Tintin finally revealed ... and a letter from Steven Spielberg

I go away on holiday for two weeks and all hell breaks loose regarding Steven Spielberg!

Empire have got the biggest Spielberg scoop of the year with today´s unveiling of the first glimpse of the CGI characters from The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (due in UK cinemas in October 2011).

Created by Peter Jackson´s visual effects company Weta, the images provide us of our first look at Tintin, his loyal dog Snowy and Captain Haddock.

The article on the Empire website (and in full in the next issue) also has quotes from Spielberg about the plot of the film, the first in his career to be fully motion-captured.

Spielberg says: “The first part of the film, which is the most mysterious part, certainly owes much to not only film noir but the whole German Brechtian theatre — some of our night scenes and our action scenes are very contrasty. But at the same time the movie is a hell of an adventure.”

Peter Jackson had this to say about the look of Tintin:

“With live action you’re going to have actors pretending to be Captain Haddock and Tintin. You’d be casting people to look like them. It’s not really going to feel like the Tintin Hergé drew. It’s going to be somewhat different. With CGI we can bring Hergé’s world to life, keep the stylised caricatured faces, keep everything looking like Hergé’s artwork, but make it photo-real.”

Read the full article, along with two other pictures from the film, on the Empire website.

Since I´m typing this on the computer in the lobby of a hotel and my alloted time is ticking down really fast, I thought I squeeze the another bit of Spielberg news.

It seems that he has finished shooting parts of his other big 2011 release, War Horse, on and around Dartmoor in England.

To thank the locals for their support he wrote a letter to the Plymouth Evening Herald and spoke of the "abundance of natural beauty" in the area.

Steven Spielberg wrote: "I have never before, in my long and eclectic career, been gifted with such an abundance of natural beauty as I experienced filming War Horse on Dartmoor.

"And, with two-and-a-half weeks of extensive coverage of landscapes and skies, I hardly scratched the surface of the visual opportunities that were offered to me.

"We have had an incredibly successful shoot and every member of our substantial crew has commented on what a great experience the shoot in Dartmoor has been.

"We faced many logistical challenges working in the narrow lanes and villages on Dartmoor with our extensive film unit.

"The patience and support of the local community was critical in allowing us to safely and quickly move from place to place in search of the best shots and the best light to shoot them.

"We wanted to thank all the residents of Sheepstor and Meavy and the surrounding communities on Dartmoor for their support throughout our stay in Devon, without their help co-operation and patience we would not have been able to achieve so much in such a short space of time."

So there we go - two big bits of Spielberg news that broke while I was thousands of miles away from my home computer. Just typical!

New War Horse set spy photos

New pictures from the set of Steven Spielberg's new film War Horse have hit the web and reveal a picture postcard English village dressed to look like it would in World War One.

The photos don't show any cast or crew, but they do give a glimpse of the set-dressing in the village of Castle Combe.

According to a spy on Bleeding Cool "all the set dressing was done in ten hours, courtesy of a huge crew and over twenty night time security staff. And filming proper starts this Tuesday (September 21). The dressers have put out all fresh fruit and veg out, have changed door numbers, laid down the dirt road and stuck moss in all the right place. In fact five people were dedicated to moss dressing the sets. Reports are that they’re spending a lot of money making this look just right."

War Horse will be released on August 10, 2011.




Take a look at all the spy shots over at Bleeding Cool.

Update: More War Horse set pictures hit the web!

Another batch of photographs of Steven Spielberg hard at work on the set of his new movie War Horse have gone online today.

They're similar to the last lot I linked to, but these give a much clearer view of the set and actors. Can anyone spot any familiar faces? I assume Janusz Kaminski is the DP, but couldn't see him in any of the photos taken of the camera rig...

Visit the SWNS website to see the full gallery.

First pictures of Spielberg on War Horse set!

As expected the first pictures of Steven Spielberg on the War Horse set in England emerged online today.

The photographs, published in The Herald newspaper in Plymouth, show Spielberg - in trademark leather jacket, cap and sunglasses - on the outskirts of a moorland village called Meavy.

A photo gallery on the newspaper's website shows a relaxed-looking Spielberg chatting with crew members, along with photographs of a brown horse (is this the War Horse of the title?)

The story doesn't make it clear whether filming has actually started yet (I don't know whether Spielberg would have been quite so relaxed with the cameras being there if it had) or whether he was just on set to oversee the final preparations.

Lynsey Glazier, who works at the Royal Oak pub in Meavy, told the newspaper: "A lot of the crew working on the set have been coming in for lunch. They have all been really nice people.

"There's a real buzz around here. I don't think we've seen any of the actors yet but it is early days. The set is just being put together. It's quite exciting."

Check out The Herald website for the full story and more pictures.

War Horse is due for release on August 10, 2011.