Total Film’s web site has a feature entitled The Adventures Of Tintin: Everything We Know. It is a recap of how Spielberg acquired the rights, the problems of financing, the cast and working with Peter Jackson.

There is no new information but there is some confusing / wrong information.

On the script Total Film says “The first draft was knocked up by Coupling writer Stephen Moffat, only for him to turn his back on the project”. This is not entirely true – The script was complete but Moffat was prevented from working on the script for the second film because of the writers strike in America. By the time that finished, he had been offered a chance to fulfill a life long ambition to write for Dr Who.

See Moffat Walked Away From Tintin and Moffat Denies Quitting Tintin for our original coverage. Note also how Total Film report that Moffat walked away from $2 million yet the original newspaper reports it was £500,000. A great example of the guesswork and the constant inflation inherent in the game of chinese whispers that is reporting on Hollywood.

Total Film go on to give credit to Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish for the bulk of the script writing duties where as the original press release gives them equal credit and the info at the time suggested this was just minor changes to Moffat’s script. However Total Film go on to say:

“….have condensed events from three of Hergé’s stories (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure) in order to introduce the major characters ….”

This is (probably) wrong.

Comments from Spielberg have previously put the first film as covering The Crab and events up to the end of Unicorn. Also Professor Calculus has never appeared on any cast list and Red Rackham’s Treasure would be unthinkable without Calculus and the shark submergible.

In promoting their 2011 releases, Paramount and Sony have given us a sneak peak of the Tintin movie logo.

Source: New Movie Logos for MIIIB 3D, Spider-man 3D, Mission Impossible 4 and More (Thanks Proman!).

This post is a big thank you various readers such as Stephen, Pro-man, Tom and Pe-ads for your ongoing support.

Since Christmas I’ve had very little time for Tintin due to a number of issues coinciding including a big project I’m trying to get off the ground and my Mother having various chronic health issues. It must also be said that Mounlinsart’s approach to copyright enforcement has made be much less eager to blog on Tintin even when I have the time.

The situation is not likely to change over the next few months but I’m hopeful that by the start of next year, as publicity for the film begins, I will have more time for blogging.

In the meantime, you can help this blog by letting me know of any Tintin news. If you spot anything of interest, please let me know by posting a link in a comment.

Many thanks everyone.

Chris

Based on some fairly flimsy evidence, it appears that the video game tie-in for Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, will be available on the Wii and the PS/3.

See: Tintin The Videogame: PS3 / Wii Bound Only? and RUMOR – Tintin game may be hitting Wii, PS3 exclusive.

In the first bit of Tintin Movie news in ages, legendary composer John Williams has finished his work on the score for Tintin.

This titbit of information appears near the end of this article: Endlessly devoted to his music

At home in Los Angeles, he takes a one-hour break from writing each day at dusk, he says, to walk at a golf course near his house. After his walk he returns to the piano, working until he has finished the day’s writing task: two or so minutes of music. Williams has just completed a chamber music piece for the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest in California and the score for “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn,’’ a Steven Spielberg movie due out next year.

It may be short of news but mentioning John Williams gives me an excuse to feature this video.

It turns out the new photos from the filming of the Tintin movie I reported on the other day are not so new after all.

According to regular readers Sam and Proman, these have been out for a while and originally appeared on Tintin.com. Somehow I had missed then when they first came out and despite having looked twice, I still cannot find their original appearance.

Note: The photos below are copyright to someone, probably the production company behind The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn or Moulinsart.

Two new photos from the filming of Tintin have surfaced.

This shot (reportedly) shows Jamie Bell with another, unidentified actor and members of the crew. Snowy is simply a piece of cardboard on the end of a broomstick and just there so that the actors have something to react to when filming the scene.

Actually, that should be capturing, not filming, the scenes. There is no film or even video involved in this process.

The strange, wet-suit style, costumes the actors are wearing are covered with markers. These markers are tracked by sensors placed all over the room and their location are precisely recorded hundreds of times a second and stored to a computer. This data is then used in the CGI animation process allowing the director to create any style of image they want but based on the real movement of actors.

There is a second photo over at As Aventuras De Tintim, a Brazilian Tintin blog: EXCLUSIVO: Novas imagens do set de Tintim. I cannot find these images anywhere in the mainstream yet so this is a real scoop for them.

The creator of Alix and numerous other bande dessinee has died aged 88. In the fifties he worked for Herge’s studio and was responsible for some of the background in Tintin in Tibet.

One of Hergé’s most important assistants through the 1950s and 60s (notably on the South Sea Sharks and Tintin in Tibet) and one of the pillars of Tintin Magazine, he acrimoniously struck out on his own in 1972 to concentrate on his own comics, which in some ways owed more to the other great master of Belgian adventure comics of the time, E. P. Jacobs.

