You’ve gotta be doing something right if Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson hire you to head up their massively anticipated, motion-capture rendition of Hergé’s beloved Tintin tales. Of course, I said close to the same thing when George Lucas handed Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz the reins for Howard the Duck. And you know what? I was right back then, too! Howard the Duck is an American classic right on par with Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings! And if you disagree, you can find a warm place and go screw yourself!
But, yeah, Spielberg and Jackson have anointed British boob tube writer Steven Moffat as their man in Havana re: Tintin (not even sure that makes any sense, and I’m very sure I do not care). Moffat, who’s best known for as the creator of the hit BBC series Coupling and Jekyll (as well as one of several writers to contribute the very good Doctor Who reinvention), will adapt three of Hergé’s twenty-three Tintin comics. As for which three titles, that has yet to be revealed. All I know is, I sincerely hope they go with Tintin in the Congo, which, to hear CHUD Message Board poster "Paul McCartney" describe it, sounds insanely wonderful:
"I recommend the ultra-rare Tintin in the Congo. In it, Tintin’s dog is kidnapped by monkeys, so Tintin shoots and skins a monkey and wears its pelt as a disguise to infiltrate the monkey society and rescue his dog."
Jackson, Spielberg and a director to be named later (Roman Polanski, please!) will each direct one of the films, and Congo sounds absolutely tailor-made for Jackson (who might opt for a Sumatran Rat Monkey – and that’s okay, too). With Jackson just now starting on The Lovely Bones, and Spielberg preoccupied with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and that Lincoln thing-y, the first Tintin movie probably won’t make it to theaters until 2010.