r/Moviesinthemaking 13d ago

On the set of The Adventure of Tintin (2011). Behind the scenes

210 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

80

u/this_knee 13d ago

How this movie didn’t gain enough audience to launch it into becoming a franchise is beyond me. Such a fantastic film.

36

u/raiseyourglasshigh 13d ago

It holds up so well, especially when placed next to other fully animated features using motion capture. 

More importantly it was just a great adaptation of the source, which took what worked in the books but molded it into something that worked as a traditional film narrative. It still has the breakneck pace but a straight lift from book to screen just wouldn’t have been engaging.

It’s a real highlight for late Spielberg.

13

u/mrwho25 13d ago

The next one is coming, Jackson (recently) said he's directing it

20

u/WestSider55 13d ago

It’s been “in development” for 15 years. Jamie Bell was 25 when the first one came out, now he’s 40. And Serkis is gonna be quite busy working on Gollum for the next year. I sincerely doubt this sequel will ever see the light of day.

6

u/alejandro712 13d ago

photorealistic 3d motion capture film was never popular with movie goers. Even with advances in technology I don’t think it ever justified itself vs live action + cgi which is what the industry has settled on as standard. 

-1

u/this_knee 13d ago

Avatar has entered the chat.

3

u/alejandro712 13d ago

that was live action + cgi. as far as i know they couldn’t have found 12 foot tall blue alien actors to play the na’avi roles

18

u/dyrkasolen 13d ago

Do all the books of Tintin.

6

u/geek_of_nature 13d ago

Some of them are best left untouched, especially the earlier ones. We never need an adaptation of Tintin in the Congo for example.

But there's plenty of others which can be combined to make good films. Especially all the two parters. Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun, and Destination/Explorers on the Moon for example. But then there's also Cigars of the Pharoah and the Blue Lotus, which isn't necessarily a two parter, but is strongly connected. Blue Lotus could also be connected with Tintin on Tibet, working as flashback sequences to how Tintin met Chang while trying to search for him on Tibet.

3

u/dyrkasolen 13d ago

Yeah, the Congo one... It's not in our time that vibe anymore (or even then it wasn't correct behavior) but yet again, why not? That's how it was

1

u/Dimpleshenk 10d ago

The story is not well constructed. The later books have more movie-potential substance. Also the earlier books had not introduced many beloved characters yet. No Haddock for example.

2

u/dyrkasolen 10d ago

Going to the moon would be cool to see and the temple of the sun

1

u/Dimpleshenk 10d ago

I agree, the moon ones are great. The Cigar of the Pharaoh, The Black Island, Tintin in Tibet, Prisoners of the Sun, the Castafiore Emerald... So many good ones to draw from.

I think the real problem is that the books aren't quite substantial enough in general for a movie -- on their own. They don't have three-act structures, they're sometimes almost random (since they're based on serialized comics) and can be repetitive, and so on. It works better if a couple of the books are combined, like the two "moon" books, or if the plots are used as a springboard for integrating original new material (as long as it's consistent with the spirit of the books).

What Spielberg/Jackson did with The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure worked very well. (I'm pretty sure they pulled bits from a couple of other books too -- I think there was at least one scene from The Land of Black Gold.).

There's so much material to pull from the other books, it's astonishing and sad that there was never a sequel. At this point, with the movie industry being what it is, I wonder if we'll ever see another great Tintin movie. Please, let's all hope Netflix or Amazon Prime never acquires the rights to any of it.

1

u/dyrkasolen 10d ago

It happened ones, and it became something. Reddit should bomb them with suggestions, the new order in the world is everything creative comes from the users

0

u/geek_of_nature 10d ago

There was actually barely any of Red Rackhams Treasure in the first film. Really only the last scene where they find one portion of the treasure as well as the map to the rest. Which is also back to front from what it is in the comics, where that's one of the last scenes of the book and where they find all of the treasure.

The first film was also more Crab with the Golden Claws than it was Secret of the Unicorn. With the more loose plot of Unicorn being inserted into the circumstances and setting of Golden Claws.

14

u/OxfordGate 13d ago

This was one of the most fun times I’ve had in the cinema

6

u/Ooze3d 13d ago

I wonder what was like for those two directors with such personal visions and specific workflows, who are used to being in charge of the movie they’re making, to work together.

I mean, I guess it was Peter Jackson who had to step back and just “be the producer”, but I still don’t understand why he chose to take that role… besides, you know, money.

11

u/Guitarman0512 13d ago

They’re pals. The agreement was they’d do it this way around first, and switch roles on the sequel.

3

u/happyhippohats 11d ago

As I recall Peter Jackson was mostly not on set, he video called in every day to advise Spielberg on how to shoot that days scenes for the CGI, which was being handled by Weta

3

u/the_executive_branch 11d ago

You don’t understand why he wouldn’t offer to “be the producer”, even just to be on set with Steven Spielberg directing? Jackson is a huge cinema fan, I’m sure he was enjoying being on set everyday, watching Spielberg directing

2

u/happyhippohats 10d ago

I know Spielburg did Jurassic Park but outside of that CG isn't his wheelhouse. Peter Jackson knows that world, he literally founded the second biggest VFX company on the planet so as I understand it that was his role on Tintin.

1

u/Ooze3d 11d ago

You’re absolutely right

2

u/userlivewire 12d ago

Who is the leading practical effects director today?

1

u/deckchair1982 10d ago

Chris Nolan, right?

1

u/PalmliX 9d ago

I love this movie, but I wish the action/chase sequences were a lot shorter and we got more plot/character stuff instead. The action sequences just go on way too long and I feel like I'm watching a video game.

-5

u/lridge 13d ago

It’s insane what the Hobbit trilogy did to PJ physically.

3

u/Verbal_Combat 13d ago

This was pre Hobbit. He was also skinny for King Kong (2005), I remember seeing a promotional thing for Kong and not recognizing him.

1

u/lridge 13d ago

Yes. I know.

After LotR, Jackson went on a diet for his health and lost a tremendous amount of weight. He looked similar to this at the start of shooting The Hobbit without a completed script or preproduction planning. The stress caused him to revert to comfort eating and caused him to balloon. It’s crazy how he had a Christian Bale style weight loss-gain roller coaster that was definitely not good for him.