For years now Tintin has had a “Spielberg first, Jackson second, we’ll figure out three later…” deal going on, with lots of speculation that a favored third party–say, Tintin writer Edgar Wright?–could maybe angle for that gig one day. Nope! Spielberg had too good of a time and hopes to cap off the trilogy his damn self, according to an interview he did in France. This is the first I’ve caught one of the principles letting loose with anything other than a punt on the third film.

From the beard’s mouth:

“I’m hoping I’ll be able to direct the third one. I’d love to do the third one because I had so much fun on the first one.”

In addition to that, he clarifies the schedule a bit saying Pete Jackson will be able to start the mo-cap process later in 2012, after principle photography has wrapped on The Hobbit. That’s something he can do sort of simultaneously with Hobbit post, since that film will start to work under its own momentum to some extent, and he can zip back and forth between the NZ productions. The sequel is being written now, according to Spielberg, which I’ll take to mean “being revised” since he and Jackson have already explicitly stated that Tintin 2 is written and all put in place. He’s still playing coy about which of the Hegré books they plan on pulling from.

Talking about his other projects, Spielberg was tight lipped and would only say that he was only producing Juassic Park 4 and that Lincoln is being edited. He did open up about Robopocalypse a little bit, explaining that he ostensibly sees it as a way to return to similar Minority Report themes, since the world has already largely caught up with science fiction and the ideas remain ripe for exploration.

“I had a great time creating the future on Minority Report, and it’s a future that is coming true faster than any of us thought it would. Robopocalypse takes place in 15 or 20 years, so it’ll be another future we can relate to. It’s about the consequences of creating technologies which make our lives easier, and what happens when that technology becomes smarter than we are. It’s not the newest theme, it’s been done throughout science fiction, but it’s a theme that becomes more relevant every year.”

I’m still hoping this will be an elevation of source material, if what I understand about Robopocalypse being a lame toilet book that rips off much more thoughtful material from Max Brooks.

So there’s Spielberg’s busy next few years for you. I’m enjoying where he’s at right now, so fingers crossed his momentum holds.

Source | Timeout, Collider (via Dark Horizons)