Paramount and Sony have made some big decisions regarding Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. According to Variety the studios have announced that the film will be released in 3D, which was expected considering the idea to make Tintin occurred when Spielberg and Jackson where playing around with the technology on the set of James Cameron’s Avatar. The studios have also announced that the film will be released in December 2011…in the US. Tintin will be released internationally in October and November, which at first seems like a risky move, but once explained the decision seems well thought out.
Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment unveiled plans to release the motion capture pic Stateside on Dec. 23, 2011. But in an unusual move, film will launch internationally in late October and early November 2011, with Sony Pictures Releasing Intl. handling Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and India, and Paramount distributing the film in Asia, Australia, the U.K. and all other English-speaking territories.
The decision signals the two studios’ belief that the property, which has been translated into 70 languages, shows stronger potential overseas than domestically. Not surprisingly, the film’s cast skews international with Brit Jamie Bell starring as the intrepid young reporter. Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook round out the cast.
The two studios also revealed that they will release “Tintin” in 3-D, a move that had been mulled for several months. Insiders said the dailies convinced them that 3-D would offer the best rendition.
Tintin is popular overseas and it is pretty well known here in the UK thanks to a 90’s cartoon which I enjoyed as a child. One of the reasons both Paramount and Sony are working together on this is due to the property not being well known in the US, which meant there was a larger risk involved. Universal backed out of financing it last September 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.
[The cool Tintin image was made by Benef]
