Tom Hanks to Play Captain Haddock

The rumour mill is working over time on the Tintin movie. Tom Hanks is the latest name linked to the role of Captain Haddock. Tom Hanks is one of the most famous and successful actors in Hollywood and has won two Oscars in an impressive movie career.

The Tintin movie trilogy is to be brought to fruition by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg.  The fact that Steven Spielberg is central to the project makes Tom Hanks link to play Captain Haddock easier to understand.

Hanks and Spielberg were brought together on two very successful projects one being the acclaimed TV serial Band of Brothers and the other being the film Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan was a successful and critically claimed.

Captain Haddock is very much central to the Tintin series of cartoons. Archibald (the captain’s first name) Haddock was first introduced into the Tintin world in The Crab with the Golden Claws as the Commander of the Karaboudjan.

Captain Haddock is first seen as weak character in the series and also an alcoholic. The longer the Tintin series went on though his character gained in stature and an ultimately volunteers to save the life of Tintin in Tintin in Tibet.

Captain Haddock is a late edition to the Tintin world but is one of his most loved characters. The use of Tom hanks to play him in the movie would be a safe bet as it would guarantee a certain audience who are fans of Hanks. This would help the film sell in America where Tintin isn’t the most well known character. Tintin only preceded Mickey Mouse by a few months and so never really took off in America where they preferred their own plucky mouse to that of some European boy detective.

Spielberg is a life long Tintin fan and hopes to be successful in introducing the boy detective to an American audience. The use of Tom Hanks will help him get there.