Steven Spielberg’s first foray into animation was a big hit towards the end of 2011, with The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn taking almost $375m. around the world, a slew of awards and nominations, and plenty of critics’ praise. Talk had already been circling about not just one Tintin sequel, but a further two films. And now Steven Spielberg has confirmed that the film is eyeing a Christmas 2015 release date.
During an interview with The Times of India, Spielberg confirmed that Peter Jackson is hoping to shoot the performance capture at the end of this year. And if all goes well, then we’re looking at a Christmas 2015 release slot, following on from the success of the original film’s 21st December release date in the US back in 2011.
“Peter Jackson is directing the next one, I’m producing. We have a script and we’re going to start performance capture probably at the end of this year. Don’t hold me to it, but we’re hoping the film will come out around Christmas-time in 2015. We know which books we’re making, we can’t share that now but we’re combining two books which were always intended to be combined by [Hergé].”
Spielberg refused to elaborate on which two books might be used for the Tintin sequel, but when asked specifically if The Blue Lotus would make up part of the film, he admitted that that would probably be for the third Tintin.
Jackson will be taking to the helm after completing the final set of shoots and post-production for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, coming off the back of the billion-dollar-earner and franchise-starter, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
The original film’s screenplay was penned by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish, and Anthony Horowitz is writing the script this time around.
Judging by the aforementioned interview, it sounds like the script is ready, and all that’s left is for Jackson to shoot it.
Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis are naturally expected to reprise their leading performance-capture roles, along with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Jackson is no doubt going to be very busy in the coming year, completing his Hobbit trilogy, so it’s possible that the shooting schedule could be pushed back slightly, which in turn could affect the release date.
But if all goes smoothly in the coming months (and years), then we’re looking at seeing the Tintin sequel arrive on the big screen over Christmas 2015. Here’s to hoping it will live up to the success of the original.
Source: Thanks to Collider for the heads up.
