Peter Jackson Says His Next Film Is ‘Tintin 2,' but Who's Paying for It?

Peter Jackson is back. Twelve years after his last narrative feature (I'm not counting the docs, as good as they are), he's confirmed his next directing gig, and it's the ‘Tintin’ sequel that everyone had pretty much given up on.

Here's what he told ScreenRant today:

We've also already written the script for Tintin 2, the second Tintin film. That will be the next film I make.

He and Fran Walsh wrote it together. If you've forgotten the backstory, and you'd be forgiven, the plan in 2011 was that Spielberg would direct the first one with Jackson producing, and then they'd switch for part two. Spielberg was saying Jackson would direct ‘Tintin 2’ as far back as 2018, and then nothing happened.

Jackson hasn't directed a feature since "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" in 2014. Since then, he's kept choosing projects built out of old footage, first "They Shall Not Grow Old" and then "Get Back.” The former was particularly impressive, a WWI documentary made from incredible restored footage.

Now, my big question is who's paying for ‘Tintin 2.’ Paramount and Sony co-financed the first one after Universal walked, and back then Spielberg said the studios had signed on for one movie plus development money for a second. Development money gets you a script and storyboards. That’s it.

And the first one wasn't exactly a smash hit. It reportedly cost $135M and made $374M worldwide, but only about $77M of that was domestic. France and the rest of Europe basically carried it. Once you factor in marketing, it's a decent result, not a hit, and I think that's a big part of why this sequel sat on a shelf for 15 years. Both studios have new owners now, too. Jackson's name will open doors, sure, but I'd like to see someone actually commit to this.

Jackson hasn't said which story he's adapting. The safe bet is Hergé's two-parter, "The Seven Crystal Balls" and "Prisoners of the Sun." That fits the pattern of the first film, which mashed together "The Secret of the Unicorn," "Red Rackham's Treasure" and parts of "The Crab with the Golden Claws."

Outside the six Tolkien movies, Jackson's pre-hiatus filmography includes "Bad Taste," "Heavenly Creatures" (still underrated), "The Frighteners," "King Kong" and "The Lovely Bones." So in a career spanning nearly 40 years, he's made almost as many Middle-earth movies as everything else combined.