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TINTIN Is Turning Into A Total Circus

post #1 of 22
12/15/07 at 10:47pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.chud.com/news/12944
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post #2 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:03pm
Guano-gatherer!, indeed.

Speilberg better not get Shia.
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post #3 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:19pm
Thread Starter 
Spielberg tried to buy the option ~25 years ago ('83?) and Dreamworks snagged it a while back.

In the States this series isn't that well known but it is massive in other countries. And come on, these two guys (combined with Moffat, who's brought the goods on television) can potentially make a fun movie out of anything. The TINTIN books are classic adventure and ripe for the picking, even with the (often valid) complaints about some of Herge's attitudes.

Lumping this in with UNDERDOG and THUNDERBIRDS is just ridiculous.
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post #4 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:26pm
Quote:
even with the (often valid) complaints about some of Herge's attitudes.


Seriously, the stuff as seen above is just in the very early stories. Herge was a very compassionate guy, and really put in the effort to rectify past misdeeds and spread the gospel of love. They're great comics for kids.
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post #5 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:26pm
I'm fairly sure Tintin (and reading) is not that popular in the United States — if he ever was. The rest of the world, however, eats that minimally-violent, slightly homoerotic shit up. Which explains cowardly Europeans. I wager that proven material; with an established audience and a distinct lack of sex, politics, and women; in the hands of two popular directors will do just fine. On the other hand, the global scope and cultural exploration may prove confusing to American audiences.
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post #6 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul McCartney
We can only pray that Spieberg opts for Tintin in the Congo, and Jackson takes on Tintin in Thailand.
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post #7 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul McCartney
Seriously, the stuff as seen above is just in the very early stories. Herge was a very compassionate guy, and really put in the effort to rectify past misdeeds and spread the gospel of love. They're great comics for kids.
True that.
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post #8 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:35pm
Not scanned: the scene where Tintin tries to rally local Negros into fixing a railway, only to be met with responses such as "Me tired" and "But... me get dirty".
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post #9 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:46pm
Russ, it seems to me the logical first story to adapt would be the Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure storyline. It introduces Professor Calculus, who was one of the major characters, and while Haddock was already part of the cast at that point, he gets a memorable entrance that's essentially a "reintroduction". Also, at the end of that storyline, Tintin, Haddock and the professor all basically move in together, which is the essential setup for all the rest of the stories. It's probably the best "origin" you could hope for.

The other logical stories to adapt are the Inca storyline (The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun) and the one where they all go to the moon, though that's pretty dated now, obviously. The Cigars of the Pharoah and Black Lotus arc is another possible good bet, except no Haddock or Calculus in that one.
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post #10 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:50pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info.

Also, there's no promise that Serkis will be in all three, or that if he is, he'll be Haddock in all of them, if he's even Haddock at all.

Lotta speculation, still.
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post #11 of 22
12/15/07 at 11:55pm
I could see Serkis playing Thompson and Thomson.

Adapting EXPLORERS ON THE MOON is a tricky one. Not because it's dated; stick to the fantasy, which it is, and they'll do fine. It's the most disproportionate 2-parter - the first half is stone-cold boring, while the second is among the most nail-biting shit I've ever read in any medium. It's a coin-toss as to whether to bother with it.

They might have to do it, though, simply because the 1-parters wouldn't fill up a feature length.

Although I would love to see THE CASTAFIORE EMERALD: a moody, funny red-herring locked room mystery confined entirely to Haddock's mansion.
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post #12 of 22
12/16/07 at 12:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FreeRobotSex
I suppose my statement wasn't necessarily directed towards quality, but impact.
So let's talk about potential impact. UNDERDOG and THUNDERBIRDS were terribly limited in what they could have been. Without breaking wildly away from the source, each only had the potential to offer limited characters and story points. They were marketing, little more.

TINTIN is one of the most enduring examples of comics/ graphic novels/ sequential art. With slight changes (remove traces of colonialism, etc) it can be made universal in the same way that the appeal of Indiana Jones is universal.

