Spielberg and Peter Jackson's planned adaptations of some of the Tintin books had struck me as something that could potentially be really rubbish, but I've just found out that Steven Moffat is writing the screeplays for them so I'm a bit more excited about them now.
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Tintin film adaptations
Brian Blessed as Capt. Haddock?
Kevin Spacey as the Thom(p)son twins? -
Tintin film adaptations
I'm no looking forward to these at all. I love the books so much that there's no way the films can be anything but a let down. I simply can't conceive of a film that could be as good as the books, no matter who's writing the script.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
There was also one animated Tintin movie in the 70s, Tintin et le Lac aux Requins (Lake of Sharks) which was made into a comic book.
Which Tintin book would potentially make the best candidate for a new movie adaptation? A lot of the early ones are not politically correct. Tintin in Tibet would be good, but that would rule out the chinese market...Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
For me, a lot of the joy of Tintin is the ligne claire style of illustration, which will obv. be completely lost in live action.
Canadian animators Nelvana did a quite-nice series in the early '90s.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
I didn't know that that style of illustration had a name. Thanks, WOM.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
Oh, my pleasure.
I love Hergé's work. I even have the horribly un-PC Tintin in Congo, although it's in French. They apparently can't get away with printing it in English.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
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My favourite bar in Madrid when I lived there (mid-80s) was called 'Captain Haddock', and had giant back-lit posters of scenes from the books on the walls. Great beer, too (Mahou on tap). I wonder if it's still there.
For me, I associate Tintin with that time when I was reading for pleasure but wasn't on to real books without pictures yet. (Yeah, ok ... I know ... and then I had to take a break from them when I went to Uni).
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Tintin film adaptations
Tintin is my dogg.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
How about Snowy then?Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
He's one hip cat.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
And Prof. Calculus?Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
A slick adder.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
One of my favourite bars in Montreal (great scotch menu) is L'Ile Noire (Ontario between St. Denis and Sanguinet, if you're ever there). The gorilla from that book occasionally pops up on their logo.
WOM - Have you ever seen Tintin au pays des soviets? Roughly 1928-9, crude B&W pencil drawings, before the Ligne claire style came about. Plot: Tintin goes to Russia and outwits stupid commies. The politics are quite astounding (but then Herge was fairly right wing and I believe was under some suspicion of being a collaborator in the 40s).Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
Dye HardComment
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Tintin film adaptations
WornOldMotorbike wrote:
My brother has an English language copy.I even have the horribly un-PC Tintin in Congo, although it's in French. They apparently can't get away with printing it in English.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
I absolutely adore Tintin, I still have all the books (cept for in the Congo and Tintin and the Commies).
Tintin in the Congo was reprinted in English and there was a brief furore last year as the Commission for Racial Equality called upon high-street stores to withdraw all copies of the book. I think Borders removed it from the Children's section to the graphic novels section.
It's interesting how Tintin has evolved politically. Obviously he appears anti-communist in the first book, but by the time of Tintin and the Picaros, he's ditched the plus 4s for flared jeans, wears a peace symbol, appears weary of travelling and takes part in revolution (bloodless, naturally).
I may have to start reading them again, especially if Spielberg or whoever is intent on making a film.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
They have both of those books at the TinTin shop in Covent Garden - or at least you can order them through the shop's website:
http://www.thetintinshop.uk.com/acatalog/index.htmlComment
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Tintin film adaptations
Excellent. I was probably missing some of the golliwog-baiting nuances in the French version anyway.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
AG, good call on L'Ile Noire bar. There are at least two other Tintin-inspired places in Montreal, Le Petit Moulinsart, a Belgian restaurant with an adjacent lounge called Le Cigare du Pharaon (complete with mini-sarcophaguses by the wall), as well as the "Frites Alors!" chain, which has horse steak (and tartare), homemade mayonnaises along with a Tintin theme.
Early Tintin is quite reactionary in politics, in good part because it was published in a far right-wing magazine (Petit Vingtième) but Hergé seems to have taken a different sensibility later. In L'Oreille Cassée, he specifically criticizes arms sales to South American countries and the related colonial fometing of conflicts in "banana republics". The arms dealer character is actually based on a real person:
Picture of the head of Vickers Munitions company, Basil Zaharoff...Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
Linus, where's Le Petit Moulinsart?
I always found Herge's take on central European politics quite interesting. There's the "good" country - Syldavia, which seems to be some kind of mix of Czechoslovakia (the king's name is "Ottokar", which is a real 9th century Bohemian king's name) and Yugoslavia (Slydavian country scenes sometimes contain mosques, which is suggestive of Bosnia). Then there is Borduria, which has overtones of both Hungary (language) and Nazi Germany (politics).
I wonder if/how this will translated into film?Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
The leader of Borduria was called Musstler. A neat combination of Mussolini and Hitler. I think on the whole, my favourite books were those set in Eastern Europe.
King Ottakar's Sceptre, The Calculus Affair and the two Moon books.
Really liked The Blue Lotus too.
I really should go to the Tintin shop in Covent Garden again.
This is a really good resource for Tintin fans. I'm going home next weekend, so i'll probably catch up on reading them!Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
Anyone else seen Tintin Et Moi? A very good documentary.
Linus, what early books apart from Tintin au Congo do you mean? The Blue Lotus is sympathetic to the Chinese, and anti the invading Japanese.
The problem text is the otherwise excellent TinTin and the Shooting Star, with a big nose Jew villain and a team of goodies all from Axis powers. It was written under occupation. I don't know to what degree Herge was leant on.Comment
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Tintin film adaptations
And l'Oreille Casse is pretty early early one, too, so that would suggest that the early Tintin wasn't always politically one-dimensional.
That said, none of the Tintin books have a particularly adavanced view of the "lesser races". Lotus Bleu may be pro-Chinese and anti-Japanese, but the portrayal of Chinese in the book is still screamingly racist. Even by the time of The Red Sea Sharks (late 50s-early 60s...post-Suez, anyway), the portrayal of Arabs is pretty ugly and the portrayal of blacks is absolutely appalling (I tried reading this one to my sone a few years ago and had to stop).Comment
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