Here’s an excerpt from a really fun piece in the LA Times Blog from February 2010. Don’t know how I missed this when it came out…. Read the entire article here.
Steven Spielberg says there was only one reason to make his new “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” with the cutting-edge performance-capture technology that James Cameron used on “Avatar.”
“It was based on my respect for the art of Hergé and wanting to get as close to that art as I could,” says the director, referring to Tintin’s author-illustrator, who created the international blockbuster graphic novel series (200 million copies in print) starring intrepid cub reporter Tintin, and his irrepressible canine companion, Snowy, as they venture through the pre-WWII world.
“Hergé wrote about fictional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe,” Spielberg said. “It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. It just seemed that live action would be too stylized for an audience to relate to. You’d have to have costumes that are a little outrageous when you see actors wearing them. The costumes seem to fit better when the medium chosen is a digital one.”
For the director of such films as “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Jurassic Park” and “Schindler’s List,” the new experience was transporting.“I just adored it,“ he says. “It made me more like a painter than ever before. I got a chance to do so many jobs that I don’t often do as a director. You get to paint with this device that puts you into a virtual world, and allows you to make your shots and block all the actors with a small hand-held device only three times as large as an Xbox game controller.”
File this under: amazing.
Sculptor Adam Beane has immortalized two of the funniest comedy duos since Laurel and Hardy by creating hyper-realistic mini-busts of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. Not only is the art amazing to look at, he managed to make it is so small. Absolutely fantastic.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will reunite in the Winter of 2011 as the bumbling detectives Thompson and Thomson in the upcoming Speilberg/Jackson film Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.
I just posted a couple of entries over at my Examiner.com/Tintin blog.
The first is on Paramount Pictures and how movie franchises like Tintin are supposed to save their financial rear ends. Read about it here.
The second is about a cool event the Hergé museum is doing on China, The Blue Lotus and the relationship of Hergé and Chang. Find out about it here.
It has been a long held belief that Indiana Jones and the “Raiders” franchise was inspired by the Tintin adventures. But now there is a growing chorus questioning this position, caused in large part by this movie by Charlton Heston released in the 1950′s: Secret of the Incas.
The general plot revolves around the character Harry Steele (Charlton Heston) who is a tough young American soldier of fortune, eking out a living as a tour guide in Cuzco, Peru. He has heard the legend of the Inca treasure, a fabulous golden Sunburst which has been missing for centuries, and his intention, when he can get hold of a private plane, is to head for the long lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.
View the movie here.
Certainly sounds more like Indiana Jones than Tintin to me.
Tintin goes to the Moon
According to ComingSoon.net, Peter Jackson has several ideas for additional Tintin movies after the first film, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, hits theaters.
“I’ve got several favorite stories,” says Jackson, “I like ‘Seven Crystal Balls’ and ‘Prisoners of the Sun.’ I like ‘The Black Island.’ I like ‘The Calculus Affair.’ I haven’t made a final decision yet.”
Jackson confirmed that work on the follow-up won’t start until he’s completely done with writing duties on The Hobbit. He did, however, say that he has a neat idea of where he’d like to take Tintin after the first sequel: all the way to the moon.
Published in 1953, Tintin actually beat Apollo 11 by 16 years in a famously retro red and white checkered rocketship. Like the adventure chosen for the first film (“Secret of the Unicorn” and “Red Rackham’s Treasure”), Tintin’s moon adventures (“Destination Moon” and “Explorers on the Moon”) represent only a few stories that span multiple books. Though one of the most recognizable stories, the thought had been that Tintin’s moon adventures would be too offbeat for mainstream audiences.
“No moon for the second one,” agrees Jackson, “But I think the moon one[s] would be great to do as a third or fourth one. But I think we should stay on Earth for the second one.”
For more information on the upcoming Tintin movies, visit: the Tintin Examiner, or click here.
The only street market dedicated to the world of Hergé gets underway July 18, 2009 at 4:00 pm in Brussels. Bringing together approximately 40 merchants from many different nations, there are sure to be interesting finds.
The inspiration of the market comes directly from the book, Secret of the Unicorn where we saw Tintin purchase the fateful model ship that launched a two-book series and now a major motion picture by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.
Lest you think this is just another marketing tie-in to the upcoming film, this is actually the fifth year of the market at Place du Jeu de Balles in the heart of Marolles, just a stones throw fom la rue Terre-Neuve, the street that inspired Labrador Road, Tintin’s home address during his early adventures.
Even so, with all the excitement of Tintin’s 80th birthday, and the buzz surrounding the upcoming films, this year’s market should be particularly exciting.
For more info: visit opt.be
Just found this video (which is now a little old) on the French side of the official Tintin website. While it is a little odd and Jackson and Spielberg are a little stiff, it is nonetheless pretty cool to hear them talk about the Tintin movie in their own words. Click here to be taken to the video.
Seven months ago, the first reports of the upcoming Tintin movie, The Secret of the Unicorn, started trickling out. Much of the discussion to date has been centered around cast members, financing problems, scripts, and the technical aspects of the production. Finally, the movie has a U.S. release date of December 23, 2011 and readers deserve a more concise report on exactly what this movie is about.
The general plot
The Secret of the Unicorn is considered by many to be one of the first truly great Tintin adventures. It is part mystery, part pirate tale, and part treasure hunt. The story begins…
Read the rest of the article at my Examiner page.
Simon Pegg Explains How He Became Nick Frost’s Twin In ‘Tintin’
Published by Brian Warmoth on Friday, May 8, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Source: SplashPage MTV
Simon Pegg“Star Trek” cast newcomer Simon Pegg will have another established audience to please when Steven Spielberg & Peter Jackson’s “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn” comes to theaters in 2010. Pegg appears undaunted by the skeptical mumbles he’s heard, however, and left recent shots for the film impressed by the special effects process used to turn him and his fellow on-screen twin Nick Frost into nearly identical characters based on motion-capture work.
“We shot earlier this year, here in L.A.,” Pegg told Collider.com. “Fascinating experience just in terms of how it worked.”
The “Shaun of the Dead” star laughed off doubts he originally read about the movie and explained exactly how he and Frost became the Thomson and Thompson twins for the new film franchise based on the internationally renowned comics by Belgian creator Hergé.
“Obviously, the minute it was announced everyone was like, ‘How are Nick Frost and Simon Pegg going to play twins?’” he recalled. “Once you don the suits and see yourself rendered on the monitor, you can actually see yourself as the character.”
The images he saw on set were unfinished, but he was impressed by what he saw.
“It’s still like a very good N64 game of yourself,” he said.
And as for any concerns that many filmgoers may not already be versed in “Tintin” comics, Pegg had a response prepared for that as well with high expectations for Spielberg and Jackson’s trilogy.
“There’s been some talk that no one knows who Tintin is,” he explained, “which seems to be a really odd thing to say because no one knew who Indiana Jones was in 1979.”