There's no comparison.
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post #13 of 22
12/16/07 at 12:45am
The other tricky thing about the Destination Moon storyline is that it's rigourously scientific, by the standards of the time. It's not like they fight moon monsters or anything. Don't get me wrong, it's a gripping story and all, but it doesn't seem like the best use of the medium of animation, when it would probably actually be cheaper to shoot in live action. Hell, you could have filmed it back in the 50s, when it was first written.

None of the Tintin movies are that fantastical for the medium of comics, actually. Only a handful of them feature really weird shit (the aforementioned Tintin in Tibet has a Yeti, Flight 715 gets into X-Files territory, and there's my favourite when I was a kid, Tintin and the Shooting Star, which is probably the most surreal and visual of the stories. Giant mushrooms and apple trees shooting up in the space of minutes. So awesome.
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post #14 of 22
12/16/07 at 1:04am
If it's a likely Unicorn/Rackham thing, I'd be partial to a Calculus Affair third option.

I'd bet on Serkis being Calculus, or the inevitable "voice" of Snowy.
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post #15 of 22
12/16/07 at 2:01am
I'm proud to report that my nieces, aged 6 and 3, are already well into the Tintin library, so maybe there's some hope for us 'Murricans yet.

And I agree-- the ripest stories for film adaptation are Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure and Tintin in Tibet. I'd like to see something done with The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun too.
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post #16 of 22
12/16/07 at 4:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt OCallaghan
I may be in a post alcohol haze but Im pretty sure I've seen a live action Tin Tin years ago- a foreign effort I think.
There were a couple of French/Belgian productions in the early '60s. I've only seen still photos but they look pretty bad. And they weren't based on any of the books.
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post #17 of 22
12/16/07 at 4:33am
I'm visiting my parent's place right now and this thread has made me dig through my old boxes and find my old Tintins.

I second (or is it third?) the notion of starting Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure. That was where, to me at least, the series finally worked out most of it's kinks and settled into an interesting groove. Most of the relationships that are most equated with Tintin are cemented there, and it stands as a fairly good story on its own rights.

Also, do any of you remember the old Tintin cartoon? All of the heroin smugglers Tintin encountered in the books mysteriously became "diamond" smugglers.
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post #18 of 22
12/16/07 at 2:45pm
First off, I'm thrilled that this project actually seems to be going somewhere. I don't know about the rest of my fellow Americans, but I was raised on TinTin, Asterix, and to a lesser extent, Lucky Luke.

Which story to tackle is a very tricky business indeed. I think Russ's suggestion of the Crab with the Golden Claws is a good possibility. The Cigars of the Pharaoh would also be great.

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster
The other tricky thing about the Destination Moon storyline is that it's rigourously scientific, by the standards of the time. It's not like they fight moon monsters or anything.
Yeah, I think that storyline would be a little tame to make into a movie today, decades after the moon was reached in real life.

Quote:
and there's my favourite when I was a kid, Tintin and the Shooting Star, which is probably the most surreal and visual of the stories. Giant mushrooms and apple trees shooting up in the space of minutes. So awesome.
There may be some PC issues if they tackle that one.

I don't care for the sci-fi influenced stories as much as the Indy Jones/James Bond ones.

For the teaser trailer perhaps they could just cut together a minute of Haddock swearing.



I wonder how open they will be about Haddock's alcoholism.

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post #19 of 22
12/16/07 at 3:28pm
Mostly, I'm excited to see how Spielberg and Jackson synthesize their individual (albeit similar) sensibilities into a coherent trilogy.
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post #20 of 22
12/16/07 at 4:03pm
Why would Shooting Star be un-PC? It involves a voyage to the Arctic to find a piece of comet that's floating in the ocean.
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post #21 of 22
12/16/07 at 7:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster
Why would Shooting Star be un-PC? It involves a voyage to the Arctic to find a piece of comet that's floating in the ocean.
It was written while Herge was working under German occupation. The scientists in Tintin's expedition are all from Axis or neutral nations, and the "evil" opposing expedition is American and led by an apparently Jewish businessman. Of course, after the war those details were changed in subsequent publications.
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post #22 of 22
12/16/07 at 9:29pm
Oh, I see. Yeah, I know most of the Tintin books have been redrawn, some of them several times. I guess I saw a later edition, though now that you've said that I can see how the guy behind the "evil" expedition did kinda look like a Jewish caricature.
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