Big names get behind Tintin series

How do Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the two titans of pop culture, collaborate on the new 3-D motion-capture version of “Tintin”?

With lots of high-tech wizardry.

Spielberg, who’s directing the first installment, “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn,” recently wrapped 32 days of performance-capture shooting in Los Angeles. Producer Jackson traveled from his New Zealand home base to Los Angeles for rehearsals and the first week of shooting, and then appeared via an elaborate video-conferencing setup for the rest of the shoot, using a specially designed iChat-type system in which the Kiwi filmmaker can see everything on the set in real time and simultaneously talk with Spielberg. The film is scheduled to hit theaters in 2011.

Spielberg first became intrigued with the cub reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy back in the early ’80s, when reviewers of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” noted the similarity between Indiana Jones’ derring-do and Tintin’s globe-trotting escapades. He and producer Kathleen Kennedy have been involved with the books intermittently since that time, but it wasn’t until the maturation of motion-capture technology that a serious avenue opened up for re-creating author Herge’s world.

In fact, Spielberg had called Jackson in his office to discuss the intricacies of motion capture —- which Jackson had used to create Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and Kong in “King Kong.” When he broached the topic of “Tintin,” Jackson, born and bred in a part of the world that reveres Herge’s creation, yelped, “I have all the books in back of me.”

That’s the genesis of this behemoth collaboration, Spielberg spokesman Marvin Levy said.

Neither Spielberg nor Jackson nor producer Kennedy would talk further, though the plan is for Jackson to take on the directorial reins for the next film. Jackson is finishing the Christmas 2009 film “The Lovely Bones,” which he adapted from the novel, directed and produced for Spielberg’s DreamWorks. He’s also writing and executive producing the new “Hobbit” films to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Spielberg reportedly has his long-planned Abraham Lincoln feature in pre-production, as well as the running of DreamWorks. The Tintin film encompasses “The Secret of the Unicorn” as well as elements from the other books (such as the sequel “Red Rackham’s Treasure”), which carry on the tale of Tintin’s hunt for the pirate Red Rackham’s hidden bounty.

Thomas Sangster, who played Liam Neeson’s son in “Love, Actually,” was initially cast as Tintin, but he fell out. The filmmakers turned to 23-year-old Jamie Bell, who first broke into films as the title character in “Billy Elliot” and later appeared in Jackson’s “King Kong.”

Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and Kong in “King Kong,” takes on the role of Tintin’s closest friend, the friendly alcoholic Captain Haddock. Daniel Craig plays the villainous Red Rackham.