Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's "Tintin" Finished Filming

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

The highly anticipated Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson team-up project, a trilogy of motion-capture films based on the classic "Tintin" adventure comics by Belgian artist George Remi (also known under the pen name "Herge"), has finally made some progress. Spielberg finished shooting all of the footage for the film in the past month, says Studio Briefing. There's still a ways to go before we see the first entry, however, as artists and technicians will now be taking two years to animate the footage.

The epic undertaking got off to a rough start when the two directors couldn't find funding, which delayed filming and resulted in actor Jamie Bell ("Jumper") replacing the original star Thomas Sangster. Eventually, everything fell into place, and now all is completely underway.

It's interesting to note that this is the first foray into animation for both of the high-profile filmmakers (though Spielberg has produced dozens of animated features). Jackson will be supervising the animation for the first film (titled "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn") and will direct the second, and the two hope to co-direct a third installment when all is said and done. Considering the first entry alone will take two years to animate, it may be a while before they need to begin worrying about that, though.

I don't know a whole lot about the comics, but with such an incredible bunch of people involved in the project, it's hard to expect anything but brilliance. Besides Spielberg and Jackson's involvement in direction and production, the script was co-written by the British comedy masters Edgar Wright and Steven Moffat, was shot by Oscar-nominated DP Janusz Kaminski (Spielberg's frequent collaborator), and stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Daniel Craig.

Seriously, what a line-up!

Jackson expects the film to be ready for a Winter 2011 release in 3-D.