Steven Spielberg: In-depth Interview about ‘Tintin’

*Updated December 2025

ShowBizCafe had the opportunity to attend the new 3D movie The Adventures of Tintin during press conference with Steven Spielberg.

This is the story of a journalist invented by Hergé, a Belgian comic writer who created endless adventures for the boy reporter from 1929 to 1983. This was a story in the making for 20 years. Spielberg told us how that came about and what we should expect from it.

(This interview was edited for clarity).

ShowBizCafe: Mr. Spielberg, could you tell us how this project was developed?

Steven Spielberg: Kathleen Kennedy, my producer, had been with me for 20 years trying to get this movie off the ground back in 1983. We went to Belgium two weeks after Hergé’s death and met the widow Fanny, who we got the rights from and who welcomed us as Hergé would have. She was very tenacious not to let me forget Tintin all these years. She kept the fire lit under me.

I really wanted to honor Hergé. The only way to tell the story is to honor the origins of Tintin. To do the whole picture in the medium of digital animation and pursuit of what we call performance capture techniques.

Collaborating on The Adventures of Tintin

Steven Spielberg: There is more collaboration in making movies than anything else. It is a collaborative art form that requires the very best of everyone involved so that you have a stable base. Some of that is luck and some of that is intelligent casting.

Bringing the right people into the experience with me. I really think I need to acknowledge the collaborative art that this is because if I didn’t, I would lead you to believe that I do everything. I would not be able to have War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, and Lincoln, which I am currently shooting, in my life if I didn’t have the greatest support team anybody has ever had.

The other side, my invisible partner who is not here but is always here, is Peter Jackson. Peter has the same sense of humor I do. We laugh at the same things and we simply have fun. Without Peter, I would not have had any fun at all. There is just something about that partnership that takes the pressure off of me.

When we cast the movie, the biggest contribution I think Peter Jackson did to this movie was to cast Jamie Bell as Tintin. They had worked together on King Kong and Peter came to me with this idea which inspired me. But I was pissed off it hadn’t been my idea; it was my producer’s idea. I think Jamie invested in Tintin with a great degree of himself and a little bit of me because I feel part of me is Tintin.

He had a complete understanding of what Hergé wanted to do with Tintin all those years. You can see it in all the Hergé illustrations. Jamie understood all the poses. He studied Tintin’s poses and he just became him on the first day of motion capture. It was amazing.

SBC: Can you tell us a little bit about Tintin for those that are not familiar with him and your inspiration in him?

Steven Spielberg: Tintin is a reporter. He is a journalist. He goes around the world, he looks for a good story to report, and then he gets involved in the story and the story then becomes about him. I am the same way. Tintin never dropped the ball. He had laser micro vision. Like Sherlock Holmes, he had the gift of deductive reasoning. He could figure things out by taking his problem-solving abilities in order of the problems.

In a sense, I have always admired Tintin’s sense of preoccupation with the world. He always has his eye on the prize. Just like movies, we always have obstacles in a way. Just like Jaws, where I had mechanical and weather problems against me. Tintin is trying to find the secret to the Unicorn and he has nature called Captain Haddock against him. They are best friends. This is a buddy movie in a way. It is really an odd couple story but Tintin never leaves the path to discover his secrets and that is what makes it funny and breathtaking.

The thing I was excited about at least hitting on with this story is always knowing who your friends are and remaining loyal to your friends despite what you hear. Despite the mistakes that are made in friendships and the misunderstandings that commonly occur, you have to be able to forgive and you have to be able to move on. You have to be able to remember the values of friendship.

Though this really is a story about trust and friendship and fidelity to each other, that is what Tintin and Haddock learn to achieve with each other. That is what Snowy, Tintin’s loyal dog, knows that they have between each other, because Snowy knows how this story is going to end before we do.

SBC: There is talk of a sequel. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Steven Spielberg: In the sequel, the twin investigators, Thompson (Simon Pegg) and Thomson (Nick Frost) are going to have a bigger role. Peter Jackson is going to direct it after he does The Hobbit and I will produce it with him as he produced this with me. It is being written right now. We have stories and we have the book we are adapting from Hergé and we cannot wait to get started.

The Influence of Norman Rockwell

SBC: Can you talk about what inspired your passion to collect Norman Rockwell and have those images go back to your films, especially as I see a lot of it in this film.

Steven Spielberg: Well, Norman Rockwell has been one of my favorite artists and illustrators over the years. I was raised with Rockwell because, when I was a kid, we used to get the Saturday Evening Post at our household by subscription. Of course, I had nothing better to do except look at the pictures and realize the old cliché that one picture is worth a thousand words, which is really true with Rockwell.

His images spoke volumes about America, family, community, religion, and faith. I was a collector, so when I started collecting art, the first art I collected was Rockwell. We had a very successful exhibit at the Smithsonian. George Lucas took his Rockwells, combined with mine, and we had this amazing kind of event there.

You probably are seeing images that remind you of Rockwell in Tintin only because of one thing. I think is because of the color palette and because it is bright. It is a bright film and Rockwell always painted very vivid paintings. Also, because I allowed the camera sometimes just in a simple frame to say a lot of what was going on inside the story. I think that is what you are referring to.

SBC: You are one of the most influential filmmakers of the last 40 years or so. What sort of pressure does that put on you, or what sort of pressure do you take on to step up your game with each film knowing that people want more from you?

Steven Spielberg: The pressure is the actual production of moviemaking. That is where the pressure is. Whatever happens afterwards is none of my business and has never been my business. It just happens. It goes out there into the ether into people’s lives. Whether it affects them or not, whatever effect any of my films have on audiences, I just kind of stop at the door. I make them and I do not go outside of the door.

SBC: What is the key ingredient to creating characters that not only entertain your viewers but also teach them life lessons throughout their experiences?

Steven Spielberg: It is actually a combination of things. There is no one magic answer to your question that would satisfy you or make any sense to me because we are an extraordinary art form, this business. It is a collaborative art form more than any other business, I guess more than any other art form. There is more collaboration in making movies than anything else. Of course, also television and theater, but movies principally require the best of everybody all at the same time.

The best they can be is not just five being the best they have ever been and ten not being the best. It is like everybody is doing their greatest work or the whole house of cards falls apart. Some of that is luck and some of that is intelligent casting. Bringing the right people into the experience with me. Sometimes you can get all the right people and it still does not work.

So I really think I need to acknowledge the collaborative art that this is. If I didn’t, I would lead you to believe that I do everything. I would not be able to have War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin and Lincoln, which I am currently shooting, if I didn’t have the greatest support team anybody has ever had. This is just a fraction of the creative team sitting up here talking to you, but they all represent the different branches of creativity.

---

For more movie interviews, check out our Movie Interviews archive.