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.
Speaking with India Times (via The Film Stage), Spielberg revealed that the Tintin follow-up has a script and he hopes to start production this year:
"Peter Jackson is directing the next one, I'm producing. We have a script and we're going to start performance capture probably at the end of this year. Don't hold me to it, but we're hoping the film will come out around Christmas-time in 2015. We know which books we're making, we can't share that now but we're combining two books which were always intended to be combined by Herge."
When asked if one of the two books for this next film would be The Blue Lotus, Spielberg admitted that Lotus would probably be the third Tintin film. Jackson still has a few months of reshoots on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to film this summer, and then there’s the stressful post-production schedule on Smaug which will last right up until the film’s release this December. Jackson could conceivably shoot the month-long performance-capture component of the Tintin sequel directly after Smaug’s release, which would give the team two solid years to put the animation together in anticipation of a Christmas 2015 release date.
Again, though, things in Hollywood are incredibly fluid so don’t be surprised if the Tintin 2 production date changes yet again, meaning the release date would also likely be pushed back.
Spielberg also revealed plans for a new film set in India while speaking with the India Times, though it looks like he’ll only be a producer on the project:
"We have finalized a script for a movie that DreamWorks (the studio he co-owns) and our partners Reliance Entertainment plan to make together. Part of it will take place on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir. But we're still trying to figure out the casting, locations and who's going to direct it.”
Even though he’s not directing, it’s indeed neat to see Spielberg involved with another film shooting in India since it’s been quite a while since he last shot in the country with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
