If you geekily lay in bed at night wondering when the first trailer for “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn” — the Steven Spielberg-directed, Peter Jackson-produced computer animated adaptation of Georges “Hergé” Remi’s Tintin comics — will be released (And you know you do!), you can wonder no more, for it has arrived. And you know what — it looks pretty damn fabulous.
The film will be Spielberg’s first crack at directing an animated film. He reportedly became a fan of the comics after a critic compared Raiders of the Lost Ark to them years ago. Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, among others, all have roles in Avatar-esque motion capture the film, which will be released, along with an accompanying video game by Ubisoft, on December 23rd.
Jackson and Spielberg sat down for a joint interview about the film with a French publication in 2009.
The director adds that the use of motion capture was a big step forward as it allows him to capture the feel or author Herge’s work “Every aspect of Hergé’s great talent are part of my approach: Hergé’s humour of course, and the body language, which is so important. There’s no plan to change that. We religiously respect his art, even for the supporting characters.”
Don’t expect a contemporary updating either, Spielberg says “There will be no cell phones, no TV sets, no modern cars. Just timeless Europe.” The 23 completed graphic novels were written between 1929 and 1973 and never really specified the years those adventures took place in despite incorporating timely political elements including the Cold War arms race, human trafficking and the influence of oil multinationals on the Middle East.
Despite plans for a trilogy, Peter Jackson apparently says that he has yet to settle on the second film. He re-iterates earlier plans to adapt “The Seven Crystal Balls”/”Prisoners of the Sun” two-part story but “the choice is not final. I will read all the albums of Tintin again over Christmas and will make a decision before the New Year.” He adds that tone wise the first film, ‘Secret of the Unicorn’, will be a “very European film…very film noir.”
Here’s the trailer…