This comment is from IMDB on the film Captain Applejack.

I’m watching this antique Old Dark House mystery on TCM right now and it quickly became evident to me that the film, its first silent incarnation (”Strangers In The Night”) or the play it was adapted from were the first kernel of inspiration for Belgian comic book artist Hergé (Georges Rémi)’s “Secret of the Unicorn” and its sequel “The Treasure of Racham the Red” (1943-1944). More proof that a large part of the inspiration for Hergé’s melodramatic adventures were from rather second-rate Hollywood movies and plots that were very creaky to begin with. What he did with them of course was sheer genius and entirely original. But the basic idea was this: An ordinary man discovers that he is the descendant and inheritor of a famous pirate’s treasure hidden somewhere in an old house. In the process, he has flashbacks of being the pirate himself, which is just what happens to Captain Haddock in those comic books.

A quick Google finds no further information on this, making this comment nothing but pure speculation. Though it is not impossible Herge saw the film, or the original play, it seems unlikely. English language films and plays where not as dominant as they are nowadays. The central idea, that a character has a pirate ancestor with buried treasure is not new either. It is the basis of Treasure Island and is probably much older than that.

Ultimately, this is all just idle, though fun, speculation.

Source: Movie Review: CAPTAIN APPLEJACK (1931)

This picture and news story turned up in my morning reading because the dog’s name is Tintin. Personally, if I had a terrier I would call it Snowy even if it wasn’t white but that is just me.

Tintin is being scanned at a special veterinary CT scanner in New Zealand. Read all about it: CT scanner for Massey

Someone has chopped up a copy of Flight 714 and used it to decorate a notebook. One part of me hates the idea of cutting any book, let alone a Tintin book, to pieces is wrong but another part of me thinks this is great. I want a notebook like that. There is a shot of the inside covers here: the adventures of tin tin and us

Following on from Tintin and Lichtenstein we have another connection between Herge and the world of modern art.

On the left is Georges ‘Herge’ Remi and on the right is Andy Warhol, the man behind pop art and some of the most groundbreaking art of his generation. The photo comes from a brief 2006 article ( Tintin: one of the 20th century’s great heroes ) from the Guardian.

The 20th Anniversary edition of Empire Magazine is out and it has been guest edited by Steven Spielberg. Most importantly, pages 20 – 25 are dedicated to Tintin. After a quick read, here are the highlights:

• The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn will cover parts of the Crab withe Golden Claw and Secret of the Unicorn.
• Red Rackham’s Treasure will be the second film …
• … and is currently in pre-production and has financing.
• A third film is not planned at the moment
• An additional week’s shooting will happen in New Zealand in June
• In the original 20 minute test reel, Jackson played all the parts
• The film will “have this film noir kind of look. Something very atmospheric” – Spielberg

A rumour that Edgar Wright (co-writer of the Tintin script, director of Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim) will direct the third Tintin movie has been running around the net of the last few hours. Slashfilm cut to the chase and asked Edgar on the record about. His response was “Not that I know of. But hey, rumors are fun”.

The rumour appears to have started on IMBD and is most certainly rubbish, not least because Edgar doesn’t know about it. Another reason is that a second film has not been confirmed, let alone a third one. The financial backers of Spielberg and Jackson want to see how well the first one does before they commit to any thing else.

Roy Lichtenstein, one of the great artists of the 20th century, was famous for his cartoony style. His bright colours and overblown, comic book art made his art highly distinctive but also accessible. Like many in the Pop Art movement, he explored the difference between art and crowd pleasing illustration. By taking existing comic book images and reproducing them, complete with Benday Dots, on a large scale, he challenges preconceptions about what is art.

It is not surprising that Liechtenstein should cross paths with Tintin. The bold lines and strong colours of Herge are a natural fit to Liechenstein’s own work. So when his long-time friend, Frederic Tuten, said he was writing a book using the character of Tintin re-imagined as an full grown adult, the artist supplied two pieces of art featuring Tintin.

“Tintin Reading” was used as the cover to Tintin in the New World and shows Tintin reading newspaper as an assassin’s dagger whistles past. In the back ground can be seen a depiction of Henri Matisse’s “Dance (I)“. This reference to Matisse is far from accidental. Matisse use of colour, particularly as part of Fauvism was highly influencal on artist throught out the 20th centry, including Lictenstein.

The second work for the book is entitled “Interior with Painting of Tintin. This looks like an early sketch for the cover work. The scene is almost identical except that Tintin has moved from the foreground and become a painting replacing Matisse’s Dance (i).

Lieutenant Delcourt, the commander of the Afghar desert fort in The Crab with the Golden Claws is being played by scottish actor Tony Curran. The red-hair Glaswegian has a number of very minor roles under his belt but was first noticable in Underworld: Evolution and in the last year or so, he has been landing more significant roles.

“Steven was great. The first thing he said to me was: ‘All this motion capture work is new to me as well, so let’s have some fun with it’.”

Along with Bell, who plays the bequiffed Belgian adventurer, and Craig, in the role of villain Red Rackham, Andy Serkis – who shot to fame as Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings – stars as the whisky- swilling sidekick Captain Haddock in the first of atrilogy of Tintin movies, due for release in 2011.

And Curran admitted the English actor’s experience in performancecapture filming was a valuable asset.

He said: “Andy’s role in the Rings movies was pretty ground- breaking and he also did King Kong. He’s been around the block a few times with motion capture and that certainly helped the rest of us.

“The film will use the movements, expressions and the voices of the actors, but in an authentic, animated form.

“I think that was important for Steven and Peter as they wanted to stay true to the comic-book style of Herge’s original Tintin stories.”

Source: Scots Actor Lands Dream Role in Big Screen Version of Comic Classic

You Tube: Tony Curran in Underworld Evolution and a couple of fan videos – My Immortal Tony, Tony Curran Does He ….. ?

The first on-set photos of the Tintin filming have been released by Empire Magazine

The photo shows Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis in motion capture suits talking to Steven Spielberg. In the background can be seen images from the books, particularly Thompson & Thomson, stuck on the the walls.

The picture comes from Empire Magazie’s 20th anniversary issue which has a special guest editor, Steven Spielberg. More photos are promised when the magazine comes out.

VGRetro is a series of vidCasts reviewing old computer games and episode 11 features a review of Tintin in Tibet for the Sega Mega Drive. I had no idea there had been Tintin videos games before though no doubt there will be for the new films. I’m not going to give too much away but here is the brief summary from the web site “Tintin: It had great books, but an awfully bad game… “