This project had been rumored for quite some time, but at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Spielberg made it official that Tintin would be his next priority. He had been working on a project about the Chicago 7 featuring Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, but has delayed that film so that West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin can do further work on the screenplay. Additional fears regarding a potential Screen Actor’s Guild strike sealed the deal for Spielberg, as this project would allow him to focus on the intensive technical planning necessary for the film during the strike.

Spielberg will direct the first Tintin movie and Jackson will direct the second. For a while there was speculation that the third would be helmed by either George Lucas or James Cameron (who has been developing the current motion capture hardware for his latest film that allows directors to see the final animated world of their movie on a monitor while working with actors on a blue screen in real time). However, the two filmmakers recently decided that they will co-direct the final entry rather than bringing a new director into the franchise.

The Tintin name has a significant fan base who will be disappointed by a movie that is anything less than spectacular. But with two incredibly gifted audience manipulators like Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in charge, it is hard to believe that anything less than a thrilling piece of entertainment will be produced. So far only Andy Serkis (Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings franchise) has signed on to act in the movie-as the drunken sidekick Captain Haddock-but other big names are sure to follow. While its far two early to make any accurate predictions about this franchise now, it’s certainly safe to say that Spielberg and Jackson’s Tintin trilogy has the potential to be a massive international blockbuster. After all, I’m pretty sure those guys have been pretty popular with adventure craving audiences in the past. Didn’t the S-man make movies about some whip wielding archeologist that were popular? And I think that Jackson did a few flicks with a ring, midgets, and monsters that people seemed to enjoy. –PB, News Extensions