Arriving to a standing ovation in Hall H at the San Diego Comic Con, Steven Spielberg took the stage to promote “The Adventures of Tintin” and was soon quickly joined by Peter Jackson whom many thought was still down in New Zealand working on “The Hobbit”. Even Andy Serkis showed up pretending to be a fanboy in the audience and asked a question about Daniel Craig wearing tights.
Comparing Tintin to Indiana Jones, Spielberg showed what was said to be “original test footage” by WETA six years ago which turned out to be a clip of Peter Jackson dressed up like Captain Haddock and ‘auditioning’ for the role when a digital Snowy the dog shows up.
Spielberg, who met Jackson for the first time at the Oscars, says this is the best collaboration he’s ever had. Jackson joked “Working with Steven has been amazing. I think he shows real promise. If he sticks with films, I think he’ll really do something good.” Spielberg says he held the camera for the entire film due to the mo-cap process which they followed because they wanted to match Herge’s look exactly.
Only bits of footage have been fully rendered at this stage and they were screened here, most of which seemed to be extended takes on the scenes featured in the recent trailer. The first featured a man visiting Tintin’s door to ask about the Unicorn ship replica, only to be gunned down. The other scene is Tintin’s first meeting with Haddock – still no footage yet from “Red Rackham’s Treasure”.
One common comment from various critics in attendance is that the film is “shot and edited 100% like a Spielberg film”, with most saying it’s the best mo-cap they’ve seen yet and the “uncanny valley” effect isn’t there. The odd one though remain unsold on the facial animation.
Spielberg wants people to see this first film so Jackson gets his chance to direct the next one. As for more mo-cap films, Spielberg says it isn’t for every film but he’d be up for doing it again.
Of “The Hobbit”, Jackson said “I’m enjoying it way, way more than I ever thought I could”. They presently have 60 out of 200 days of shooting in the can with shooting to resume in a few weeks. Jackson also said he’d happily go back and do a horror film again and has a “couple of things that I’m playing around with at the moment”.
Of “Jurassic Park IV”, Spielberg says “We have a story, I can happily announce right now. We have a writer… Hopefully, we’ll be making ‘Jurassic Park IV’ in the near future. In the next two or three years.”
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