are responsible for my love of comics.

  33. @Heroville Thanks for the heads up!

  34. how will they pronounce his name, that will be the test won’t it…