Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson Talk 'Adventures Of Tintin'

At Comic-Con, director Spielberg and producer Jackson tell MTV News about motion-capture technique.
By Terri Schwartz, with reporting by Eric Ditzian

Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg at Comic-Con 2011
Photo: Michael Buckner/ Getty Images

SAN DIEGO — "The Adventures of Tintin" took San Diego Comic-Con by storm during Friday's Hall H panel, gifting fans with new footage of the upcoming motion-capture flick and surprise appearances by producer Peter Jackson and star Andy Serkis. The debuted footage was received very favorably, several news outlets reported.

Jackson and director Steven Spielberg caught up with MTV News to chat about how motion capture has evolved over the years. Spielberg cited the motion capture in "The Polar Express" as what propelled the animation technique into popularity, which then culminated in its best form when James Cameron and Weta Digital applied it to "Avatar."

Was there any one scene in particular Spielberg found the most difficult to create? "I don't think it's any one scene that is tough to crack," he said. "It's the medium that has been evolving that took years of development and experimentation and trial and error."

The central focus of the story is obviously the movie's namesake, Tintin, but there are plenty of other colorful characters fans should look forward to as well. Spielberg said he hopes Tintin is the biggest breakout character to come out of the flick, but Jackson said the rest of the ensemble will have a chance to shine as well.

"[Comic creator] Hergé created a group of very eccentric characters," Jackson explained. "Tintin is surrounded by people — both people trying to stop him from succeeding and people who are trying to help him, who, ironically, I think cause just as much problems."

One of those characters is Captain Haddock, who is voiced by Serkis. "Haddock is such a messy, chaotic character that it's quite debatable whether he helps or hinders Tintin most of the time," Jackson said.

"But he gets a lot of laughs, and that's the important thing," Spielberg added with a chuckle.

Check out everything we've got on "The Adventures of Tintin."

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

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