Showing all posts about Tintin
Peter Jackson says he is writing a Tintin film sequel
8 September 2026
On the subject of less than faithful book-to-film adaptations, it sounds like a sequel to 2011’s the Adventures of Tintin might be on the way.
To be precise, New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, who collaborated with Steve Spielberg to make the 2011 film, said, earlier this year, he was writing a screenplay for a sequel. There’s the possibility though things may go no further.
The full title of the 2011 film was The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Readers of the Tintin graphic novels though will tell you only elements of The Secret of the Unicorn, the eleventh book in the Tintin series, made it into the film.
There were smatterings — quite a lot really — of other stories in the mix on this occasion.
I doubt too many Tintin fans were bothered, though The Secret of the Unicorn, and its second part Red Rackham’s Treasure, contained sufficient material for the 2011 film. There was no need lift segments from other stories, but Spielberg and Jackson saw things differently.
If there is to be sequel, I’d like to see an adaptation — a moderately faithful one — of The Castafiore Emerald. This was the twenty-first Tintin story, and differed markedly from the others, in that it was set entirely at Marlinspike Hall, ancestral home of accident prone series stalwart, Captain Haddock.
Not all fans were pleased by this, as they were accustomed to Tintin and friends visiting several countries, once even the Moon, in James Bond style, in each story.
But to my mind, the blend of intrigue, mystery, supposition, red herrings, and hilarity, made The Castafiore Emerald one of the best stories in the series. Bring on the adaptation.
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books, film, graphic novels, Peter Jackson, Steve Spielberg, Tintin
The Tintin stories enter the public domain in 2025
18 December 2024
As a kid I loved the Tintin books. Although they might today be called a product of their time, I aspired to be like the intrepid boy-reporter, who seemed to do very little reporting. I have the red hair, and I write a blog so… Plus, I did write a few articles for a newspaper once. Sometimes people refer to me as a journalist (not always for flattering reasons however…).
So maybe I kind of, sort of, ended up like Tintin.
Anyway, the Tintin stories are among a batch of well-known cultural artefacts (could I refer to the Tintin comic books that way?) entering the public domain in 2025. The final, completed, story in the series, Tintin and the Picaros, was published in 1976, and creator Hergé died in 1983, meaning only some earlier Tintin works will enter the public realm for now.
But it makes me wonder. If the boy-reporter were still with us, would he still be writing for a newspaper? Or might he have capitalised on his considerable profile, and launched his own online publication. A super-famous blog. Such are the things I stay up late at night thinking about.
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books, comic books, graphic novels, history, Tintin
