'Tintin' Producers Shake Up Future Sequels

by Jeremy Gordon

There are a lot of "Tintin" stories to adapt, more than 20 full-length comics produced over 50 years. We're seeing a handful of them in this year's "The Adventures of Tintin" -- stories like "Secrets of the Unicorn," "Red Rackham's Treasure," and "The Crab with the Golden Claws" -- but the producers have their pick of the litter when it comes to considering a sequel.

As the first movie racks up acclaim on its way towards its Christmas release, The Playlist reports that the producers are considering switching up their plan for a trilogy.

"We knew that we needed to introduce Tintin, we needed to introduce the relationship with Haddock, we knew [the dog] Snowy was going to be in it," producer Kathleen Kennedy told them, "so now what we're thinking [for the second film] is what new characters do we want to introduce? Well, we'll probably introduce Calculus and bring him into the fold."

Calculus is Professor Calculus, a scientist friend of Tintin's who invents a number of gadgets while aiding the general adventure. He doesn't appear in this first film, but he's featured in a number of Tintin stories.

The overall challenge is to recontextualize Tintin for the modern era without losing any of his charm. As times have changed, so have many of the cultural judgments taken for granted in the original stories.

"Everything we do nowadays is so PC that it's kind of interesting to confront the choices he made, and decide, 'OK, are we going to make the same interpretation?" Kennedy said. "Or are we not going to do it because we think, 'Oh, maybe that shouldn't be a storyline we should follow?' We're kind of inclined to just stick with what Hergé was doing, and give it a bit of a modern interpretation."

First, the producers have to get their house in order. Peter Jackson is still set to direct the sequel when he's not busy with his commitments on "The Hobbit," but the third film's director is yet undecided. "It's tricky getting everybody," Kennedy said, "but that's how we did the first movie, sort of passing the baton."

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