After lots of negotiating, pulling out, and more negotiating, both Sony and Paramount are in talks to co-finance Steven Spielberg’s Tintin trilogy. Hurrah!

Universal backed out a few months ago, which sent Spielberg and Peter Jackson on an epic quest to get financing from another studio. Paramount eventually offered them $135 million, however the idea was to film Tintin in 3D with photorealistic performance-capture technology, so the pair held out for a better deal. After what I expect was a long uncomfortable silence, one of the parties suggested getting another studio in on the action, so along came Sony.

In the deal currently being negotiated, Paramount is planning to distribute in North America and some other English-speaking territories, while Sony would handle the foreign release.

If Universal didn’t back out then Spielberg would be busy filming the first instalment now, however the lack of financing has delayed production and has meant that lead actor, Thomas Sangster, can no longer play the role of Tintin, which sucks.

When all the deals are done Spielberg will most likely get to work on the first of three Tintin movies (firstly finding a new Tintin), with a planned release date of 2010. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will then take over for the second film, and then hopefully by 2012 they will have decided who will be directing the third film.

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The Daily Mail reported that Thomas Sangster had landed the role of Tintin in…Tintin, and now they have had the chance to talk to him about the role.

The teenager, who is taking A levels in art and media studies and works part-time at a garage, admits he had not read the Tintin books until a few days ago.

He said: “I love the cartoons. I never saw the books because I was never that big on reading. Tintin is like a super boy scout. He would hit people over the head with bottles. He was cool.”

I suppose that is the typical response from a teenager, ‘I don’t read and violence is cool’. No doubt Steven Spielberg hired him because he has some talent, which should be interesting to see through all of the Beowulf style motion capture that will be going on.

Andy Serkis is already on board as Captain Haddock, and some filming is taking place as you read this. Filming on the film will officially start over in New Zealand later this year.

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Andy Serkis said recently that he was off to New Zealand to start work on Steven Spielberg’s first Tintin movie. Serkis will be playing Captain Haddock in the trilogy, but we haven’t heard about any other actors being cast. With filming beginning soon, there is a good chance that they have got a cast together, or are in the process of getting people on board. The biggest question at this current time is who will be playing Tintin? There were rumours of Kirsten Myburgh landing the role, but they were debunked. Now, the Daily Mail are saying that Thomas Sangster is ‘about to sign up’ to play Tintin. Sangster is a young English actor who has been in a number of films, such as Nanny McPhee, Love Actually and The Last Legion. The Mail say that he has already been to Los Angeles to work on preproduction test sequences with both directors.

Sangster is currently 17, which is probably why is was cast. He is a good actor, he looks the part, and he will most likely grow into his role. The trilogy will take a number of years to make, so there is no point hiring an actor in his mid 20′s, if by the end of the trilogy he will be in his late 30′s. But then again the film will be using performance capture technology, so how much of the real actors we will see is unknown.

If Sangster has indeed landed the role of Tintin, his career will no doubt sky rocket. Spielberg took a rather young and annoying Shia LaBeouf, and put him in movies such as Transformers and the upcoming Indiana Jones movie. Now Shia is one of the coolest actors around.

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