This weekend was a New York City press day for Never Back Down, and IESB got star Djimon Hounsou to say that he was in talks to star in a comic book trilogy that is his dream project. Unfortunately there are no actual quotes on this one, but taking that statement at face value, many people have started speculating that he’s going to be playing Black Panther either in a Fantastic Four 3 or a standalone movie. More likely, though, is that Hounsou will be appearing in the Tintin trilogy that’s very close to starting.
Tintin is looking more and more like it will be Steven Spielberg’s next project, one that he might be able to mount before the SAG strike becomes too looming a possibility. Hounsou grew up in France; while it’s easy to assume that anybody’s dream comic book project would be a Marvel comic, a kid in Europe would be more likely to be in love with Herge’s Tintin. Weirdly, Alex Billington at First Showing almost dismisses this possibility, saying Tintin isn’t a comic book movie. Huh? I don’t know what definition he’s using, but Tintin is a comic book character, and he stars in a series of comic books. Just because you didn’t read it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a comic, Alex.
Add to all of this the fact that I have heard Hounsou’s name come up in connection with the Tintin movies before. At the time it was in the form of names that were being discussed as possible actors for the films – real takingameeting.com bullshit. Now, though, it seems that these whispers might have meant something.
The only question would be who Hounsou would play in the film(s), but since this is going to be mocap, he could be playing anybody from Tintin himself to Snowy the dog. My brother, who read the Tintin books when he was younger, thinks that Hounsou would make a fine Rastapopoulos, the recurring villain who appeared in a number of Tintin stories. That’s just a guess. He could also be playing Coco, the incredibly racist caricature from Tintin In the Congo, the most reviled of all the Tintin books.