I know nothing of Georges Remi’s “The Adventures of Tintin” comic book series so there is really no advance excitement on my part when it comes to Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn with which he and Peter Jackson have teamed to bring the iconic character to CG life. However, I’m now getting my first taste of the character via EMPIRE‘s reveal as Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell) and his pet fox terrier Snowy make the mag’s cover as well as come with two stills from the film.
The screenplay was penned by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Joe Cornish (Ant-Man) and Steven Moffat (“Doctor Who”) and co-stars Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, Simon Pegg as Inspector Thompson, Nick Frost as Thomson, Daniel Craig as Red Rackham, Toby Jones as Silk, Mackenzie Crook as Ernie, Tony Curran as Lt. Delcourt, Cary Elwes as Pilot and Gad Elmaleh as Ben Salaad.
Steven Spielberg directs this first installment which is said to follow Tintin, the intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure and ultimately finds him face-to-face with the nefarious Red Rackham. This is only the first installment in a planned series of 3D motion capture films based on the character set for a December 23, 2011 release.
Peter Jackson is already planning to direct the sequel and when asked where he plans to take the character he tells Empire, “One of my favourites is ‘The Seven Crystal Balls,’ so that’s the one I’ve always been thinking of… I also really like the Eastern European ones, the Balkan ones like ‘King Ottoman’s Sceptre’ and ‘The Calculus Affair.’ I think it’s a terrific setting for a thriller, the weird Balkan politics and the mysterious secret service agents. I think the Moon ones are terrific, but they’d be good for the third or fourth Tintin film, if we get that far. We want to keep his feet on the ground just a little bit longer.”
Check out the second still and the full EMPIRE cover directly below as well as a look at the original Tintin, which the Empire cover is modeled after.
