Live-Action ‘Tintin’ Movie Being Developed by Director Patrice Leconte, Who Doesn’t Actually Have the Rights to the Character Yet

Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin is a rollicking animated adventure that’s cut from the same cloth as the Indiana Jones series. Spielberg’s Tintin made good money, and for years now, the plan has been for Peter Jackson to direct a sequel. Spielberg and Jackson have sworn up and down that the sequel was coming, no, really, it is – but there has been almost no real movement on the project. And now, Spielberg and Jackson might want to start getting their act together, because it looks like someone wants to swoop in and make their own Tintin film. French director Patrice Leconte says he’s developing a live-action Tintin movie, and is said to be far along in the development process. However, there’s a catch: he doesn’t seem to have the film rights to the character just yet.

According to French site Figaro (via The Playlist), French director Patrice Leconte is hoping to make a live-action Tintin movie based on the story “The Castafiore Emerald.” It was the third-to-last completed Tintin story, and unlike most other Tintin tales, it doesn’t involve globe-trotting adventure. Instead, all the action takes place at Marlinspike Hall, where “an incapacitated Captain Haddock is being nursed back to health by an unwelcome visitor in the form of Bianca Castafiore, the ‘Milanese Nightingale’ who then suffers a devastating loss.” The Milanese Nightingale character also popped-up in Steven Spielberg’s animated The Adventures of Tintin.

And speaking of Spielberg’s Tintin, news of Leconte’s live-action take begs the question: are we ever getting that sequel? Spielberg produced the first Tintin with Peter Jackson, and the plan was always for Jackson to then step in and direct a sequel. For years now, Jackson and Spielberg have been claiming the sequel would happen. In 2018, Spielberg said: “Peter Jackson has to do the second part. Normally, if all goes well, he will soon start working on the script. As it takes two years of animation work on the film, for you, I would not expect to see it for about three years. But Peter will stick to it. Tintin is not dead!” But we’ve heard next to nothing about the project since then, which might lead some to think the Spielberg/Jackson Tintin time is at an end, and now Lectone will step in with his live-action version.

On the other hand, it looks like Leconte is still dealing with rights issues. The director says negotiations with Paramount France have stalled. On top of that, Leconte is also gearing up to make his feature Maigret and the Dead Girl, which won’t start shooting until 2021. In other words, nothing is a done deal yet. And who knows, maybe this news will finally inspire Spielberg and Jackson to get to work on that damn sequel.

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