Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are to join forces to direct
and produce a series of three-films based on the beloved Belgian
comic-strip hero Tintin, a report said Monday.
A sticker of Tintin
decorates a window of a high-speed Thalys train, in Brussels
southern train station, January 10, 2007 on the anniversary of the
creation of Herge's famous characters. Steven Spielberg and Peter
Jackson are to join forces to direct and produce a series of
three-films based on the beloved Belgian comic-strip hero
Tintin.
Entertainment journal Daily Variety reports in its
Tuesday edition that the legendary film-makers would direct at
least one of the films each, and serve as producers on all
three.
The report said Tintin had been a long-time pet project
for Spielberg, who finally secured the film rights to the comic
series in the past 12 months.
Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of The Lord of the
Rings trilogy, had already developed a test film which had
brought the characters created by George Remi, better known by his
pen name Herge, to life, the report said.
Spielberg said the computer animation technology used for the
films would be unlike anything ever seen.
"Herge's characters have been reborn as living beings,
expressing emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we've
seen to date with computer animated characters," Spielberg
said.
"We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a
live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a
traditional live-action format would simply not honor the
distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created,"
Spielberg added.
Jackson said although the movies would be computer generated,
the characters would not look cartoonish.
"Instead we're making them look photorealistic," Jackson said.
"The fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each
individual hair. They look exactly like real people -- but real
Herge people!"
Spielberg and Jackson have chosen three stories from the 23
Tintin books published between 1929 and 1976.
The announcement of an alliance between Spielberg and Jackson --
two of the modern masters of cinematic story-telling -- comes after
news that the two would work on Jackson's next film, the thriller
The Lovely Bones.
The film is based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel which tells the
story of a 14-year-old girl who watches her family from heaven
after she is raped and murdered.
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(Agencies via CRI.cn May 15, 2007)
