Spielberg to Produce Live-Action Tintin Movie (s)

jtauber writes "Looks like the Adventures of Tintin may be the next series of books to be turned into a film franchise with Spielberg in talks to acquire the rights. See the Marlinspike for more information." Tintin was one of my favorite "book" type comics growing up - and they've released collections.

Comments

Snowy

[ocie]

As long as they don't pick a goofy voice for snowy. His thoughts were some of the funniest parts of the book, but he wasn't goofy. Closer to Brain than Scooby. He also found a lot of the clues, even if accidentally.

Been done already...

[KFK - Wildcat]

There is an older movie, Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964) that was made for the big screen before...
It was quite boring though, and didn't feel at all like the comics.

My guess is that this new one will be an entertaining movie, but still miles away from the original Tintin envisionned by Hergé.

complete list...

[avdp]

Accapareur, amiral de bateau-lavoir, amphitryon, anacoluthe, analphabète, analphabète diplômé, anthropophage, anthropopitèque, apache, apprenti-dictateur à la noix de coco, arlequin, astronaute d'eau douce, athlète complet, autocrate,...

Here is a complete list of "insults" (in french). He has quite a collection of them, each more entertaining than the other, and none are even remotely like f*ck, *ss, etc. All banal words from the dictionary, used creatively :)

Ahhh... I love Tintin. Being Belgian I grew up on these "comics" (a term that really doesn't do justice to the art, at least not the Begian/French kind of "comics"). Aside from owning the whole collection, I have several older copies with my dad's dedication in them (got them for birthday gifts, etc) which makes them even more valuable to me.

I am also a fairly big fan of Spielberg - with E.T. being the first major movie I have ever seen, and I still remember going to see it (in Belgium) when I was 11 like it was yesterday! I just hope he doesn't screw this up!

Re:This is wrong.

[b0r1s]

I saw the subject of your post, and expected something totally different. Nobody else has said it yet, so here it goes:

So far this week, everyone's complained about the RIAA and the MPAA attempting to enforce their copyrights. The clear example of this is http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/24/20 10223&mode=nested&tid=103. Every time the MPAA and RIAA attempt to enforce their copyrights, the slashdot crew criticizes both: they're evil, monopolistic, capitalistic entities who care only for money rather than the art their businesses are founded on.

Then a movie comes out, and everything changes. The MPAA is evil, until they release Lord of the Rings, and then movies are great. Then the MPAA is evil again, until Harry Potter comes out, and then movies are the best thing ever. Then the MPAA enforces its copyrights, and they're evil. Now another movie comes out, and everyone flip-flops again.

I suppose consistency is too much to ask for on a site dominated by group think.

Re:Tintin?

[Stauf]

... Not only do the youth culture of today (and lets face it, its the kids buying tickets that make the box-office money) have no idea who Cuthbert Calculus is, let alone Tintin...

The hell is this?

My youngest brother (14) knows who Tintin is. He borrowed them religiously from the school library until he had read every single one. His friends have read Tintin (he lent out his copies).

In fact, just a minute ago he was really excited because I just told him that /. had a story saying there'd be a Tintin movie.

Maybe, just maybe, American children don't know who Tintin is. Maybe hes big in Europe (where we bought a half dozen Tintin books for the first time). Maybe Tintin isn't an American thing, so perhaps you've just got yourself a terribly narrow outlook on the world. Maybe.

Re:This is wrong.

[Elwood P Dowd]

I'm glad someone understands.

A lot of the stuff that kids liked about tintin was just the Hardy Boys + James Bond story line. Which really wasn't so special.

The innovative thing about tintin was the art. An uncommon thing about tintin was the feel. If Speilberg just copies the plot of one of the comics, it'll be worthless trash. That won't bother me too much, even though I read plenty of them when I was a kid.

However, if he uses some new digital process technique to reference the subtly different solid colors of the comic, and he lets it stay innocent, that'd be excellent.

I hate Speilberg more than anyone I know. But he doesn't always make action movies, and sometimes he can do good things with the look of a movie. Compare AI to Minority Report to Private Ryan. Actually, the unifying characteristic of those three movies is the contrast and dark blacks. That would kindof kill any attempt to copy the look of Herge's art.

Whatever. Tintin was one of my first experiences being disappointed by the fact that a storyteller was using formula. I felt ripped off. I'm more upset that those sons of bitches are destroying The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Sure, it's not a classic, but it could make an excellent fucking movie. 'Scuse me.

Tintin books in UK English?

[abischof]

So, apparently the books are available as a collection now, but does anyone know where I can find Tintin in the UK English translations? (seriously)

Tintin has been translated into many languages, probably dozens. And, I can attest that there are both UK English editions and US English editions; however, the US English editions are horrible. I'm an American, so you can be assured that this isn't some wacky British pride clouding my judgement, but something was just not right in the US English versions.

So, does anyone know where I can buy the UK English editions of Tintin? Part of my problem is that, even if I can find Tintin for sale online (not that hard, I suppose), I'm not sure how to be certain which edition I'd be buying.

sans Women

[katalyst]

The Tintin comics also explicitly left out women from its plots except for Bianca who was more of an ogre than a woman ! Also, the Tintin comics had an excellent sense of humour. Thomson and Thompson, Snowy ,Haddok.. its possible. The movies may end up being a lot like the Indiana Jones movies - exotic locations such as Nepal and India, the supernatural touch , the scifi touch. And as quite a few posts claim that Americans aren't familiar with Tintin, it might actually work regardless of the fact that it doen's even vaguely match the original Tintin. It would be looked upon as a new blockbuster... My opinion - go for it!

Unadaptable

[olrik666]

I'm French-Canadian and I've read the Tintin comic-books about 10-20 times each since I was a tike. When I re-read these books as an adult, I take great pleasure in them, but I also see their limitations. Adapting them for a modern movie audience as the books *are*, they'll bomb. They will have to be re-written for the most part, and all I can see is that they'll be "Indiana Jones" knock-offs. It does not matter who'll produce/direct/write those films. They'll be anything *but* what Tintin is/was. I would prefer if they simply bought the rights to the Tintin name and write completely new stuff. At least I'd be mildly interested.

The Animated Tintin

[GrimSean]

I know Nelvana used to have a animated version of Tintin (pick it from the pull down) that ran in both english and french up here in Canada. If Nelvana sounds familiar to you, it's probably because they also do Magic School Bus, Franklin, and any other number of kid cartoons you've seen.

It was where I was first introduced to him, and, had I not checked out a few of the original graphic novels by Herge, I wouldn't have even known that Snowy was supposed to 'talk'. He was just animated as a rather intuitive dog, much like Brain on Inspector Gadget, less the intuitive hand gestures and knack for disguises. If I remember correctly, the animation was pretty true to the original artwork.

There's an episode breakdown for you here, for those of you who are interested. It is Ten years old, but it still runs occasionally on the weekends (up here on YTV)

Re:Live action Tintin actually dates back to the 6

[Monsieur_F]

The problem with these movies is that the actors did not have the same voices as in the books !

(This was said by a kid when the movie got out, and I think I agree with him)

Anyway, it is astonishing how much Jean-Pierre Talbot looks like Tintin. Well, this was the only reason why he was hired for the job, as he does not seem to have played in any other movie before or afterwards.

That's anyway better than to have Christian Clavier as Asterix (sigh)