What were you doing a few weeks ago? Can’t remember? Well I’ll tell you what Universal were doing…pulling out of Tintin that’s what! For some reason Universal have declined to exercise an option to co-finance Tintin, which will be directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson.
From Nikki Finke’s blog:
The decision was quietly made a few weeks ago. So now DreamWorks will look only to owner Paramount for the rest of the moolah in the same way the two shared financing on Dreamgirls and Transformers. Unfortunately, Paramount is presently without an overall financing deal to mitigate risk, but is arranging it on a film-by-film basis. I say Tintin — to be played by Love Actually’s Thomas Sangster — sounds like an expensive but safe bet, considering that the beloved Belgian boy is a worldwide phenomenon, and that the two great filmmakers are directing and producing even though also participating as huge first-dollar-gross players.
Filming is expected to begin in October so hopefully Spielberg and Jackson can get the money by then. If not I’m sure they could probably pay for it themselves as they are both stinkin’ rich.
