Bell, Craig star in Spielberg's "Tintin"

By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Long in the works, Steven Spielberg's big-screen adaptation of the vintage Tintin comic strips has begun filming, with "Defiance" co-stars Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig in lead roles.

Bell ("Billy Elliot") has been cast as the title character, a globe-trotting young reporter, in "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn." Craig ("Quantum of Solace") will play the villain, Red Rackham. Spielberg is directing the motion-capture 3-D feature.

The film -- scheduled for release in 2011 by Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment -- is the first of two, possibly three, installments. It's being produced by Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Peter Jackson, who will direct the sequel. Jackson's Weta Digital effects house developed the performance-capture technology the directors will use.

Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook round out the voice cast.

The screenplay, written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, is based on the character created in 1929 by Herge (the pen name of Georges Remi). Tintin's adventures played out in comic strips that were collected in two dozen books.

The original "Unicorn" book is the first of a two-part tale involving pirate treasure. It focuses on Captain Haddock's ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, and his fight against the nefarious seaman Rackham. The follow-up was "Red Rackham's Treasure."

"Unicorn" featured two gun-toting siblings known as the Bird Brothers and a butler named Nestor. But new characters have been created for Spielberg's film to flesh out Tintin's world; they include a rival reporter, a bellowing editor and an American Interpol inspector.

Serkis, well known for having embodied Gollum in Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is playing both Haddocks. Pegg and Frost are playing Inspectors Thompson and Thomson, respectively.

The "Tintin" film project has been in the works for decades. Spielberg first optioned the material in 1983, and he and Jackson spent much of 2008 running animation tests and developing the script, which Paramount and Universal originally were going to co-produce.

After Universal, which is now in place to distribute the newly independent DreamWorks' films, declined to provide its half of the proposed $130 million budget in September, Paramount offered to fund the entire production. As Spielberg's DreamWorks was at that moment extricating itself from Paramount, the director eventually sought out Sony as a new financial partner.

As a result, Paramount will release the film domestically and in all English-speaking territories and Asia, excluding India. Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute the film in Europe, Latin America, India and the rest of the world.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter