Spielberg, Jackson join forces for 'Tintin' trilogy

A sticker of Tintin decorates a window of a high-speed Thalys train, in Brussels southern train station, 10 January 2007 on the anniversary of the creation of Herge's famous characters.[AFP]

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are to join forces to direct and produce a series of three-films based on the beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin, a report said Monday.

Entertainment journal Daily Variety reports in its Tuesday edition that the legendary film-makers would direct at least one of the films each, and serve as producers on all three.

The report said Tintin had been a long-time pet project for Spielberg, who finally secured the film rights to the comic series in the past 12 months.

Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, had already developed a test film which had brought the characters created by George Remi, better known by his pen name Herge, to life, the report said.

Spielberg said the computer animation technology used for the films would be unlike anything ever seen.

"Herge's characters have been reborn as living beings, expressing emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we've seen to date with computer animated characters," Spielberg said.

"We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honor the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created," Spielberg added.

Jackson said although the movies would be computer generated, the characters would not look cartoonish.

"Instead we're making them look photorealistic," Jackson said. "The fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people -- but real Herge people!"

Spielberg and Jackson have chosen three stories from the 23 Tintin books published between 1929 and 1976.

The announcement of an alliance between Spielberg and Jackson -- two of the modern masters of cinematic story-telling -- comes after news that the two would work on Jackson's next film, the thriller "The Lovely Bones".

The film is based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel which tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who watches her family from heaven after she is raped and murdered.