Several sources are reporting that Thomas Sangster is set to play the intrepid Tintin in Steven Spielberg’s and Peter Jackson’s motion-capture adaptation of the classic Belgian adventure comic. Everyone is using phrasing like Spielberg and Jackson May Have Found Their ‘Tintin’ and Young Brit Thomas Sangster Cast as Tintin?, so we’ll keep the question mark.¬† Most articles are featuring photos of the youngster Sangster from Love Actually or Nanny McPhee, but the actor is now closer to Tintin’s actual/fictional age (16 or 17?) The most recent photos I could find are from his guest appearance on Doctor Who last year, and there’s a ton of them here. At 17 he still looks amorphously tweenish (and eerily already a little bit like a motion-capture version of a real kid). I can’t imagine anybody else being more perfect for the role, can you?
oh my god he’s so cute ! I loved him in Love Actually!
Professor Calculus: Is Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future still around? If not, then no-one does “absent-minded” like Jeff Goldblum
Thompson Twins: umm… they’ll have to search hard to find these
Nestor: Stephen Fry
General Alcazar: Javier Bardem
Chang: an unknown Chinese actor, about a year younger than Tintin, who can make the whole audience care deeply about him
Rastapopoulos: Robert De Niro
Bianca Castafiore: Kathy Bates
Jolyon Wagg: Jay Leno
I’m surprised at SaltireFlower’s initial post. I found Tintin to be my first childhood lesson in multiculturalism. It was inspiring to watch him form close friendships around the globe, such as with Chang the Chinese boy, and with the boy from the Andes. Perhaps your accusation of racism comes from the depiction of the Japanese as evil monsters, and the Chinese as noble victims. From my knowledge of early 20th-century history, this isn’t so far from the truth.
Please stop throwing the word “racist” around carelessly. I’ve heard the word too often recently. Is Rev. Jeremiah Wright racist? (No. He attacked the government, not all white people.) Are the people accusing him of racism racist? Am I racist? Who knows? Let’s all be mature about this.
IMHO, the only real racism in Tintin was towards Americans, represented by the annoying loudmouth Jolyon Wagg character on the far left of Ryan’s picture. But Americans deserve it, because they are the most despicable race on Earth.
Here’s a photo of Tintin’s extended family. Any thoughts on who might portray some of the other major character?
Professor Cuthbert Calculus
Thomson and Thompson, the detectives
Nestor, the butler
General Alcazar, the dictator
Kalish Ezab, the emir
Abdullah, the emir’s son
Chang, the Chinese kid
Müller, the evil German doctor
and Rastapopoulos, the criminal mastermind
& Bianca Castafiore, the opera singer who won’t go away
(Maybe somebody convince Hillary Clinton to play Bianca, to keep her busy, so she’ll stop ripping the Democratic Party to shreds.)
ah, thanks, sb33. I was typing my reply as you were typing your update. Here’s a link to the firstshowing page you found.
Tintin himself would be impressed with your junior reporter investigative efforts.
😉
I was guesstimating Thomas Sangster’s age as 17 in the Doctor Who photos, sb33, based on IMBb’s May, 1990 birthday for him and the 2007 airdate of the episode pictured. Since it’s TV, I doubt it would be filmed too far in advance of the broadcast date, but I’ll concede that he might be 16 in the photo. He’ll be 18 this summer.
This age issue is all rather moot, anyway, right? I think Tintin will be motion capture, and we have no idea how stylized or realistic the CGI work will be. If it’s possible to give Ray Winston the 8-pack abs of a WeHo circuit boy for Beowulf, then I guess it’ll be easy to adjust Tintin’s age up or down from Sangster’s actual appearance.
Andy Serkis is playing Capitaine Haddock, so maybe exact physical resemblance isn’t as important as body language and presence.
yep, sartre, my tip of the hat to Tufas is due to his uncanny ability to smell a stinkbomb months in advance and oceans away.
I wonder who will Spielberg and Jackson cast for the motion capture of Snowy, Tintin’s fox terrier? Dakota Fanning has the right yappy attitude, but she might be too old.
Ah, I think the firstshowing site (“Young Brit … cast as Tintin?”) shows a more recent picture than the Doctor Who screenshots. His neck has grown much longer, for a start!
After seeing that picture, I do think he is well-cast as Tintin. I loved the comics, by far the most entertaining comics of my childhood, and I’m sure Spielberg, Jackson and co will turn them into excellent films.
I saw that episode of Doctor Who, and he was clearly playing a schoolboy of around 13 in it. I don’t know where you got the information that these pictures show him at 17. I suspect your source was faulty. He may be 17 now, but then these pictures don’t show him as he is now.
Well, Tufas was right in his very early prediction that Cate would miss out on a 2007 Oscar performance win. His duly certified anti-anticipation may well be bona fide 🙂
I always thought Tintin was probably 16 or 17, ML.
& despite his diminutive appearance, Thomas Sangster is 3 inches taller than Mel Gibson!
What is it with all these teen actors playing nine and ten year olds? Sangster looks 12, not 17…. I just found out that Freddie Highmore is 16 (!!)
He looks like he could be a good enough Tintin – I guess.
I cannot see Shia playing Tintin ever, it just wouldn’t work. I am the biggest pro-LaBeouf person you will ever meet, but it wouldn’t work.
It could be crap, Tintin that is. Who knows. I don’t.
Tufas, Early anti-anticipation for Tintin: The Golden Age.
On the record, duly noted, certified.
😉
Hmmm. Can I just say, Tintin will be crap?.. There I’ve said it.
Just a feeling
Cheers!
T
I always assumed they would cast Spielberg’s adopted son, Shia LaBeouf. I know Tintin was supposed to be young, but Sangster doesn’t seem old enough to play him to me.
I really hope they cast him he’d be wonderful. He was great in Love Actually, and I’ve been watching his guest appearance on Doctor Who over the last two weeks and he was brilliant and adorable in it. That said, I never particularly liked Tintin as a kid – some of the stuff in it was pretty racist which drove me nuts, but I think they’ll handle the film adaptation with a lot more sensitivity than the comic books.