Plans for the sequel to Steven Spielberg’s first foray into animated features, The Adventures of Tintin, appear to be moving right along.  Last we heard, Peter Jackson—who will direct the follow-up—said he hoped to film the performance-capture portion of the movie sometime this year for a planned 2015 release.  Now Steven Spielberg—who will produce the film—has confirmed as much, saying that he still hopes the sequel will be in theaters by Christmas 2015.  Hit the jump for more, including news concerning a new film from Spielberg that takes place in India.

A sequel to director Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin is still on track, according to Peter Jackson.  The initial plan was to have Jackson film the performance-capture portion of the Tintin sequel this past summer after he finished production on The Hobbit, but the decision to expand the J.R.R. Tolkein adaptation to a trilogy on top of prepping for the release of An Unexpected Journey understandably took up quite a bit of Jackson’s time.  Though he still plans on tackling 8 weeks or so of additional filming on The Hobbit early next year, it appears that he also hopes to get around to shooting the Tintin sequel in 2013 as well.  Hit the jump for more.

If you’re a fan of Lord of the Rings, Tintin, King Kong, Meet the Feebles, Peter Jackson, cool collectibles, and movie props, you’re going to dig this photo article.  When I visited the set of The Hobbit earlier this year in Auckland, New Zealand, I also got to visit the Weta Cave (Weta’s gift shop) and I snapped over 60 pictures.  As you can see in the pics, the store is a mixture of items for sale and props from the many films that Weta has been involved with.  Even though a lot of the merchandise is available online, it’s definitely a lot cooler to purchase a t-shirt/book/collectible from Weta while visiting New Zealand.

Hit the jump to check out the images.

With director Asger Leth’s (Ghosts of Cité Soleil) Man on a Ledge opening this weekend, I recently got to speak with most of the cast about making the movie.  The film centers on an ex-cop (Sam Worthington) convicted of a crime he didn’t commit who stands on the ledge of a Manhattan building, threatening to kill himself.  However, what appears to be a suicide attempt is something else altogether.  The film also stars Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Banks, Ed Burns, Titus Welliver, Genesis Rodriguez, Kyra Sedgwick, and Ed Harris.

During my interview with Bell and Rodriguez they talked about how they got involved in the project, the audition process, and karaoke.  In addition, Bell talked about the Tintin sequel and Rodriguez talked about Casa de mi Padre.  Hit the jump to watch.

“You want me to speak French to you? That wouldn’t be a good career choice for me. I got a lot of fans here. I don’t want to lose them with one bad accent!” Steven Spielberg joked when the French media asked him to say a few words in their language at a press conference in Paris this week, where he was promoting War Horse.  All kidding aside however, the legendary director does not like to talk about uncompleted projects.  Yet he did offer some insight into four of his upcoming movies.

While he spent much of the 45 minutes answering questions about his new film, he also discussed Lincoln, Robopocalypse, the Adventures of Tintin sequels and Jurassic Park 4.  Hit the jump for more.

Opening on Christmas Day is director Steven Spielberg‘s fantastic new movie, War Horse.  Based on the Award winning play (which is based on Michael Morpurgo’s book) and set during World War I, War Horse tells the story of “the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert (Jeremy Irvine), who tames and trains him.”  And don’t just take my word for it, early screenings have been very positive and the drama is heading into Oscar season with very positive buzz, especially after the National Board of review named War Horse one of the best 10 films of the year.  The film also stars Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Toby Kebbell.  You can watch the trailer here and here’s seven clips.

To help promote the film, DreamWorks recently held a press junket in New York City and I was able to land an exclusive interview with producer Kathleen Kennedy.  As the longtime producing partner of Spielberg (she produced A.I., Munich, E.T., and Jurassic Park just to name a few), she talked about the way they make movies, how they pick projects, who gets to see the movies first, and the making of War Horse.  In addition, Kennedy gave me updates on Jurassic Park 4, a 3D re-release of the original Jurassic Park, the status of the Tintin sequel, Lincoln, Robopocalypse, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

The journey back to Middle Earth is about to begin. Since a fair amount of people usually trek to their local movie theater during the holidays—both with their families and to escape from their families—it’s usually during this time that we get our first look at some of the big movies set to come out next year. The new Dark Knight Rises trailer is expected to play in front of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and now Warner Bros. has confirmed that the teaser trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be attached to screenings of The Adventures of Tintin.

