You are in > manchester.com  > News > Spielberg 'still directing Tintin', despite rumours

Film

Spielberg 'still directing Tintin', despite rumours

27/08/2008

Steven Spielberg is still attached to direct the first film in a forthcoming Tintin trilogy, his representatives have confirmed.

Herge Studios, the Belgian production company which owns the rights to the famed comic strip character, had said on Tuesday that Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson would helm the first movie.

However, representatives of both Jackson and Spielberg have quashed the Herge remarks, confirming that Spielberg is to direct the first film, to be based on the Tintin books The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure.

Jackson will serve as a producer on the first movie before directing the sequel, the filmmakers' representatives told the Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.

Starring young British actor Thomas Sangster as the lead character, the Tintin films will reunite Jackson with Andy Serkis, with the award-winning actor behind the role of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy to star as Tintin's ally Captain Haddock.

Set to use motion-capture technology, the script for the opener to the Tintin franchise has been penned by Doctor Who writer Stephen Moffat and will be Spielberg's first directing assignment since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Jackson, meanwhile, is set to complete postproduction on The Lovely Bones, his adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestselling novel, before working on the scripts for the two upcoming films based on JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit.

It was revealed last week that Jackson, his partner Fran Walsh and their writing partner Philippa Boyens will reform the writing team behind The Lord of the Rings adaptations to work on The Hobbit scripts with director Guillermo del Toro.