Movie News II

On 16 May, news came out about the proposed Tintin movies. Steven Spielberg announced on 14 May that he and Peter Jackson had signed on to make three films about Tintin.
Both directors will each make a feature based on a different Tintin adventure and a third director, yet to be named, will direct the final film.
Spielberg told Variety magazine: "We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honour the distinctive look of the characters and world that Hergé created."
"We're making them look photo-realistic," said Spielberg. "The fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people - but real Herge people."
Jackson says WETA will stay true to Remi's original designs in bringing the cast of Tintin to life, but that the characters won't look cartoonish. The pictures will be produced in full digital 3-D using performance capture technology. Jackson and Weta Digital, the team that created King Kong and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, have apparently already made a 20-minute test reel.
Variety says Spielberg has been trying to get the film rights to Tintin for 25 years. He realized that goal in the past year and since then he and Jackson have begun developing the project.
It has not been announced which of the Tintin stories will feature in the films but a rumour (I can’t find the reference) suggests that each film will feature stories from two books each.

Just when I thought the cupboard was bare

I have just discovered Tintinoligist.org. It used to be called The Cult of Tintin and is a website for Tintin fans. It has forums where people can discuss Tintin trivia and it lets me know what is happening in the world Tintin-wise. For instance, I found out about a Tintin video event put on by the British Film Institute in London. The showing included television interviews with Herge, the documentary Tintin and Me, and an english-dubbed version of Tintin and the Golden Fleece. It sounded like a fantstic event. Even better was a Tintin seminar as part of the Tintin and the Sea exhibition at a maritime museum in London. This had lectures by the english translators of the Tintin books and someone from the company that looks after Herge's estate and owns the rights to Tintin. Again, sounded fantastic.
I also discovered more works in the TIntin library. The colour version of Tintin in the Congo has been translated into English - I thought that was never going to happen. Apparently it has a warning band wrapped around it, effectively apologising for the depictions of Africans in the book. The black and white versions of Tintin in America, The Cigars of the Pharoh, and the Blue Lotus have all been translated into english. Flight 714 is now named Flight 714 to Sydney. While not Tintin, another of Herge's creations, Jo, Zette and Jocko has had their first two stories translated and put into one volume. Apparently it was done in the early nineties but copies keep turning up infrequently at the Tintin shop in London. I think the black and white Tintin in America is now sold out, but these other finds are still available.
I have always wanted the first colour versions of the Black Island and the Land of Black Gold, but rather than serach out the french versions, I will keep my ear to the ground via Tintinoligist to see if there is any chance of them being translated.