Think Belgium, think comics and you’ll think of Tintin. Try it again, and Belgium’s only other literary export springs to mind. Yes, its those annoyingly happy Smurfs. Like Tintin they are also going to get a live action / CGI film.

Source: Smurf Movie News

Not a lot happening on the Tintin Movie front at the moment. Filming due to start in September, cast not yet announced sums it all up. However, Tintin remains a cultural force, cropping up all over the place.

Bartholome Marquez, the new manager of the Espanyol football team has joined a long list of people, including politicians, to be nick-named Tintin: New adventure for Tintin

On the Tintinologist forum, Pharaoh spotted an interesting plot twist that was lost in the translation into English: Tintin in America: Bad News

Finally, blogger Jordan Hurder, explores his own fascination with Tintin and makes a few pointed observations.

4. In German, Tintin is called “Tim.” Why do they have to be so efficient?

…
7. Tintin is supposed to live in the real world, yet he does things that are clearly impossible. In one adventure, he’s stranded in the jungle with only elephants as his company (elephants to whom he relates with polite detachment). To communicate with them, he picks up a tree branch and handily uses a pocketknife to carve it into a giant trumpet that he then uses to approximate the sound of elephant speech. (Aside from the impossibility of approximating elephant speech, there is also the obvious difficulty of hollowing out a 4-foot solid branch of wood using a two inch pocketknife.) The scene where he asks the elephant to spout water out of its trunk so he can shower under it has to be seen to be believed. Also, he showers in his boxers, presumably because Herge didn’t want to show nudity. But is there a bigger secret being hidden here? In another episode, he kills an ape, cuts off its head, and puts its skin on like a suit in order to blend in with the other apes. And it’s not supposed to be gross at all. Gross.

Source: Tintin, Your Flipped up Tuft of Hair is the Least Curious Thing About You

A horse called Tintin In America won a race and beat the course time. I only mention this because I thought pedigree horses could not use copyrighted names and because I would of called the horse The Shooting Star.

From: Tintin In America gets the job done

A quick hello to everyone who is linking to Tintin Movie. Including the Art / Design blog Lout Shelter, the map mad folks at Google Maps Mania, Maktaaq andSmall Thoughts.

Rather than doing any proper work I’ve been browsing Flickr for Tintin related photos. My favourite is this composite of Château de Cheverny, the real world inspiration for Marlinspike, and Herge’s vision of it. Check on the Tintin Map for Marlinspike’s real location.

I was also taken by this “Tintin in a blender” shot” and the knitted Tintin rocket.

Still want more. Try these
Tintin fire escape; Fantastic Tintin halloween lantern; Desktop Destination Moon ; Milou .

When Tintin and Snowy are cast a drift in sarcophagi during Cigars of the Pharaoh they are rescued by a passing arms dealer. That man was based on Henry de Monfreid, a french drug smuggler who became famous after the publication of the autobiographic Hashish: A Smuggler’s Tale and Secrets of the Red Sea.

Monfreid first went to the Red Sea in 1911 with the intent of trading in coffee but spent the next thirty years smuggling guns, hashish and diving for pearls. He also spent a fair amount in prison because of this. Following the outbreak of World War II he worked for the Italians until captured by the British. When the war was over he retired to France and continued to write. Over the next 30 years he wrote about 70 books. When money got tight he mortgaged the family collection of Gauguin. After his death these paintings were found to be fake.

Hashish: A Smuggler’s Tale was published in the early thirties just when Herge was writing Cigars of the Pharaoh. It seems odd that the conservative, strait-laced Herge should put a character like Monfreid in his book but one can imagine the exotic, devil-may-care, existence of the smuggler would appeal to the shy Belgium who had never left his country. Though possible it was Monfreid attitude to Germans that appeal. On seeing the Pyramids he couldn’t wait to leave. Saying “The only thing that one might possibly admire is the stupendous effort it took to build them, and this admiration demands the mentality of a German tourist.”

Tintin made his first appearance on January 10th, 1929. So happy birtheday to Tintin and Snowy though not to Captain Haddock, the Thompson Twins or Professor Calculus as they didn’t appear for several more years.

Can you spot the cover of Tintin in Tibet in this music video?

There are lots more Tintin cameos in this list on Tintinologist.

The Inveresk Street Ingrate has an excellent suggestion about which book to make as the third film.

Tintin And The Mystery Of The Golden Fleece plus Tintin And The Blue Oranges, the first and second live action Tintin films made in 1960′s seem to be available in Australia. No sign of them having a UK or US release.

Le Tintin Movie, despite its name, is an English language blog about the Tintin Movie.

Crooked Timber has a great post and an excellent discussion in the comments on advice to (American) Librarians about Tintin in America

Picked up from the Crooked Timber post is this page of what Captain Haddock says in the Danish editions of the Tintin books including “Pocket-Mussolini! Mackerel-eater! Carnival pirate! Fatbladder!” .

Dom Joly is mad about Tintin.

A Tintin fire escape on Flickr.

I’m afraid I don’t understand a word on this site, PierreTintin, but it has a lot of non-English Tintin links and resources. Amongst many other things, it hosts a document [ PDF ] looking at Nyon, on the shore of Lake Geneva, and how Herge used it in The Calculus Affair. Again, non-English, but the pictures are worth a look. You can also check out the locations on used in The Calculus Affair and all the Tintin books using the Tintin Map.

Source: Nyon: Following the Tracks of Tintin and Snowy