“There will be no cell phones, no TV sets, no modern cars. Just timeless Europe.” – Steven Spielberg

Le Monde magazine interviewed Steven Spielberg about his work on Tintin. The interview was presumably done in English and translated to French for publication and I’m translating it back into English via Google so the wording may not be spot on. However, the meaning is clear, the Tintin movie will not be some hideously re-imagining of Tintin. Spielberg goes on to say.

“Peter Jackson and I have the opportunity to honor the art of Hergé, his tone, his palette, his characters.” He denies [The translation is garbled here, possibly "to amend the famous Tintin tuft"?] He added: “The body language is very important. There is no question of touching it. We religiously respect the art of Hergé.”

From this interview, it certainly sounds like the Tintin movie will stick closely to the classic Tintin look-and-feel though they have previously described it as “film noir”. We may have a better idea in the new year as Peter Jackson has previously indicated that the first images of the CGI will be released in January.

Also due in January is an announcement on Peter Jackson’s choice of books for his film or films. The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun are widely tipped as favourites.

Source: Steven Spielberg révèle ses secrets pour adapter Tintin au cinéma (via Spielberg, Jackson Talk More “Tintin”).

Gad Elmaleh, the Moroccan actor and performer, who is appearing in Tintin:Secret of the Unicorn as Omar Ben Salaad, talks about Tintin and Spielberg.

I have to confess that my French is almost non-existent so I have no idea what he is saying. So here is a sample of Gad Elmaleh in English.

By way of a Tintin reference, I stumbled on to one of the best ideas for blog in a long, long time.

The Highland Literacy Reading Blog is a blog about books, which is great but nothing special. Except that this blog is written by children of the Highland region of Scotland and is run the by Highland education department. Children all over the highlands of Scotland can read a book and then, with the help of a teacher, write a review and publish it for friends, family and the world to see.

Not only does this encourage children to read books but it also encourages them write and think about the books. Exactly the sort of activities we want, we need, children to be doing. It is also a great way for children to discover new books they might like. Something that is becoming increasingly hard as libraries and independent book stores continue to close.

The blog is supported by Borders book store in Inverness which is a shrewd investment by the company. They offer book tokens for the best reviews and a 10% off coupon.

The range of books reviewed is excellent. From the Horrible History series through Tintin and on to The Diary of Anne Frank. The reviews themselves are excellent because they miss out all the rubbish an adult would put in the review and instead focus on what is important. Such as this review of Fledge Star by Titania Woods.

I didn’t really like this book because I am not into fairies. People who like fairies and mythical creatures would like this book more than I did. It was easy to understand, it was set in a tree which some people might quite like. I’m glad I read this book because I can now recommend it to other people.

And here is the review for The Crab with a Golden Claw.

It is  very funny.  The captain always gets drunk:) It is  never boring I always enjoyed reading it.  I have read 5 before TinTin is sooooo funny. At the start  snowy (his dog) is trying to get something to eat.  Snowy gets a tin with A CRAB WITH GOLDEN CLAWS and almost gets cut.      i think it is one on the best TinTin books  in the series.  10 OUT OF 10.

I think every school district should have a web site like the Highland Literacy Reading Blog. Congratulations to everyone involved in setting it up and keeping it going.

John Williams is composing the soundtrack for the first Tintin movie, Secret of the Unicorn but putting together a full orchestral score is not the work of one man. Conrad Pope, a long time collaborator with Williams is working on the orchestration of the score and spoke to the John William Fan Network.

I’m currently orchestrating a large piece with a number of ideas. The main theme is highly energetic, filled with great tonal twists and turns, reflecting, I suspect, Tintin’s heroic energy. It will become a classic, I think. To give more information would be to reveal things that I don’t think JW would want to say.


We are at the beginning of the process. The main scoring sessions are off in February.

Source: Williams Orchestrator Talks ‘Tintin’ Score via Trilha sonora de Tintim pode se tornar um clássico and La musique du prochain film Tintin.

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 ….. ?

A couple of interesting bits of cast news.

Gad Elmaleh, a Moroccan who has achieved success by doing one man shows and very well received French language films is to play Omar Ben Salaad. Interestingly, Salaad only appears in The Crab with the Golden Claw so it looks like the film is going to weave several stories together.

