The news that Disclosure Day director Steven Spielberg has chosen Peter Jackson as his replacement on a project that has been in the works for over a decade and a half is a welcome surprise. Steven Spielberg’s unrealized projects are so numerous that they could be the subject of a movie themselves. The prolific director might have made over 35 movies in the last 62 years, but some of his most interesting ideas never saw the light of day for a diverse array of reasons.
Some couldn’t get funding, others fell apart because actors or screenwriters weren’t available, and still others were considered too outlandish to work as mainstream blockbusters. However, Spielberg fans who were let down by the disappearance of one sequel from his upcoming slate over a decade ago can breathe a belated sigh of relief after some surprising news from The Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, Jackson revealed he is working on a sequel to a Spielberg collaboration that many viewers may have forgotten even exists.
In 2011, Spielberg directed the long-awaited animated adventure movie The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, a motion-capture adaptation of the Tintin comic book series by the legendary Belgian artist Hergé. Starring Jamie Bell as the titular plucky adventurer, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn was produced by Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Peter Jackson, with a script by Shaun of the Dead’s Edgar Wright, Doctor Who’s Steven Moffat, and Attack the Block‘s Joe Cornish.
What Comic Story Peter Jackson’s Tintin Movie Could Adapt
A critical and commercial hit, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn earned over $350 million on a budget of $135 million. Since there were many more Tintin comics for the franchise to adapt, many viewers assumed that the movie would soon receive a sequel, but the franchise instead went silent for over 14 years before any substantial updates were offered. Anyone awaiting news of the Tintin sequel were finally offered some hope when Jackson confirmed that he and his writing partner Fran Walsh are working on a screenplay in May 2026.
Jackson further clarified that he and Spielberg’s shared plan was always for one of them to direct one movie in the series while the other directed the second, and Jackson admitted that he has been looking forward to keeping up his side of this bargain. Jackson hasn’t directed a fictional feature film since the final instalment of The Hobbit trilogy back in 2014, although he did direct both 2018’s World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old and 2021’s immersive music documentary The Beatles: Get Back.
Since Jackson was already a major creative force on the first Tintin movie, he was always likely to direct a sequel if it ever happened. As the upcoming live-action Lord of the Rings movie The Hunt for Gollum is set to be directed by Andy Serkis rather than Jackson, the director is free to work on this underrated adventure franchise for the foreseeable future. Luckily, there are many iconic Tintin comics that the second movie could adapt.
While some of the Tintin books contain regrettable stereotypes and offensive deceptions of ethnic groups, stories like Tintin in Tibet and The Blue Lotus would be perfect candidates for a screen adaptation in 2026. The comedic plot of The Castafiore Emerald could also be a good fit for Jackson, who has pulled off some stunningly ambitious, visually witty action sequences in his time as a blockbuster director. Regardless of which story Jackson picks, the news that Disclosure Day’s Steven Spielberg handed the reins of the franchise to him after The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is heartening.
- Release Date
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October 25, 2011
- Runtime
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107 minutes