We reported last year that Peter Jackson was hoping to have the next "Tintin" film out in 2015, and now director Steven Spielberg (who helmed the first film) is echoing that sentiment. In an interview with Times of India, Spielberg said they're hoping to start production this year.

"Peter Jackson is directing the next one, I'm producing. We have a script and we're going to start performance capture probably at the end of this year.

"Don't hold me to it, but we're hoping the film will come out around Christmas-time in 2015. We know which books we're making, we can't share that now but we're combining two books which were always intended to be combined by Herge." 

Though Spielberg wouldn't say which books they've chosen to adapt for the film, it has long been rumored that the two-part "Seven Crystal Balls" and "Prisoners of the Sun" would be the focus of the sequel. Peter Jackson has said previously that he'd like to do the "Destination Moon" and "Explorers on the Moon" books as the third or fourth film in the series.

The first film, 2011's The Adventures of Tintin, grossed over $370 million worldwide.