News broke in the wee hours suggesting that Steven Spielberg would be stepping aside on directing the first installment of TinTin, the mystery adventures of a Belgian reporter, to let Peter Jackson take over. Originally Spielberg was to take the first chapter in the planned trilogy and Jackson would take the second.
Now we hear that the story was false. As you were soldiers…
In a follow-up story, Spielberg has corrected the news, which originally came from Brussels’ Herge Studios, home to Tintin. He says that he remains committed to directing this first film in a proposed trilogy. It will be his first directorial gig since jumping behind the lens on this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Both Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg denied that there were any changes to their original plan of attack. Jackson still plans on directing the second film, and will serve as a producer on the first.
I still remain skeptical about this series. When I last questioned its popularity the International Friends rebuked me identifying this cult like following for the stories of Tintin. Its apparently huge.
So this little hiccup in the plan turned out to be accidental misinformation, but it was taken as true since it originated with Herge Studios, the mighty holders of the Tintin properties.
Still not all that hyped.
I’m from Montreal and here, Tintin is quite popular, maybe more in the french canadian population. I’ve been reading Tintin all my life. I read them at school as a kid and then, my parents bought the books so, I used to read them at night before going to bed. Those books bring good memories to me and, at 37, everytime I go see my parents (who still have the books at home), I take one of the book and start reading it, just like old times…
The Tintin books are funny and full of adventure. It makes you discover as a kid, places where you’ve never been. Tintin is kinda like a young Indiana Jones but, he’s a reporter which always finds himself caught in tales of gangsters or other stories of that kind. Of course, he always have Snowy (Milou in french) with him and for at least half of the books, there’s Captain Haddock, which is probably the funniest sidekick of all. His bad temper is legendary but, that makes for funny situations (Destination Moon is probably the book where I laffed out loud the most of all the comics I read as a kid because of Captain Haddock).
When Pete Jackson’s The Lovely Bones coming out?
Thats pretty much my entire point rodney.
People make such a big deal about whether or not people know the source material when it doesn’t matter. If you are not aware of the books and have never heard of them why would that put you off going? If people assume its an original idea from speilberg and jackson why would that put them off going?It just won’t matter.
films have been made on which there is no source material at all other than an original script and people still go and see them.
So if you don’t know that tintin was originally a series of comics why is that a bad thing? If you have no clue and you just see a trailer for a goods film you won’t go “tintin? never heard of it.”
It will just seem to be a new film. You might then find out they are based on books but if you had no clue in the first place why would it matter?
Basically all I am saying is who cares whether its original, based on a book, based on a paragraph blurb from the back of a toy box or a video game. Juts make a good film.
If people know the source material good for them. If they don’t it more than likely won;t matter if you make the film good.
Exactly. The size of the fanbase doesn’t matter if you can still make a bloody good movie out of it. One of the reasons we have adaptations (money aside) is to share some great stories that are often shelved and overlooked. I still don’t know a single person in real life who’d even heard of “Watchmen” until they saw the trailer, and they still think it looks pretty good.
Firstly the examples you give are all characters that didnt exist UNTIL their movie. The point was that this was a movie adaptation of a well established character.
When they do this it is harder than just inventing a character as there is so much to live up to. If they make Tintin a ninja warrior womanizer I would imagine people wouldnt like him, whereas if they made a movie about a ninja womanizer, if it was done right he would be liked.
Its all about expectations. Even not being aware that Tintin exists (which even in my ignorance of french comic strips – I still knew something about him) there is still an expectation.
The books are huge in europe apparently. It seems to be that america doesn’t really know them but I think the studio will be selling these films on the names of speilberg and jackson in the states rather than the tintin brand. I mean those two guys working together is going to get a lot of buzz leading up to its release.
But even if the book isn’t very well known I don’t know why that matters?
Who knew who indiana jones was before the first film came out?
John Mcclane? How about john rambo?
Buzz lightyear?
What about that luke skywalker guy? how many people had seriously read the shrek books before shrek came out? I bet most people who saw shrek didn’t even know it was base on a book.
Things can succeed without having been in other medium so who cares if the tintin books are not that well known?
Just make a good film and it won;t matter that the books are relatively unknown. They have steven speilberg and Peter jackson on board. I think they will be o.k.
Oh yeah, Captain Haddock is badass!!!
The books are already set in stone and there really isn’t anything to change (other than the racism.) These adventures can be better translated to live-action than most adaptations, so I can’t imagine anyone doing a bad job with this movie – unless they decide Tintin should carry dual pistols around and perform gym-katta.
But yeah, the cult following on this series is MASSIVE. You’ll only ever find the books in elementary school libraries these days, but they’ve been in there since the 30’s and a lot of kids have stumbled across them in the last 80 or so years.
And with Captain Haddock coming to the big screen, it’ll be like the return of Bud Spencer, so I’m psyched for that. Everyone should have a drunken sea captain as a sidekick.
Tintin’s comic is a big hit at my country, Indonesia. I don’t know if Spielberg will bring it good, after a so-so Indiana Jones.