Peter Jackson Says He’ll Direct the Next ADVENTURES OF TINTIN After He Finishes THE HOBBIT; Spielberg Confirms Script for Sequel Is Already Written

In one of the most exciting collaborations in a great while, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson teamed up on this fall’s The Adventures of Tintin. Spielberg directed the film as his first foray into motion-capture, with Jackson onboard as a very hands-on producer. The plan, if audiences flock to this first Tintin, has always been to make a trilogy of films based on Herge’s beloved characters, with Jackson directing the second installment. Anthony Horowitz was hired to pen the sequel last year, and now Jackson has confirmed that the Tintin follow-up is planned to be his next film after he finishes The Hobbit. Hit the jump for more.

At this year’s Comic-Con, where Spielberg was joined onstage at the Tintin panel by surprise guest Jackson, Spielberg proclaimed that if enough of us go to see this first Tintin, Jackson gets to direct the next one. While it was already known that the plan was for Jackson to take the helm after Spielberg, the Lord of the Rings director recently confirmed in the print edition of The Hollywood Reporter (via The Playlist) that the Tintin sequel will indeed be his next film after The Hobbit if they get the go-ahead.

Spielberg elaborated that Sony and Paramount have a lot of faith in this first Tintin and have already made moves to get the sequel in a ready position:

“[Sony and Paramount] were willing to do one movie with us and then give us the financial werewithal to develop a script, do all the visual storyboards and get it really in launch position. So we can launch pretty quickly on a second movie. The script is already written.”

So it certainly sounds like they’ve already done quite a bit of work on the sequel. While Spielberg’s film drew heavily from Herge’s books The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure, the sequel will draw from the stories Prisoners of the Sun and The Seven Crystal Balls.

One would assume that Spielberg would be taking on the producer role on this next film as he swaps jobs with Jackson, but the director said that his involvement hasn’t exactly been worked out yet [Edit: In the following quote Spielberg is talking about returning to direct the third film and not his involvement on the second film. The article doesn't mention what job Spielberg will have on the second film, but one would assume he'll be producing ]:

“We haven’t talked about that. But I had such a wonderful time working on this; it liberated me as a director because I was able to run around by myself. It was a big collaboration, but at the same time it was one of the most personal experiences I’ve had. When you can actually hold the camera and create your shots, you don’t have a lighting team, a key grip electricians…”

I’m hoping Spielberg returns if Jackson gets the chance to helm his own Tintin. From what we’ve seen so far in the way of behind-the-scenes footage, it looks like the two almost worked as co-directors in a very fruitful collaboration. However, it’ll be awhile before lensing could begin. Jackson’s going to be wrapped up in The Hobbit for quite some time, and Spielberg has his plate full with filming on Lincoln, Robopocalypse, and a number of other projects he’s considering at the moment. Nevertheless, the footage from Tintin looks fantastic and I’m excited to check out what adventures Spielberg and Jackson have cooked up.

For those interested, here’s a full 38-minute animated adaptation of Prisoners of the Sun: