First Look at Spielberg's Tintin

Empire Magazine has the first look at the photo-realistic animation in Spielberg's upcoming film, Tintin.  Jamie Bell will play Tintin, and Andy Serkis is Captain Haddock (below).

Zachary Quinto to be Spielberg's George Gerswin?

Yesterday, the rumor mill was buzzing about Steven Spielberg's next project.  After the remake of Harvey fell apart, Spielberg is supposedly anxious to begin work, possibly as soon as April, on a biopic of American composer George Gershwin.  Zachary Quinto, who recently told fans that he would be taking a break from all things Sci-fi and Star Trek for two years, is in talks for the role of George Gerswhin.  No word on who would play his brother Ira, who wrote a string of Broadway musical hits with him in the 20's and 30'.

George Gershwin tragically died young of a brain tumor at the age of 38.  Gershwin, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, started on Tin Pan Alley, writing songs for $15 a week.  He wrote the music for several Broadway shows, Hollywood musicals, and crossed over to classical music with orchestral pieces like An American in Paris, and the opera Porgy and Bess.  You can't escape his music, especially whenever a United airlines commercial airs (Rhapsody in Blue). 

I think Zachary Quinto would be great in this role.  He is really one of the best actors on Heroes, and I loved him as Spock.  He is so incredibly intense in both roles, and yet is very different and lighter in his personal interviews.  He's a very talented guy, and I think doing something completely different from his genre Sci-fi parts is a great move for his career.

But Mr. Spielberg, what is going on with that Lincoln biopic starring Liam Neeson?

Here's one of the few film recordings that exist of Gershwin playing the piano, I've Got Rhythm:

Bangarang

One almost forgets that Spielberg made Hook!

This one just made me smile.

Daniel Craig the villain

Jamie Bell (all grown up!) from Billy Elliot will be Tintin and Daniel Craig will be his co-star as the dastardly pirate Red Rackham.
From the BBC:

British actor Daniel Craig, best known for playing secret agent James Bond, has signed up to play the villain in the new Tintin movie.

The 40-year-old has landed the role of Red Rackham opposite Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell, who will play the intrepid young reporter Tintin.

Filming for The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, directed by Steven Spielberg, has already begun.

It is thought the Tintin movie, planned for released in 2011, will be the first of two or three movies.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who is co-producing the project with Spielberg, has been lined up to direct the sequel.

Confused by what Tintin is all about? Read this article on the European cult of Tintin.

NOW I'm interested in TinTin

I'd heard rumblings about Steven Spielberg doing a Tin Tin movie, and just went why? Why should I care? Even Spielberg directing didn't excite me.

NOW, I care. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of Hot Fuzz (one of my all time favorite movies) and Shaun of the Dead, have signed on to play the clumsy Thompson and Thompson detectives in TinTin.

Coming Soon says:

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz duo) have landed the roles of Thomson and Thompson in director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson’s Tintin.

The movie will be animated with motion-capture technology and star Andy Serkis as Tintin’s friend Captain Haddock. Thomas Sangster was previously set to play Tintin but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts

Hat tip: The Movie Blog

Spielberg to film Civil War pic

Variety reports on Spielberg's upcoming slate of films, including the long awaited pic with Liam Neeson as Lincoln, based on the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Sally Field is attached to play Mary Todd Lincoln.

Steven Spielberg will next focus on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

The director, out promoting "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," has told the German weekly magazine FOCUS that he will return his attention to an epic project about the 16th president, for a DreamWorks film that could begin filming possibly by early next year.

Spielberg will first shoot "Tintin" in early fall.

The director had prepped the Aaron Sorkin-scripted "The Trial of the Chicago Seven," but that became sketchy after he could not get rewrites during the writer's strike. Spielberg had enlisted Sacha Baron Cohen and talked to other high profile thesps about starring in a drama about the trial of anti-Vietnam war protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. That film will have to wait.

The Lincoln project could be ready for an early 2009 shoot because of several variables: Spielberg has proved adept at shooting back-to-back films, which he did most memorably when he made "Jurassic Park" and the Oscar-winning "Schindler's List" in 1993. Also, his Lincoln project -- informed by the biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's "The Uniter: The Genius of Abraham Lincoln" -- has a strong script by "Angels in America" playwright Tony Kushner (who rewrote "Munich" for Spielberg).

Spielberg also has Liam Neeson --who played Oskar Schindler -- ready to play Lincoln. Neeson agreed more than three years ago to play the role for Spielberg, and has been waiting for a start date.