:::: my blog.packer photo ::::

Spielberg, Jackson, together on Tintin
From correspondents in Los Angeles
May 15, 2007

HOLLYWOOD heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are to join
forces to direct and produce a series of three films based on the
Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin.

Entertainment journal Daily Variety reported today that the
film-makers would direct at least one of the films each, and serve as
producers on all three.

The report said Tintin had been a long-time pet project for Spielberg,
who finally secured the film rights to the comic series in the past 12
months.

Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
had already developed a test film which had brought the characters
created by George Remi, better known by his pen name Herge, to life,
the report said.

Spielberg said the computer animation technology used for the films
would be unlike anything ever seen.

"Herge's characters have been reborn as living beings, expressing
emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we've seen to date
with computer animated characters," Spielberg said.

"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 Herge created."

Jackson said although the movies would be computer-generated, the
characters would not look cartoonish.

"Instead we're making them look photorealistic, " Jackson said.

"The fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each
individual hair. They look exactly like real people - but real Herge
people."

Spielberg and Jackson have chosen three stories from the 23 Tintin
books published between 1929 and 1976.

The announcement of an alliance between Spielberg and Jackson - two of
the modern masters of cinematic story-telling - comes after news that
the two would work on Jackson's next film, the thriller The Lovely Bones.

The film is based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel which tells the story
of a 14-year-old girl who watches her family from heaven after she is
raped and murdered.