‘The Adventures of Tintin’ “is really a buddy movie and an odd couple story” said the famed director, Steven Spielberg sitting there on the 36th floor atop the fancy-shmancy Mandarin Hotel on a panel with his producing partner of 28 years Kathy Kennedy, and cast ready to answer questions from the media.
The movie produced alongside his friend Peter Jackson, tells the story of a young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure. It is gorgeous to watch and for the first time works with 3-D and motion capture whatever that is, all I know is that it’s beautiful and vibrant and colorful and captivating.
“We went to Belgium back in 1983 two weeks after Herge’s death to meet the widow who we got the rights from and who welcomed us.” Said Spielberg. That would be Herge, the comic writer and artist best known for the ‘Tintin’ series, which he wrote and illustrated until his death.
Spielberg, who is an avid Norman Rockwell collector and considers him, his all time favorite artist, was raised with Rockwell because his family used to get the Saturday Evening Post and he would look at the pictures. Some say there’s some Rockwell touches in Tintin.
This is the director who has been one of the most, if not the most influential director of the last 40 years and who’s characters have become world famous. How about Goonies, ET, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Close Encounters Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List.. just to name a few.
Does he feel pressure to always bring his A-game knowing people take so much inspiration and influence from his work?
“The pressure really is the actual production and movie making that’s where the pressure is. Whatever happens afterwards is none of my business.” And it goes out there into the ether and into people’s lives and effects them doesn’t affect them. “
His characters have inspired young kids for a long time. Spielberg who self-proclaimed himself a ‘Goonie’ was asked by a smart darling kid reporter, what is the key ingredient to creating characters that not only can entertain viewers but teach them life lessons?
Said a smiling and impressed Spielberg, “It’s actually a combination of things. There’s no one magic answer to that. We are an extraordinary art form this business. It’s a collaborative art form. There’s more collaboration that goes on in making movies than in any other art form or anything else. It’s either everybody is doing their greatest work or the whole house of cards falls apart. And some of that is luck and some of that is intelligent casting bringing in the right people into the experience with me and sometimes you can get all the right people and it still doesn’t work. So I need to acknowledge the collaborative art that this is because if I didn’t I would not be able to have ‘War Horse’ and ‘Tintin’ and ‘Lincoln’ which I am currently shooting, in my life if I didn’t have the greatest support team anybody’s possibly dreamed for.”
How was working with producer Peter Jackson on this project?
“Peter’s got the sense of humor, we laugh at the same things and we simply had fun. And without Peter I wouldn’t have had any fun on this movie.
Peter has made this fun. He has a real laid back attitude. When I say laid back attitude, basically he would say, we’ll figure it out. If we don’t figure it out now, we’ll figure it out next wk. There’s something about that partnership that takes the pressure off. I felt so safe with Peter there. And the greatest contributions that Peter made to this movie were to cast Jamie Bell (who plays Tintin). That was Peter’s idea. They had worked together on ‘King Kong.’ ” Jamie Bell studied Tintin’s poses and he just became Tintin on the first day.”
The ‘Tintin’ sequel is being written now for all you Tintin fans and this time around Jackson will direct and both will again produce.
Finally, what’s Spielberg’s’ favorite movie?
“’Russian Ark.’ A 95 minute film done in one shot, 3 takes and the cameraman almost died 3 times filming this.”
Spielberg then suggested we all go see it. You should all go see ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ opening Wednesday, December 21. Tintin’s dog ‘Snowy’ –so life-like and likeable steals the show and alone, is worth the price of admission.