Trivia / The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

• Acting for Two:
  • Andy Serkis plays Archibald Haddock and his ancestor Francis Haddock.
  • Daniel Craig plays Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine as well as Red Rackham.
  • Enn Reitel portrays Nestor and Mr. Crabtree.
• All-Star Crew: Directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, co-produced by Peter Jackson, written by Edgar Wright and Steven Moffat, scored by John Williams, and starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Toby Jones, and Cary Elwes.
• Approval of God: Won years before the movie's release or even its production. After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hergé declared that only Steven Spielberg could do Tintin justice.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Cary Elwes basically begged Steven Spielberg for a part in this movie. He plays one of the two seaplane pilots.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Comedian/actor Gad Elmaleh as Omar Ben Salaad. Not so much for the English language version, but he also voices the character in French, so it counts for France.
• Descended Creator: The Latin-American Spanish dub of the film was directed by Ricardo Tejedo, who also provided the voice of Tom, one of the crew members aboard the Karaboudjan.
• Development Hell: The second and third film appear to be in development hell, seeing how moderately the first one performed in the USA (grossing $77.5 million there against a $135 million budget), and seeing how the Motion Capture film craze was brought to a screeching halt with Mars Needs Moms.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Being it's a licenced game and all, the tie-in game is no longer available for sale on the usual online store fronts like UPlay, Apple App Store and Google Play, though keys for the PC version could still be purchased elsewhere, and Ubisoft will still honour them as of 2022.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Gad Elmaleh voiced Omar Ben Salaad in both English and French.
• Non-Singing Voice: Though Kim Stengel (Bianca Castafiore) is a trained soprano, Renée Fleming provided Bianca's singing voice for Charles Gounod's Romeo et Juliette aria, "Ah, je veux vivre".
• Playing Against Type: Daniel Craig plays a James Bond-style villain.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Director Steven Spielberg, producer Peter Jackson, writers Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright, actors Jamie Bell, and Simon Pegg and Cary Elwes... yeah, it was pretty much a prerequisite to be a Tintin fan if you wanted to be involved in this movie.
  • A fan created his own Animated Opening Credits for the film and posted it online just for fun, and when Spielberg saw it he was so impressed that he flew the guy to the U.K. Premiere and offered him a paid position on his next movie.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Latin-American Spanish dub, Thomson and Thompson are voiced by real-life brothers Ricardo and Luis Alfonso Mendoza.
• Role Reprise: The Brazilian Portuguese dub has Oberdan Júnior as Tintin, reprising his role from the 1990s animated series.
• Saved from Development Hell: Steven Spielberg has owned the film rights to Tintin since the 1980s, when a friend pointed out to him the similarities between Tintin and Indiana Jones. At one stage, Jack Nicholson was going to play Captain Haddock. In The '90s, it would have starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. In the intervening years, Roman Polański was interested in adapting Tintin.
• Short Run in Peru: The film debuted in Europe before opening in North America. Even then, it opened in Quebec one-and-a-half weeks before the rest of the continent due to the large Franco-Belgian comics market there. (And yes, if you were wondering, they got the original English version too, which allowed anyone from English Canada or the US willing to take the car trip to Montreal to catch the movie early.)
• Stillborn Franchise: The plan was that Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg would create a series of film adaptations, with the two swapping directing duties as they went along. Still hasn't gotten a follow-up in over ten years.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The film was originally going to cast Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Tintin, but he was scrapped due to a delay in filming.
  • Danny DeVito was going to play Senhor Oliveira de Figueira, but the role was eventually cut from the script.
  • Billy Crystal was considered for Professor Calculus before the character was dropped from the script.
  • Meryl Streep was considered for Bianca Castafiore.

---