Tintin Forums

Director-for-hire? You make him sound like he was just an extra from a local actors' agency. Spielberg has always seemed to me the sort who initiated his own projects (sometimes in collaboration with others) rather than being the sort looking round desperately for work.

I've always had the impression that "Indiana Jones" was a joint project between Spielberg and Lucas: that they met, got on well, wanted to work together and found that they had a lot of common interests such as the old explorer-adventurer theme popularised by Allan Quartermaine and Tarzan.

After all, by the time "Raiders" was released, Spielberg already had such classics as "Duel", "Jaws" and "Close Encounters" under his belt. "1941" may have been a dead fish but you can't get it right all the time.

Hard to believe, I know, but that was more or less true at the time.

I go into it in more detail in the post I linked back to, but this was far from a joint project. It's easy to dismiss as a one-off failure with hind-sight, but 1941 just about sank Spielberg's career as a movie director; he was regarded as being profligate with money and time, and no studio wanted to work with him.

In fairness the greatest problem was the gap between expectation and performance of the film: it wasn't that it didn't make money, it just didn't make nearly as much money as the studio had anticipated. At the time there were dark rumblings that 1941 could have bankrupted the studio - fortunately this didn't come to pass.

However, it was felt by many that the wunderkind had crashed to earth with a bang, and Hollywood was fairly fickle in dropping him on that basis.


He was - he couldn't get a film project at the time.
Only because George Lucas personally guaranteed that he would vouch for Spielberg, covering any extra costs himself if the film went over time or budget, was Paramount prepared to have Spielberg involved.

Spielberg was adamant that he could do it, that he would stick to the script and get the film in on time and on the money, and thus, yes, to all intents and purposes he was a journeyman director on Lucas's payroll for the duration.

Also as mentioned, apart from having had a converstaion about it on a beach in Hawaii while on holiday, where Lucas told Spielberg the story (at which time Spielberg suggested that the character be called Indiana Jones rather than Indiana Smith), both Spielberg and Lucas have said that that was the extent of the "collaboration" and input - the rest was down to Lucas and Kaufman's story, and Kasdan's script.

Thanks for the info, Jock, I suppose even the greatest have had their bad days and need to make a fresh start. I knew that "1941" was a bad stage in Spielberg's career but never realised that it was that bad.

Pegg and Frost talk Tintin but don't really tell us anything new.

When is a trailer going to be released?!

Jamie Bell talks Tintin in a short video interview.

Bell tells IGN "I don't think motion-capture has ever met with the right material yet" and briefly describes some scenes from the film, saying that fans of the albums "know what I'm talking about."

The Belgian Le Soir reports (in French) that Brussels is making a bid to host the world premiere of the new film, with both "Federal and Regional Governments, and the Royal palace" getting involved in the campaign, according to the report. Read about it here.

It does also say that Paris and London are possible venues for the event.

I think its only right the premier be in Belgium. If not, then Leicester Square in London.

My Vote is that the movie premiere should definitely be in Brussels as it should be as Herge deserves it.

jock123
I think Jacksonville, FL would be a FABULOUS place to premier this....that way I could actually go! ;)