Have Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson found their Tintin? According to U.K. website Daily Mail, 17-year-old actor Thomas Sangster (Nanny McPhee, Love, Actually) appears to be the frontrunner to play the classic comic-book hero in a trilogy of films to be made with motion-capture technology a la Beowulf and Monster House. The young Londoner has apparently been in Los Angeles working with Spielberg and Jackson on pre-production test shots.
Created by Georges Remi under the pen name Herg’, the comic strip The Adventures of Tintin first appeared in a Belgian newspaper in 1929. The tales of the young, traveling reporter and his dog, Snowy, have since been published in 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books have sold over the past 70 years. Two live-action Tintin films and three animated features were made in the ’50s and ’60s, and a pair of television series adapted the comic-strip stories with animation.
This latest incarnation from Jackson and Spielberg will be completely digital. Spielberg, who optioned the film rights in the early 1980s, will direct the first film in the series, with Jackson handling the second. The two may team up to co-direct the third, though there are rumors that James Cameron may round out the trilogy. The only casting news to be confirmed thus far has Jackson favorite Andy Serkis (King Kong, The Lord of the Rings) signed up to play Tintin’s best pal, Captain Haddock.
Sangster is next set to appear in Bright Star, a historical love story about romantic poet John Keats. The film is being helmed by Oscar-winning director Jane Campion (The Piano), and will star Ben Whishaw as Keats and Abbie Cornish as his lover, Fanny Brawne.