We previously reported that the first trailer for The Hobbit might be playing in front of Sherlock Holmes, but it appears WB has decided to pair it with the Jackson-produced Tintin instead. While we’ve seen bits and pieces of The Hobbit through Jackson’s video production diaries, I can’t wait to see our old friends back up on the big screen. Tintin opens in 3D on December 21st, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theaters a year from now, on December 14th, 2012. Hit the jump to head back in time and watch the teaser trailer for 2001′s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Steven Spielberg‘s The Adventures of Tintin has been picking up acclaim both at home and abroad.  The movie screened at the AFI Festival last night to rave reviews, and the movie has racked up over $123.4 million overseas as it continues to expand into foreign countries.  Tintin is being hailed as the true sequel to Indiana Jones, and the latest TV spot is another piece of evidence to support that audacious claim.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spot.  The film stars Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Daniel Craig.  The Adventures of Tintin opens in 3D on December 21st.

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.

A new featurette for The Adventures of Tintin has gone online along with an interview with director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson.  In the featurette, Spielberg explains how he was introduced to Tintin and he calls his movie “Unapologetic, shameless adventure,” as if there was anything to apologize for or be ashamed about adventure.  But the best moment in the featurette by far is the screen test for Snowy (Tintin’s dog) that also allowed Jackson to come on and fake audition for the role of Captain Haddock even though the whole movie is motion capture (Andy Serkis plays the role in the movie).  I saw the whole screen test at Comic-Con and it was one of the highlights of Hall H.  Hopefully, they’ll include the full screen test on the Blu-ray.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette along with Spielberg and Jackson talking about they met, how they came to work together on Tintin, and how this movie was his first true collaboration.  The Adventures of Tintin opens in 3D on December 21st.

Earlier this month, we posted five short clips from Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin. Just today we brought you a new official poster and some fan-made opening credits. Now, we have the new trailer for the mo-cap project that showcases a bit more action than the UK one that posted recently.

The Adventures of Tintin is based on one of the most popular comic book series in Europe and as such, will open in the UK on October 26^th. Since our American sensibilities need some time to warm up to this foreign hero, the film will open stateside on December 21^st. The Adventures of Tintin stars Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Daniel Craig and was produced by Spielberg and Sir Peter Jackson. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Early reviews for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin have been generally positive and the film is about to start its tour of Europe (where the source material, Herge’s comics, is well-known).  It’s a smart move since it will allow the film to build up strong buzz before it needs to convince an American audience that remains wary of 100% mo-capped movies and unfamiliar with the title character.  While the teaser posters tried to hide the face of its eponymous star, the new poster features Tintin proudly ignoring the burning ship behind him.

In related Tintin news, Animator James Curran put together an unofficial opening title sequence for the movie.  We saw some great fan-made opening credits earlier this year with X-Men: First Class and Curran’s Tintin work is just as good.  It doesn’t really fit with Spielberg’s big-budget motion-capture style for the movie, but it’s undeniably charming.  Hit the jump to check out the poster and the title sequence.  The Adventures of Tintin opens in 3D on December 21st.

A whole slew of goodies from Steven Spielberg’s upcoming performance-capture film The Adventures of Tintin have been unveiled today. Five new clips from the pic have debuted, as well as a few behind-the-scenes videos documenting the performance-capture filming process. Each new piece of material I see for the film looks better and better, and these videos are no exception. The clips are fantastic. This really feels like a good old-fashioned adventure pic in the vein of Indiana Jones, with incredible visuals to boot. The performance-capture doesn’t look rubbery at all, but it’s as if Herge’s cartoons have literally come to life. The behind-the-scenes videos are pretty great as well, giving us a look inside “The Volume” where the film was created (much the same as James Cameron’s Avatar). We also get a glimpse inside Spielberg’s process with the new format, and his collaboration with Peter Jackson.  [Update: We were asked to take down the behind-the-scenes videos.  Sorry if you missed them.]

Hit the jump to watch the videos. Written by Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, and Steven Moffat, the film stars Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg. The Adventures of Tintin opens in 3D on December 21st.

A new UK trailer for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin has gone online.  It’s become pretty clear by now that Tintin is his spiritual sequel to the Indiana Jones movies, not Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  The set-pieces on display look tremendous and I’m excited to see how they’ll play on the big screen as opposed to my computer monitor.  I also applaud Tintin (voiced and mo-capped by Jamie Bell) for using every part of the motorcycle.  I’m tired of wasteful bikers.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Daniel Craig.  The Adventures of Tintin opens in 3D in the UK on October 26th and in the US on December 21st.

Three of this holiday season’s highest profile releases got new dates today.  We’ll start with the most unusual.  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol has the same wide release date: Wednesday, December 21.  According to Deadline, Paramount will preview MI4 in “select theaters” on Friday, December 16.  I am curious how many theaters this will involve.  I don’t recall seeing this type of thing before—a blockbuster preview several days before the initial release.

Paramount also moved The Adventures of Tintin up from December 23 to open wide with the Mission: Impossible sequel on December 21.  Meanwhile, Disney will shift this year’s other Steven Spielberg feature, War Horse, from December 28 to Christmas Day.  More, including official synopses, after the jump.