f you’ve ever perused the children’s section in a bookstore or traveled to Europe, chances are that you’ve heard of Tintin. It’s a Belgian adventure series created by comic book legend Hergé about a young investigative journalist named Tintin, his pet dog, and the abrasive alcoholic sea captain who is his best friend. Together they travel the world, getting into a variety of comedic and exciting adventures. While the comics are certainly known in North America, they are primarily read overseas where Tintin is an international phenomenon. The series began in the 1930s and has already been adapted in to five separate films in Europe (both animated and live-action), but has yet to receive the Hollywood treatment…all that is about to change thanks to the continued efforts of Senior Spielbergo.

Steven Spielberg first discovered the Tintin franchise in the early 80s after a film critic favorably compared Raiders Of The Lost Ark to the long-running franchise. Spielberg quickly became fascinated by Tintin and bought the rights for a film adaptation immediately. He lost and retained the rights for a Tintin movie a number of times over the years, but was never able to translate the comic book to the big screen. However, all that changed after the director discussed the project with lifelong Tintin fan Peter Jackson.

Jackson had been experimenting with motion capture technology with his special effects company Weta Digital and was looking for the opportunity to produce a full length motion capture film (a la Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf). When Spielberg mentioned his desire to make a Tintin movie, Jackson immediately leapt on the idea and had Weta work on some early designs. For months Jackson and co. toiled on a 20 minute Tintin demo real that showed the potential of a photo-real motion capture Tintin universe. Spielberg was so impressed by what he saw that the bearded one immediately decided to collaborate with Jackson on not one, but three Tintin features.