The first images from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's upcoming motion-capture 3D film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn have gone online.  The movie is based on the popular comics by European artist Hergé.  Speaking to Empire, Jackson talks about the motivation to make the film as a 3D mo-cap piece:

“With live action you’re going to have actors pretending to be Captain Haddock and Tintin,” says Peter Jackson. “You’d be casting people to look like them. It’s not really going to feel like the Tintin Hergé drew. It’s going to be somewhat different. With CGI we can bring Hergé’s world to life, keep the stylised caricatured faces, keep everything looking like Hergé’s artwork, but make it photo-real.”

Hit the jump for more on the film plus a look at the first images from it.  The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn stars Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost.  It opens in the US on December 28, 2011.

Images and quotes via Empire.  For more on the film, be sure to pick up this month's issue of Empire Magazine.

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For those who aren't familiar with Tintin, here's a brief synopsis [via Amazon]:

The hero of the series is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included the brash, cynical and grumpy Captain Haddock, the bright but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol) and other colorful supporting characters such as the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupond et Dupont). Herge himself features in several of the comics as a background character; as do his assistants in some instances.

Here's how Spielberg breaks down the first film:

“The first part of the film, which is the most mysterious part, certainly owes much to not only film noir but the whole German Brechtian theatre — some of our night scenes and our action scenes are very contrasty. But at the same time the movie is a hell of an adventure.”

Spielberg directed Unicorn and Jackson was slated to helm the second film.  However, Jackson's involvement has now becomes murkier due to his obligation to helm The Hobbit.  However, Jackson does have his favorite books picked out.  Here's him talking about possible sequels:

“One of my favourites is The Seven Crystal Balls, so that’s the one I’ve always been thinking of,” he says. “I also really like the Eastern European ones, the Balkan ones like King Ottoman’s Sceptre and The Calculus Affair. I think it’s a terrific setting for a thriller, the weird Balkan politics and the mysterious secret service agents. I think the Moon ones are terrific, but they’d be good for the third or fourth Tintin film, if we get that far. We want to keep his feet on the ground just a little bit longer.”

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