Before the film title was announced I speculated that The Crab with the Golden Claws would be the first film because it introduces Captain Haddock. The appearance of Salaad suggests that the film will cover Tintin meeting Haddock and then discovering the Unicorn’s treasure. This would form a good story arc but leaves a lot to fit in one film.

The other bit of casting news is that Toby Jones, best known as Dobby the House Elf from the Harry Potter films, will be playing the pickpocket Aristides Silk who appears in The Secret of the Unicorn.

Source: Anchors aweigh for ‘Tintin’

Two minutes of Tintin fun as a couple of Tintin fans and their dog make a homage to The Crab with the Golden Claws

It is all in French, which I don’t speak, but I suspect there are some clever jokes in it. However it is still remarkably recognisable as The Crab with the Golden Claws. Well worth a watch.

Note: I found this on the Facebook group: The Adventures of Tintin. There is also a Tintin group and a Don’t Let Dreamworks Ruin Tintin group.

According to reports in the New Zealand press, the first Tintin film will definitely be based on Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure.

We predicted this back in October last year based on the cast list. However there are a few oddities. The original casting list included characters from The Crab with the Golden Claw and Eric Stoltz has been cast as Dr Krollspell who appears in Flight 714.

Basing the first Tintin movie on the Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure makes a lot of sense. They are good, solid adventure stories with a straight forward plot that has a lot in common with Indiana Jones adventures. They also introduce Professor Calculus and by the end of it, Captain Haddock has Marlinspike manor.

Source: Details released about first Tintin movie

Tintin in Tibet was my favourite Tintin book when I was a child and remains so as an adult. I’m sort of glad they aren’t doing it as the film because I don’t think a film can capture the stillness of the book. Instead they are doing movies of The Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham’s Treasure and the Crab With The Golden Claws.

The Yeti from Tintin in Tibet always stood out to me as a character. Unlike other characters from the books, the Yeti isn’t motivated by money or power. He’s not a spy, a criminal, a freedom fighter or a repressed minority. He is driven by real emotion to rescue and tend the injured Chang. The Yeti’s loneliness when Chang is taken away by Tintin has real pathos.

Naturally a blog called I Love the Yeti caught my eye. Its looking are the changing face of the Yeti over the years and is best summed up in the post Yeti in Popular Culture and Tintin of course gets a mention.

Casting for the Tintin Movie has begun and we can be sure that The Secret of the Unicorn / Red Rackham’s Treasure will be the basis for one of the films at least. They are casting the Bird Brothers, Nestor, Sakharine (one of the people after the model ship), Aristides Silk (the pick pocket) and Red Rackham himself who are all in The Secret of the Unicorn. Mrs Finch (Tintin’s Landlady) and two kidnappers (presumably Allen & Ernie from the cast list) have a seen on page 35 of Secret of the Unicorn. Presumably Mr Crabtree is the market stall owner Tintin buy’s the ship from.

In the Crab With The Golden Claws, Mrs Finch makes an appearance plus there are Lt. Delacourt and Ahmed from the fort in Afghar (page 33). Omar Ben Salaad is the leader of the smugglers. The unnamed seaplane pilot & co-pilot are probably the ones who attack Tintin & Capt Haddock.

Some roles are new and not in the books. Barnaby (an American Interpol Inspector), Merrydew (a rival reporter) and Wetherbuck (Tintin’s Editor). Merrydew and Wetherbuck will possibly appear in multiple films so presumably they have been added to make Tintin’s world a bit more believable. Barnaby may be replacement for Bunji Kuraki, the Japanese police inspector who is kidnapped by the smugglers.

In The Crab With The Golden Claw, Tintin meets Captain Haddock for the first time and in The Secret of the Unicorn, the pair first meet Professor Calculus. By the end of Red Rackham’s Treasure, Captain Haddock owns Marlinspike Hall so this makes a nice development of characters across the films and nicely sets things up for any future films. It is still not clear if this is the cast and plot-lines for just the Jackson and Spielberg films or whether these will cover all three films.

Still, it looks like I was wrong about my predictions of which books would be made in to the films.