It’s been nearly 40 years since Hergé’s comic book hero Tintin has been seen on a screen of any size, so Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin has revived a much loved character at just the right time to introduce him to new audiences.
The animation was done by Weta Digital, best known for their digital FX work on Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies, King Kong and James Cameron’s Avatar. Being that the characters were created by using the latest performance capture technology, it’s still very much about the actors and how they embodied their respective roles.
ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk to two of those actors, Jamie Bell and Nick Frost, at the New York press junket last week. Bell plays Tintin himself, while Frost, best known for his work with long-time comedy partners Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, plays one of two bumbling inspectors named Thompson who Tintin encounters on his latest adventure. (The other is played, of course, by Simon Pegg.)
After Nick gave us a hint on how to tell the difference between the Thompson played by him and the one played by Simon, we spoke with both of them about the performance capture, how they prepared for the roles, what they took away from the comics and more.
The Adventures of Tintin opens on Wednesday, December 21. Check out our interview with Spielberg himself right here.
