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Dec 07

The Tintin Movie Geared For Success With Jackson And Spielberg On Board

Tintin is finally being made into a movie. Tintin is being turned into movie by the dream pairing of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Spielberg and Jackson will actually be making three Tintin movies back to back as Jackson accomplished with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

The films will be shot back to back for logistical and financial expediency; they will come rattling off the production line in 2009. Spielberg has been a Tintin fan since he was a small boy and the upcoming filming brings an end to a 25 year mission to get a film made. Spielberg was first approached back in 1982 by Georges Remi (who initials GR were reversed to form the pen name Herge). Remi sent out emissaries and it resulted in a three year option for Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment in 1984. It was reported that after the success of ET Spielberg hired Melissa Mathison who helped write ET and was then Harrison Ford’s wife to compose a an African adventure in which Tintin overcame ivory hunters in a classic Tintin yarn.

This would be a role reversal for Tintin who had in a previous tale cheerfully blown up a rhinoceros with a stick of dynamite. It could never quite come to fruition. One of the main reasons for this was due to the fact that Spielberg never believed he had the technology to pull off his vision satisfactorily. It was also at the same time Spielberg turned to his attention to his next undertaking that of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Rumour has it that some of the story lines for The Last Crusade were taken form the Tintin movie penned by Mathison.

Spielberg has also hinted that Indiana Jones chronicles were very much influenced by Tintin’s boy-scout ethos. It has been noticed that the whole idea of creating a Tintin movie has resurfaced at the same time Spielberg has been absorbed in the fourth installment of Indiana Jones.

During those years when Amblin Entertainment had the option for the Tintin movie there were rumours about who would play Tintin. First there was obviously Henry Thomas who had starred in ET. Next there was a young Leonardo DiCaprio and then unbelievably Christopher Lambert and Jean-Claude Van Damme. As for the role of Captain Haddock the names of Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman and Richard Gere were mooted. Then for the role of Bianca Castafiore the opera dive and the only major role for a female was linked to Courtney Love. It is now known that Spielberg and his people never truly got close to making the movie back then.

Although there was a lot of rumour and speculation the only truth is that Spielberg’s interest did wane and other directors came into the equation to make the film. Claude Berri (who had produced a successful live action version of Asterix) was rumoured to be interested as was Roman Polanski. Then Warner Brothers entered the chase. The Herge Foundation declined as they Warner Brothers failed to impress due to guarantees about creative integrity. When Warner Brothers left the scene the project was back at square one.

Spielberg and Jackson then got together and went into discussions with Moulinsart who in the intervening time took over the rights to Tintin. Eventually a deal was struck after long discussions. Spielberg and Jackson are both set to direct one film each with the third to be decided at a later date.

Jackson’s special effects tam Weta Digital have been working on using 3-D animation to bring the junior reporter and his trusty dog Snowy to life. Jackson Weta effects house back in New Zealand took more than a year to knock-up a 20 minute demo that wowed backers. Jackson said “We’re making the character look photorealistic - the fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. It is possible that the work, certainly the first one will start next year”.

This will be when Spielberg finishes Indiana Jones 4 and Jackson his adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. Jackson’s input with the effects made possible by Weta has invigorated Spielberg who is a lifelong Tintin fan. 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 honour the distinctive look of the characters and the world Herge created.”

The deal allows them to use a back catalogue of 23 albums Herge published between 1929 and 1976. Speculation is now rife as to which album will be turned into a Tintin movie first. Although we would like to speculate that it is unlikely that the film we be made from an album before 1940 because that would mean Captain Haddock would not be involved. If you would like to read the latest on the Tintin movie please visit my site Tintin movie news

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Dec 06

Who Created Tintin? Georges Prosper Remi As Herge The Early Years

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The upcoming Tintin movie trilogy has heightened interest in all things Tintin. Hergé the creator of the well known comic character Tintin will once again be in the mainstream consciousness. Hergé was the pen name of Georges Prosper Remi who was both writer and illustrator of all 23 Tintin albums dying before he could finish the 24th Tintin and the Alpha-Art.

Georges Prosper Remi was born in Etterbeek in Belgium in 1907 and was to become the father of the ligne claire style of illustration that was to influence artists such as Warhol. Remi was a keen sketcher from an early age and his primary school books were filled with doodles of the invading Nazi regime who occupied Belgium during the First World War. Remi was a natural and throughout his life had no real formal training apart from a few lessons taken at l’ecole Saint-Luc during his teenage years.

On reaching the age of 13 Remi studied at the college Saint-Boniface being taught by Catholic priests and joining the Boy Scout troop of the school. He was to be given the moniker “Renard curieux” (Curios fox). It was where Remi was to initially experience his illustrations being published firstly in Jamais assez, the school scout paper and then later to a bigger audience in Le Boy-Scout Belge, the scout monthly magazine where the pseudonym Hergé first appears.

It is within this environment that many believe heavily influenced Remi’s work and especially the character that became Tintin. It is clear that the ethics of the scout movement and the traveling Remi did with his group make up a great part of Tintin’s spirit.