Source and Copyright: MetaBunker Jacques Martin RIP

Enjoying success in his own right after his creation Alix sprang from the pages of the Tintin magazines to become its own brand, Strasbourg-born Martin plundered Imperial Rome, Egypt and the Napoleonic era for the backdrops to his stories.

Source and Copyright: The Independent Alix creator, Tintin artist Jacques Martin dies aged 88

Alix was a historic comic set around the time of the Roman Empire, travelling the known world at the time. He also created the comic Lefranc in 1952 and collaborated on the medieval architect comic Jhen in 1978, the French revolutionary officer Arno in 1984, Athenian Orion in 1990, Egyptian Keos in 1992, and Loïs in 2004, set in the court of Louis the sun king of France. Alix has continued publication to this date, though due to failing eyesight, Martin delegated artistic duties from Rafeal Morales from 1998.

Source and Copyright: Bleeding Cool Alix Creator Jacques Martin Dies, 88

The owners of Tintin have made an official comment on copyright as an indirect response of the persecution of Tintin fan Bob Garcia. Unfortunately they have completely misrepresented the law of copyright as it stands in the UK and most of Europe.

Some maintain that Moulinsart keeps an iron grip on the rights it has acquired; on the contrary, we are the first to respect the freedom of expression. We have never prevented anyone from writing a book about Tintin, or any other aspect of Hergé’s life and work. We have total respect for authors!

If the author of a book about Tintin wants to illustrate it with pictures or photos taken from the work or life of Hergé, then it is only normal that we ask to read the manuscript first. This is also simply a basic freedom.

If a book is lacking quality or is intentionally negative, it is quite normal for us to feel that we shouldn’t allow the reproduction of frames taken from Hergé’s books, or drawings the author realised: if we were to allow the use of such images, we would give the impression of supporting the work in question….

Every year, hundreds of requests to use one or a number of pictures by Hergé are authorised, … In 2009, less than 10 requests were turned down: … We clearly inform those who would like to use one of Hergé’s drawings about certain rules which they are expected to honour.
(c) Moulinsart

Moulinsart are misrepresenting the law here.

Fair Dealing allows producers of books and other works to incorporate copyright images WITHOUT THE OWNERS PERMISSION. An author does not need seek permission from Moulinsart. An author does not need to send Moulinsart a copy of their work to get it approved. All an author needs to do is ensure that the use of copyright material is limited to a reasonable amount and acknowledge the copyright holder’s ownership.

This does not mean that anyone can grab a picture of Tintin and use it to sell their product. Fair Dealing only applies to reporting and critical analysis. I can use the copyrighted text above without asking permission only because I am analysing what they have said. This legal right places no restrictions on the quality of my work. This article could be rubbish or completely hostile to Moulinsart and I would still enjoy the legal protection of Fair Dealing as long as I limited the text I quote to a reasonable amount.

It is the question of “What is reasonable?” that Bob Garcia appears to have run foul of.

There is no defined legal limits as to how much can be used under Fair Dealing. It could by 10% or it could be 90% depending on the circumstance. Reproducing 100 words from a 200 word article is different from reproducing 100 words from a 100,000 word book.

The use of copyrighted materials also has to be relevant. I can quote the article above because it is relevant to the subject but I could not scatter this article with images of Tintin because they would not be relevant.

What is reasonable is a highly subjective issue and this is where authors and publishers get into trouble.

In the Bob Garcia case, it appears that he was right on the border between acceptable and unacceptable usage. When Moulinsart first sued, Mr Garcia won the initial case based on the idea of Fair Dealing. However Mounlinsart appealed and won.

No one is saying that Moulinsart should not protect their intellectual property rights. No one is saying that everyone should be able to use Tintin images to sell their products. What people are saying is that bankrupting a Tintin fan like Bob Garcia for producing a pamphlet in good faith is heavy handed and mean spirited.

Source: Tintin.com Copyright: the latest from Moulinsart.

Thanks to Boing Boing picking up a two month old article in the Daily Telegraph, Moulinsart’s persecution of Tintin fan Bob Garcia has become a hot topic.

Bob Garcia published two short books about Tintin that included copyrighted images that Mr Garcia used under the concept of Fair Dealing / Use. Moulinsart sued and initially lost, the judge upheld Garcia’s claim that the use of these copyrighted works was acceptable academic practice. However, Moulinsart appealed, Garcia lost and was presented with a £35,000 bill.

Unable to pay the bill and facing bankruptcy, Bob Garcia hoped to make some accommodation with Moulinsart and at first it look promising with Moulinsart making a statement on the situation. “We had the intention to find a solution. It is now discussed between lawyers”. According to Garcia, Moulinsart’s lawyers have never made any attempt at contact.

Since then the bills have continued to pile up for Mr Garcia. Just before Christmas he received a bill for €8000 from his lawyers.

To get a taste of Bob’s work, watch this short video of him being interviewed about the book. It is worth watching even if you don’t speak French, just to see the sort of images that Moulinsart think are a breach of copyright.

Show your support for Bob by joining his Facebook group.