Jackson Finds His Captain Haddock For the Tintin Movie

Peter Jackson who is to direct one of the Tintin movies (three movies r planned) has found his Captain Haddock or so the Hollywood rumour mill suggests. Anyone who s familiar with Peter Jackson’s work will be familiar with the name Andy Serkis as they worked together during the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

The Tintin movie is going to have a similar look to the character Gollum from Lord of the Rings with Peter Jackson using his valuable technological expertise. Jackson along with his partners as the Weta Workshop will use technology developed for Lord of the Rings. The character Gollum was created by Weta using motion capture techniques on actor Andy Serkis then using key frame animation and subsurface scattering rendering techniques enabled the first completely convincing portrayal of an animated humanoid in a feature film. This technology will bring a realistic portrayal of Tintin to the big screen. Jackson said “We’re making the character look photorealistic – the fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. It is possible that the work, certainly the first one will start next year”.

Andy Serkis was first seen in a little known TV serial  Streetwise in 1989 going on to work in more British TV appearing in small parts in such well known TV series such as The Bill and Darling Buds of May (Which introduced Catherine Zeta Jones to the world). His first film appearance came in a forgotten but worthwhile retelling of Hamlet called The Prince of Jutland.

Andy Serkis has gone on to appear in over 50 production on both TV and in film having just finished his last movie which he himself directed called Freezing Time which is in post production and is an account of Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), pioneering photographer, technologist, self-confessed murderer and founding "Godfather" of cinema and is scheduled for release in 2009.

Andy Serkis also appeared in King Kong that was also directed by Jackson so the rumour has definite appeal. The Tintin movie is scheduled for release in 2009 and will be one of the biggest movies of that year. Tintin although not well known in America as he was introduced to the world just a few months after Mickey Mouse who instantly captured the hearts of the Americans has a very big fan base in Europe. In France it is claimed that 6 in 10 household own at least one Tintn album. The cult of Tintin is growing with China now selling at least 600,00 Tintin albums a year. There is defiantly a worldwide audience that is ready for the Tintin movie.