Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn” will hit U.S. theaters December 23rd of 2011, almost two months after the feature will be released in international markets, according to Variety.
In a move aimed to combat Tintin’s relative “obscurity” in the U.S. (as if that’s been scientifically tested by Paramount/Sony), ‘Secret Of The Unicorn’ will first be released late October to early November internationally where it is hoped the film can build up hype when it reaches American shores in December. Sony Pictures Int. will be handling the film’s European, Latin America and Indian ventures, Paramount will distribute through Asia, Australia and the U.K while both Sony and Paramount will be distributing in the U.S.
The predominantly British cast features Jamie Bell as the 3D motion-captured projection and voice of the title character, Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, Daniel Craig as Red Rackham, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thomson with the likes of Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook, Gad Elmaleh and Daniel Mays rounding off the cast. Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat collaboratively wrote the script based on the globally popular comic book series by Hergé which chronicles a young reporter with the Pee-Wee-like hairdo from Belgium and his do-good adventures.
‘Secret Of The Unicorn’ is the first of a planned ‘Tintin’ potential trilogy with Spielberg helming the first, Peter Jackson (who was co-directing the film via iChat) to helm the second though the third film’s director has yet to be decided. The existence of it at all (the third film) probably depends on how well or how poor the first two films do overall.