Tintin! It’s the film trilogy by two of the greatest popular filmmakers alive and it baffles the shit out of Americans. I kind of love the fact that almost nobody born in the USA understands why these guys are making these movies.

As we already know, the three Tintin movies will be motion captured; one will be directed by Steven Spielberg, another by Peter Jackson (it looks like it will happen in that order, by the way), and there’s been much speculation on who would do the third. That speculation has extended into the Spielberg/Jackson camp, as all indications are that they themselves haven’t quite decided who should helm number three.

At least until now. While at Cannes premiering Indiana Jones Betrays the United States of America Continuously, Spielberg said that they’re leaning towards co-directing the third feature. When I visited with Spielberg on the set of the new Indy (seriously, do you expect me to ever stop namedropping that?), he mentioned that he and Jackson would be collaborating heavily while directing their own features anyway, so coming together like a great bearded Voltron at the end makes a certain kind of sense.

In the meantime, I’m excited to see what these guys come up with. You Americans don’t know it, but in the rest of the world Tintin is a super beloved franchise, so there are high expectations.