In 1925 Hergé went to work for Le Petit Vingtième a Catholic newspaper edited by an abbot Norbert Wallez. Hergé was to publish his first cartoon series the following year, The Adventures of Tortor again in Le Boy-Scout Belge. It wasn’t until 1928 when Hergé was put in charge of producing material for the children supplement of Le Petit Vingtième that Hergé really came into his own.

Hergé began illustrating the adventures of Flup, Nenesse, Pousette and Cochonnet written by a member of the sports staff. Fortunately for the rest of the world Hergé wasn’t particularly enamored by this chain of events. It led to Wallez asking Hergé to create a young hero that would fight good all over the world and be a reporter to boot. Hergé filled with brio created a comic strip of his own influenced by the American innovation of using speech bubbles to depict the words coming out of the characters mouths.

Hergé created the now legendary Tintin in the Land of the Soviets that appeared in Le Petit Vingtième in January 1929 and ran until may 1930. The strip was a wonderful adventure through the Soviet Union, the young reporter Tintin with his trusty fox terrier Snowy. The character of Tintin is also said to be inspired partly by Remi’s brother Paul who was an officer n the Belgium Army. Tintin was a popular stip from day one. Remi was to produce other comic strips such as Quick and Flupke but Tintin was the one character that was to make him.

In June 1930 Tintin began his second adventure, Tintin in the Congo (which was at the time a Belgian colony) to be followed by Tintin in America and the Cigars of the Pharaoh.

The first Tintin adventures would take about a year to complete and then would be released by the Casterman publishing house. Hergé would continue to revise the adventure in subsequent editions, including later turning them into colour. These early works were also to age quickly as the century moved at break net pace with Tintin in the Congo having to be revised due to the fact Tintin in the original tale is seen giving a lesson to native students in a missionary school and proclaims “My dear friends, today I am going to talk about your country: Belgium” that was later edited into a math lesson.

Hergé soon began to learn some of life truths as he got older and there is definite water shed in his work around the time of his 30th birthday when he introduced Tintin and The Blue Lotus to the world. It can be seen as the start of a new era in the life and works of Hergé. Please visit my site to learn more about Herge and the latest Tintin movie news to be directed by Steven Spielberg.

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Dec 05

Thomson and Thompson the Bumbling Detectives From Tintin

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Thomson and Thompson are two of the best loved characters in the Adventures of Tintin. Thomson and Thompson first featured in Cigars of the Pharaoh where they arrest Tintin and Snowy as they are enjoying a holiday cruise. In their first outing they prove to be highly efficient characters using a cunning not seen in later albums they appear in. They save Tintin from a firing squad using a disguise that even fools Tintin.

Thomson and Thompson still cause much debate over whether they are twins or not despite their names being different. In Tintin and the Broken Ear Herge uses “Dupont” twice for the two characters. The common consensus is that they are not twins even though Snowy thinks they are in Destination Moon (pg 18; last frame) Snowy says “This is it! … Sensational appearance of the Thomson twins!” To add to the confusion both characters claim to have worn the same mustaches since they were born.

It is the mustaches of Thomson and Thompson that allow the reader to differ between the two. Thomson sports a pointed mustache; his colleague Thompson sports a straight mustache (e.g. Land of Black Gold, p2, frames 6, 7, and p9, frame 6, and p33, frame 11).

One of the main reasons that the pair is so popular is that they provide a lot of the comic relief in the albums they appear in. They are the bumbling detectives that spend much of their time chasing the wrong suspects throughout the story lines (they pursue Tintin in Land of Black Gold for crimes he didn’t commit) and are afflicted with spoonerism. They are always seen to be clumsy and bumble their way through each adventure and in spite of this always seem to be sent on important missions or given extra special tasks to perform such as guaranteeing security for the Syldavian space project.

The detective with the flared mustache is Thomson (without “p”), who often describes himself as “Thomson, without a ‘p’, as in Venezuela!” The detective with the flat mustache has described himself as “Thompson with a ‘P’, as in…” and then used words with either a silent “P,” or in which the “P” is combined with another letter, as to change the sound, such as Philadelphia, psychology and so on.

Thomson and Thompson are easily familiar with everyone as they are most often seen in their bowler hats and carrying walking sticks. They though always cause amusement when they go abroad as they change into costumes that they believe make them fit in the locals but in actuality are so poorly chosen they stick out like sore thumbs.

Herge based Thomson and Thompson on his uncles who were twins that wore bowler matching bowler hats. Herge then also drew further inspiration for the detectives from two mustachioed, bowler hated and formally dressed detectives in Le Miroir who were seen escorting a criminal in the picture. One was handcuffed to the criminal while the other was holding their two umbrellas.

It remains to be seen if Thomson and Thompson wil be in the upcoming Tintin movie to be directed by Steven Spielberg andbe released in 2010. If you want to learn more about Tintin and the upcoming film then please visit my site Tintin movie.

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The Tintin Movie Geared For Success With Jackson And Spielberg On Board

Who Created Tintin? Georges Prosper Remi As Herge The Early Years

Thomson and Thompson the Bumbling Detectives From Tintin

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