March 28, 2024

“Tintin” Sequel Gets Another Script

A while back it was revealed that frequent British TV scribe Anthony Horowitz (“Poirot,” “Alex Rider: Stormbreaker”) had been hired to pen the first draft for the sequel to Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin” which opened last week to big box-office in Europe.

At the time he was hired to adapt Herge’s two-parter “The Seven Crystal Balls” and “Prisoners of the Sun” into the film which Peter Jackson would direct. In August this year though Jackson himself said despite Horowitz’s script supposedly being ready he hadn’t yet made the decision about which of Herge’s other two dozen stories he would adapt.

Now, Horowitz himself says that while ‘Prisoners’ is still on the cards he doubts it’ll be the next film – “That was true a few months ago, but I can tell you that I think the second film is not going to be Prisoners of the Sun. What it is going to be is still under discussion” he tells The BBC.

He added “I’ve had meetings with the directors and producers and we’ve talked about ideas and action sequences. At the moment I’m trying to put together a story that will please everybody. It’s a very difficult one to do.”

“Doctor Who” show runner Steven Moffat penned the first draft (with Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish providing polishes) of the current film which utilises lots of elements from ‘The Secret of the Unicorn’, ‘The Crab with the Golden Claws’ and the last few pages of ‘Red Rackham’s Treasure’ combined with original material very much in the spirit of Herge’s works.

The film does end with a setup for a sequel which could use the remainder of “Red Rackham’s Treasure” (thus introducing Professor Calculus) but it wouldn’t be enough to sustain an entire film – though might be enough for a ‘first act’. One early scene in the story shows newspaper clippings picturing events from the first eight books in the series (all the pre-Haddock titles) which rules out using them as well.

Horowitz says it’s still early days yet – “we’re a little distant yet from actually having a script. The good news is if [Prisoners Of The Sun] is not the second film it’ll be the third film so actually I could end up with two Tintins under my belt.” Jackson is slated to direct the film once he wraps work on the two “The Hobbit’ features.

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