With the buzz reaching deafening levels for "The Adventures of Tintin," Steven Spielberg's razzle dazzled 3D animated adaptation of the beloved European comic strip (including its giant overseas haul and recent inclusion in David Edelstein's Top 10 List for 2011), it's easy to forget that when the project was initially announced, the plan was for a series of films, with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg switching off director/producer duties for at least the first batch of films. But given both filmmakers' busy schedules, when can we even expect another entry? Producer Kathleen Kennedy (who started out as Spielberg's assistant before becoming one of his closest collaborators) says we can expect the next one fairly soon.
While talking to Collider during the 'Tintin' press gauntlet, she gave a tentative timetable for the next film, which Peter Jackson is still tapped to direct (and British novelist Anthony Horowitz is set to script). "Oh yeah it is being moved forward, in fact Steven and I were talking about it this morning. We’re working on a script right now, we’ll see a script probably February or March," she told the site. She added: "If we can do some camera capture this summer, which I think we could do, then we would be on track to have the movie either Christmas 2014 or summer 2015, and so that's what we're looking at right now."
If you're wondering how in the wide world of sports Jackson would be able to squeeze filming an entire movie into his insane production/post-production schedule on the two 'Hobbit' movies (the first one hits Christmas 2012), well, it may be more feasible than you'd think. Since Spielberg admitted earlier that the 'Tintin' movie was essentially 85% traditional animation and 15% live action elements, it would probably only take a few weeks to "film" the new movie before being shipped to the geniuses over at WETA (a company Jackson owns) for completion over the next few years. So if Jackson is far enough along in the post-production 'Hobbit' pipeline, he could probably squeeze in a 'Tintin' shoot in there somewhere. Anything to watch Jamie Bell prance around in a spandex mo-cap suit, right?
It seems like the domestic success or failure of 'Tintin,' which doesn't open on our shores until December 21st, isn't even a factor at this point – they're moving forward whether or not Americans get behind the movie. It's kind of a ballsy move but it also sort of reminds us of Luc Besson making those awful 'Arthur & the Invisible' animated movies in France even though the first one bombed here.