Arriving at St Pancras station’s Eurostar terminal hideously early in the morning, I met Michael Farr, Britain’s foremost expert on the boy reporter, who would be playing Haddock to my Tintin (or perhaps that ought to be Tintin to my Snowy). A friendly chap, whose career as a journalist saw him travelling to many of the locations featured in the books, Farr developed a friendship with the somewhat reclusive Hergé after dressing up their interview as an excuse to go to dinner.
Under the channel, and over breakfast Farr began my crash course in Tintinology by talking about the genesis of the character. Hergé’s brother Paul served as the inspiration for the look, while the resourcefulness, intelligence and wanderlust were, apparently, all aspects of the author’s own personality.
As we rocketed through the French countryside, the conversation focused on Hergé’s interest in film. Even into his 70s he was a passionate cinemagoer, and was, Farr explained, so impressed by Steven Spielberg’s 1971 movie, Duel that he made a point of following the director’s subsequent career. When Farr began researching his biography of Hergé following his death in 1983, he discovered among the many documents and private papers a note written by the Tintin creator stating ‘If there’s one man who can bring Tintin to the screen, it’s this young, American director’. While the note didn’t explicitly name Spielberg, Farr believes there is no doubt it refers to him*.
Eventually, after a surprisingly short journey, we pulled into our destination. Almost as soon as we had disembarked the fondness the population of Brussels have for Tintin became clear. Walking towards the exit we were confronted with a huge picture, a scene from Tintin in America, several thousand times larger than the original illustration, hung on the wall of the Gare du Midi. Outside there was an even larger piece of Hergé-inspired public art, the rotating heads of Tintin and Snowy, atop the Lombard Building in the city centre.
The Tintin tribute artwork was great to look at, but wasn’t really helping with my quest to become a Tintin expert, so we headed to a small town just outside of Brussels called Louvain la Neuve to visit the Musée Hergé. Set up after his death, the original plan had been to site the museum in the centre of Brussels. When a suitable site couldn’t be found, the trustees of Hergé’s estate looked further afield, and Louvain la Neuve, a fifty minute drive from the capital, became the preferred option. To help seal the deal, the road on which the museum would be situated was renamed ‘Rue du Labrador’ after the fictional street on which Tintin lived.
This change and the effects of World War II in general had an influence over Hergé’s work. Due to paper shortages that worsened throughout the occupation, the strips became smaller and shorter. Because each strip needed to encourage readers to return the following week, this almost certainly will have affected the pacing of the overall stories. More importantly, the style of story Hergé could tell was constrained. Previously adventures with Soviets and Americans were acceptable, and German villains were commonplace. This was now impossible for fear of censorship or retribution, and as a consequence Tintin’s adventures became much more escapist. It was during this period that Hergé wrote The Secret of The Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure, the books from which the film draws most heavily.
The end of the War and the liberation of Belgium was a double edged sword for Hergé. While he was no longer under any state enforced creative control, the entire staff of Le Soir were subject to sanction for the support the paper had given the Nazi occupiers. The worst collaborators were executed, but even those who did not actively support the Nazis were banned from working in the news media for several years, Hergé included.
Curiously, this temporary exile from the world of publishing (it finally ended with the launch of the Tintin comic in 1946) actually led to Hergé’s first brush with Hollywood. While struggling to find work post war, he wrote a letter to Disney, suggesting that the company make a Tintin movie. When he received no response, he wrote again. This time someone within the company responded with a curt reply, politely but firmly explaining that Hergé’s hero would be of no interest to the company.
Of course, while a Tintin film was of no interest to the House of Mouse, it was of a great deal of interest to the many millions of fans around the world, and although it’s taken over eighty years for Hollywood to film their take on the stories, there have been several previous attempts to bring him to the screen.
In the 1960s, two live action movies featuring Tintin were produced. Rather than adapting the books, the filmmakers came up with their own adventures for the character, the first sending Tintin, Snowy and Haddock off on a quest for gold, the second with them tracking down the source of some curiously coloured oranges. Around the same time, the Belgian company Belvision created an animated series called ‘Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin’. Although the episodes were based on the books, they were rather liberal adaptations, renaming some locations, removing references to alcohol, and in some cases, altering the plot of the story entirely. While both attempts may have had the best of intentions, the final products were, according to most Tintin fans, somewhat lacking, and neither the live action films, nor the Belvision series are particularly well regarded, or well remembered today.
The 1990s saw another series of animated adaptations of the books, this time produced by French company Ellipse, and Canadian company Nelvana. These were much more respectful to the original source material, and were also much more prolific. By the end of the series, all but three books,Tintin and the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo and Tintin and Alph-Art, had been produced. This series was relatively successful, and certainly the most well-known adaptation so far. Indeed, given the popularity of the series, it is likely that for many of those who will eventually see Spielberg’s movie, it will have been their first, if not only exposure to the character.
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is out in cinemas today. You can read our review of it here, and don’t forget to check out our premiere coverage as well.
*And while there’s absolutely no evidence to support this, I firmly believe that it was written after watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.