Read This: "The Adventures of Tintin"

I was never much of a comic book kid. I had nothing against them, I just never really read them or bought them. Occasionally I would pick one up when I visited family in small-town Massachusetts at a "penny candy" store that had been there since my mom was a kid. And really, that was for the novelty of the whole thing-there's nothing quite like the feel, look, even smell of an aged comic book.

There is one series, though, that was a staple of my childhood and something I will always love: Hergé's "The Adventures of Tintin".

For those unfamiliar with this brilliant graphic novel/book series, it was first published in 1929 and run up until 1976. It follows Tintin, an intrepid young Belgian reporter (Hergé himself was Belgian) on adventures around the globe with his trusty dog Snowy, his best friend Captain Haddock, and a variety of supporting, recurring characters. Though the series has been around for a while, now is a great time to get to reading it, as a feature film based on some of the adventures will be released late next year.

Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock

The series follows the format of a pulp/mystery/globe-trotting serial, with Tintin traveling to exotic locations around the world and solving mysteries of a supernatural, occult, science fiction, or historical nature. Each installment usually borrowed elements from the time when it was written, such as the Red Scare and the lunar space race. Even with these specific mentions, the series is timeless in its sense of adventure, humor, and beautifully drawn panels.

Tintin has seen a few different incarnations in other media, including a few foreign live action films, an animated TV series, and even a few video games.

The horror that is the "Tintin In Tibet" video game

I've seen a fair share of the animated series and played one of the games on an emulator (it was depressing how awfully designed it was...), but I'm not sure anything will ever match the book series itself. I have a lot of great memories attached it: whenever we would go back east to the small sea town where my Mom grew up, we would always go back to the same local bookstore and ask the clerk if they had any new Tintin copies. None of them were "new" in the traditional sense-they were all used copies, and they all carried that worn book smell that we all know and love. In some ways, that also helped me appreciate the history and timelessness of the series.

Still, I feel like not enough people have read or have even heard of Tintin. I know maybe 3 or 4 people besides me who love it as much as I do (including WordsFinest's own Aaron Ting), and that I can talk in depth with it about it.

So you can only imagine my sheer excitement when I heard about 2-3 years ago that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were planning a new feature film based on two of Hergé's classics. Since then, we've learned that the film will be made in the style of motion-capture 3D animation, a la "The Polar Express" and Disney's newest version of "A Christmas Carol". For those unfamiliar with the format, it's detailed type of animation that uses hundreds of sensors attached to actor's bodies to more accurately capture human movement and emotion, down to dimples when someone frowns (such as in the below still from "A Christmas Carol"). The results so far have been almost frighteningly real-looking, and allow filmmakers to create worlds that look beyond the possible realm of live action while featuring realistic, human characters.

Pretty impressive, no?

The film doesn't debut until December 2011, but details are slowly being leaked. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) has been cast as Tintin, with Andy Serkis (Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series) as Haddock and Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) as Thompson and Thomson, two bumbling detectives who are barely distinguishable. The film is going to be based on three of Tintin's adventures: "The Crab With The Golden Claws", "The Secret of the Unicorn", and "Red Rackham's Treasure"; the first includes the first time Tintin and Captain Haddock meet, while the latter two are the story of the two hunting for treasure.

As a nearly life-long Tintin fan, I couldn't be much more excited. Spielberg is, in my mind, the perfect man to handle a timeless presentation of the series. He's actually been a fan of the series since his classic film (my favorite of all time) "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was compared to Hergé's series (that gives you an idea of the serialized globe-trek feel of it all). He's been wanting to make it since the 80s, when he wanted to cast Jack Nicholson as Haddock. All they key ingredients are present with Spielberg - he's passionate, he's proven that he's fantastic in the adventure genre, and he's one of the greatest blockbuster directors in the history of film.

Empire, an awesome British film magazine, just recently posted an article that includes an exclusive sneak peak, which you can check out here. It includes 2 stills that look, quite frankly, f***ing awesome. There's also some quotes from Spielberg, including one where he says part of the film "certainly owes much...to film noir..." Based on the look of the stills and the way they really celebrate Hergé's art, as well as Spielberg dropping hints of noir influence, I'm not sure how I can wait another year for this project. 

In the meantime, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to re-read my favorite adventure, "Flight 714".