Odds & Ends
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Tintin!
If you've been anywhere near the film geek webpages during the week you'll have seen this news: Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg are making movies of Herge's comic book series The Adventure of Tintin. Spielberg in particular has been mentioned in relation to this property before, but it really seems to be moving forward now. Courtesy of Variety:
I have mixed feelings about this whole thing, but I'm certainly very interested. Tintin was a staple of my childhood; as I got a bit older, I cast them aside, deciding that the other big comic book series, Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's Asterix was a bit hipper. Yet I came full circle when I revisited the Tintin books as an adult. They might superficially be pitched a little younger than the jokey Asterix books, but Herge was clearly the superior artist. His beautifully simple graphical style and grasp of the comic book form really sets the Tintin books apart. He also showed remarkable facility at different genres: the Tintin books range from the full-blown adventure of sending Tintin to the moon (in Explorers on the Moon) to the minimalist house-bound mystery of The Castafiore Emerald, a comic drama where the ultimate joke is that Herge generates a whole book around nothing of consequence. A lot of the books would work really well as films (and several versions already exist in both live action and animation, as you can read here), and both Spielberg and Jackson make sense as directors for the project. Spielberg's Indiana Jones films, for example, are not too far from the spirit of the most adventure-based of the Tintin books, while Peter Jackson, with King Kong particularly, also ventured in something of a similar direction. And who wouldn't like to see the two in a semi-collaboration? Jackson is the George Lucas of the new millennium, and you could imagine him bringing out the best in Spielberg in much the way Lucas did back in the early 1980s with Raiders of the Lost Ark. What worries me a little bit is the references to the animation technology to be used for the project. Peter Jackson's effects house Weta have apparently produced a 20 minute test reel of computer animated motion capture footage. Variety again: Jackson's New Zealand-based WETA Digital, the f/x house behind "The Lord of the Rings" franchise, produced a 20-minute test reel bringing to life the characters created by Remi, who wrote under the pen name of Herge.I would love to see that test footage, and I have enormous respect for the Weta people, who are far and away the best effects house at the moment and who did amazing work in the Lord of the Rings series and King Kong. But it doesn't quite sound right. Herge's signature style is based on simple linework, little shading and flat areas of colour: it is, apparently, one of the definitive examples of what has become known as the ligne clair ("clear line") style. So, for example, here's a classic image of Tintin and Snowy:  The obvious way to film this style is in conventional hand-drawn animation: while not all comic-strip drawing styles can be translated into animation, there's nothing terribly difficult about translating Herge's style. Yet Jackson and Spielberg are avoiding this option, presumably for a combination of reasons. Firstly, neither has a close relationship with a traditional animation shop (since Dreamworks Animation, which Spielberg helped establish, has gotten out of that business). Secondly, it would be harder to distinguish a traditionally animated feature from the earlier Tintin features that have already been made, and computer animation is seen as more marketable anyway. And finally, neither director has the skills to direct a hand-drawn feature themselves, since there's really very little common ground between the process of directing live-action and animation. Motion capture on the Robert Zemeckis / Polar Express model seemingly bridges that gap. It's an illusion, though. As I said when whinging about George Miller's direction of Happy Feet, the idea that live-action directors can capably direct computer-animation is something of a misconception: to date, there has been little evidence that those who have done so have understood the particular qualities of the medium in which they've worked. But perhaps more to the point, it is difficult to see how Herge's style would translate to computer animation. Simple, clean styles like Herge's work well in comic strip or traditional animation, but computer animation doesn't do that kind of thing well. Think of Mickey Mouse: the pure black circles of his ears work really well as a graphical shorthand when drawn, but in computer animation - which is more literal, and makes us resolve shapes into actual volumes - those circles quickly look very strange, like giant bowling balls. It's hard to see how Tintin would be any different. If kept simple, the characters features would quickly become grotesque (Tintin's head would end up looking like a melon), but I can't imagine how the more photo-realistic style Jackson evokes ("the pores of their skin and each individual hair") would reconcile with Herge's style. So I'm just hoping that demo reel really pulled a rabbit out of a hat. One other thing: the Variety story says that Jackson and Spielberg have three stories in mind, but doesn't say which ones. The obvious puzzle is which ones they've chosen. Here are my picks: Tintin in Tibet I think this one's the most certain. It's often cited as Herge's masterpiece, and certainly its beautiful visuals (with its stark white mountain environments) should look great on film. It also has the strongest emotional centre of any of the books, with the adventure being compelled by Tintin's search for his missing friend Chang. Put this down for Jackson. The Seven Crystal Balls / Prisoners of the Sun These two have everything: some occult elements, interesting locations (ranging from Captain Haddock's home at Marlinspike to South America), good stuff for supporting characters like the Thomson twins and Calculus, and lots of big action set-pieces. As long as they fix the silly ending (in which the characters are saved by an eclipse) it should work really well. I'm very confident on these as well, and could see either Jackson, Spielberg, or another director doing them. The Calculus Affair The third one's a bit of a roughie. I could imagine either of the other double volumes (Secret of the Unicorn / Red Rackham's Treasure or Destination Moon / Explorers on the Moon) being tempting, but looking at them, I'm not sure either would film specially well. So my pick is The Calculus Affair; after Tintin in Tibet it's the one I'd make if I were Jackson or Spielberg. If I'm right about the other two, then I think it becomes particularly likely: its espionage thriller style would make a great change from the more swashbuckling tone of the others. The central plot (about the fight for control of a cold war superweapon) is kind of retro but still compelling. And it has some awesome action sequences, including a helicopter / boat chase and another in a tank. Put this down for Spielberg. So there are my guesses. You read it here first. Labels: animation, peter jackson, rumours, spielberg, tintin Posted by Stephen Rowley @ 20.5.07  
|
This page is for assorted musings and editorialising that don't fit elsewhere on Cinephobia. Pulp Muppets The Crudtastic Four All "Bodyguard," All the Time Harry Potter and the Adults Who Read Children's Bo... A Cutting Room Floor a Long Time Ago Here, Under Protest, is "Beef Burgers" April Fools Day Declared Redundant: Real Movie New... Classy And Now James Cameron Presents the Body of Jesus. ... December 2003 May 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 Want to contact me? |