Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson may be able to continue with their plan to make a trilogy of films based on Georges Remi’s (a.k.a. Herg’) classic Belgian comic strip Tintin. Daily Variety reports that Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures are in talks to co-finance at least one film in the proposed performance-capture series. The studios would replace Universal Pictures, which balked at the production budget and backed out of the project in September.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy, who is receiving this year’s Visual Effects Society’s Lifetime Achievement award, along with Frank Marshall, has joined Spielberg and Jackson as a producer on Tintin. The trilogy is to be based on three stories from The Adventures of Tintin, a series of 23 books published between 1929 and 1976. Should they seal the deal, Sony and Paramount may wait to see how the first film does at the box office before committing to two sequels. Paramount would distribute in North America and various other English-speaking territories, with Sony handling foreign release duties.
Spielberg will direct the first film, which he planned to get into production by now. The departure of Universal and the DreamWorks/Paramount split put things on hold and the film’s lead, young British actor Thomas Sangster, became unavailable. The filmmakers are now looking at a 2010 release. With Sony’s involvement, the animation work may shift from Jackson’s WETA Digital to Sony Pictures Imageworks, which has led the performance-capture movement with such films as The Polar Express, Monster House and Beowulf. Reportedly, the first Tintin movie will follow the plotline of two original Herg’ books, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure.
