Steven Spielberg will unite with Peter Jackson to bring Hergé’s Racially Prejudiced Adventures of Tintin to the big screen in Tintin and the Congo Savages. Most of that sentence is true.
Hergé’s (real name George Remi) character of Tintin, the intrepid (useless) reporter with a sideline in solving crime (usually smuggling) and a fluffy white dog called Snowy (true) is much loved the world over. Despite any hints of racist/fascist leanings, the books have been translated from their original French into some fifty languages. Of course they are pretty old, so it’s important to remember that racism was all the go back then.
Steven Spielberg has been after the rights to film the Tintin books for 25 years. In that time he has made Jurassic Park, AI and Minority Report amongst others, which as far as we are aware, are not racist at all. Peter Jackson’s last film was a remake of King Kong. It was so bad that it has since been released on DVD in at least two different versions, both too long and both less enjoyable than open-heart surgery performed with an ice cream scoop and a pencil sharpener. Again though, not racist.
Spielberg and Jackson do have other more definite projects in the works, but a 3D version of Tintin incorporating WETA performance capture technology spread into a pointlessly generic trilogy is clearly more of a publicity grabber than ‘Peter Jackson Still Not Doing the Hobbit’, etc.
An excited Spielberg commented:
“We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honour the distinctive look of the characters and world that Hergé created.”
Jackson and Spielberg will do one film each, with a third director yet to be announced. Any rumours of a Larry Clark version with Tintin spending three-quarters of the movie semi-naked before flashing his crotch at Captain Haddock and kidnapping an underage prostitute are just that, rumours.
We can only assume that Hergé’s modus operandi of violet animal cruelty and throwaway ‘comedy racism’ will not make it to the big screen. This is probably best, as in addition to being very wrong; there is really nothing particularly funny about Tintin lecturing a group of African schoolchildren on ‘their fatherland of Belgium’. It is not even factually accurate.
Read More:
Spielberg and Jackson to Make Tintin Films – RTÉ Entertainment
Chris says
What a crap article! You can’t even spell the man’s name right (Georges not George), so why would anyone believe a word you say? Perhaps you should read a few of the books before making sweeping statements.
Gilbert Wham says
I have, and whilst I enjoyed them immensely as a child, some of them are indeed racist in content. Unless you believe, for instance, that all Chinese are fiendish opium smugglers? Just to pick one recurring theme. Does anyone remember the Anarchist TinTin comics from the eighties? AK press I think they were. They probably weren’t racist, but they DID encourage the violent overthrow of the state. Nowadays of course, he’s been outed as a foul-mouthed smoggie. Can’t win, really.
Corey Logsdon says
This journalist is an idiot! Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” remake was “bad”? Last time I checked it has great reviews, did well in the box office and was beautifully filmed love story that didn’t at all ruin the original 1933 masterpiece.
OLiKiD says
Oh man, what a terrible article…
I hope the quality improves… I hate taking feeds off my RSS Aggregator.
TinTin is a great set of stories that I and millions of others have enjoyed over the years… All of this PC crap is getting out of control.
Stephan Edel says
Indeed there are aspects in Hergés early work that from todays perspective would be called racist. Now please keep in mind that these are from the 1920s! Hard to find non-racist writers from that time, isn’t it. Also, Hergé poked fun at many groups, including Nazis, Sovjets, millionaires, the military, scientists, Europeans, Arabs, North- and Southamerican all the like! Calling him “a racist” is an oversimplification, and it’s unjust. He’s one of the great classical comic artists, and enjoying his works as a child certainly did’nt make me a racist. I guess most of the people I met at school in 1980ies Germany were more racist than Hergé ever was! “Racist Films”… that’s really mischievous nonsense.
Gaara says
Peter Jackson’ KING KONG was bad? Man you need to get your facts right man, it was like worldwide in 2005, and people still talk about it today, a five star movie man.
plissken2013 says
Jackson’s King Kong sucked. That’s a fact. Go watch the 10 times superior original.