DreamWorks nabs Tintin

Call it Hergé’s adventures of Spielberg. After nearly 25 years of negotiations, Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks has finally nabbed an option to make at least one film from the famed Tintin graphic novels.

The escapades of Georges Remi – AKA Hergé’s – famous journalist and adventurer have long been a dream project for the director, though we don’t yet know whether he’ll actually helm the film himself. He nabbed an option on the character in 1983, just before Hergé died, but the writer read the contract prior to slipping the mortal coil and refused to sign on the dotted unless The Beard directed the film himself.

And no one yet knows what form the adventures will take - live-action, hand-animated or CGI. But one thing’s for sure – with 23 books in the library, there’s plenty of fuel for a franchise. “With Harry Potter, everyone knows that there will be seven films. We have 23 scripts. If the first one works, we'll make another," Hergé Studio head Nick Rodwell gabbed to Variety . Adding that he has plans for the character to help France’s world cinema domination plans: "There will be a worldwide promotion, and we will emerge from the Belgian, French and Swiss ghetto to reach for China and the US. It will be a big Hollywood production, nearer the $100 million mark than the $20 million, but that's not my business."