Variety reports that today Paramount and Sony announced a U.S. release date for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn: December 23, 2011. That puts it right up against The Hobbit‘s first part, also due that month. Actually, the film will already be out in other countries. The film is being released in various foreign countries in October and November. The idea is that Tintin is better known abroad than in the U.S., and favorable early buzz will help the film there. The film is going to be released in 3-D–though at the rate that theaters are currently converting to digital and 3-D, it’ll probably have to show on a lot of regular screens as well.

The Secret of the Unicorn is the first of three Tintin films originally announced. Steven Spielberg is directing this one, and Peter Jackson is to direct the second, Red Rackham’s Treasure. Tintin Movie.org has revealed some highlights from the 20th anniversary issue of Empire which was edited by Spielberg. It states that the second Tintin film is already in pre-production and that there are no plans for the third film so far. Also, “in the original test reel, Jackson played all the parts.” Presumably that’s the test reel for the new motion-capture process invented at Weta Digital and being used for both the first and second parts. (Nothing on Empire’s own website so far, but apparently the new issue is already out in the U.K.)

Variety reported today that Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to create Lord of the Rings-based video games. Electronic Arts owned the rights for eight years, but they reverted to New Line Cinema earlier this year. Warner is currently expanding into video-game production in a big way, and being the parent company of New Line, has taken over this valuable property.

The first new game under this agreement is “Aragorn’s Quest,” which will be introduced next month at the big Electronic Entertainment Expo, usually referred to as 3E. Warner describes it as “the first ‘Lord of the Rings’ videogame created specifically for kids and their families.” Gaming sites are further quoting the press release as saying that “Aragorn’s Quest” will feature “accessible gameplay set in a friendly, colorful rendition of Middle-Earth. Players assume the role of Strider and embark on his greatest quests from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The game offers authentic, action-oriented sword fighting, lancing and archery that all ages can play together.”

Gaming commentators seem disappointed that this new game will be so family-oriented. I wonder if the new direction is designed to allow a smooth transition into the creation of the Hobbit video games. Those presumably will be more kid-friendly than the LOTR games were.

The June issue of Wired, just out, has an interview with Guillermo del Toro. (It’s not online yet.) There’s nothing new on The Hobbit, so I’m not going to summarize it. Instead it deals with his vampire novel, The Strain, due out next month, and his many film projects. There’s a list of all eleven, with ratings for “How much we want to see it” (measured in number of  popcorn-bucket icons) and “How likely it is to happen” (measured in number of unicorn-head icons). The Hobbit tops the list with five of each.

GdT also talks about the future of storytelling as new media converge. There’s a photo of him in his lavish LA fantasy hideaway, where he keeps his library and collectibles. I must say that at first glance I took it to be the interior of the Wingnut offices, which tells your something about how close his tastes and Peter’s are.

If you’re interested in things GdT and don’t subscribe and can’t wait for the online version, you might want to pick up a newstand copy.

[Added May 22: The interview is now available online.]

It’s getting hard to keep track of all the projects that Guillermo del Toro is juggling, all while working on the script and pre-production of The Hobbit. Yesterday Variety announced that GdT and Mark Johnson (Frodo Franchise interviewee and producer of the Chronicles of Narnia films) will co-produce a thriller for Miramax. It’s called Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and will star Katie Holmes. The feature will shoot in Melbourne this summer as a “Guillermo del Toro Production.” Of course, GdT has been producing films to help give young directors a leg up. The kicker with Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, though, is that GdT also co-scripted the film with Matthew Robbins.

I’m sure most of you know by now about the fanfilm, The Hunt for Gollum, that went online yesterday. Written and directed by Chris Bouchard, it brought together a volunteer but definitely not amateur cast and crew. It’s very much movie verse and definitely worth a look.

It’s available only for streaming, not for download. Since it’s a fanfilm, the makers clearly want to be cautious that they stay within widely accepted fair-use policies and don’t step on the toes of the Tolkien Estate or Tolkien Enterprises. There are texts at beginning and end stressing that the film was made by fans for fans and is not earning money in any fashion.

The official website for the film apparently had technical troubles after posting the film, and it is now available in HD on a site called Dailymotion (38 minutes). If your computer or internet hookup can’t handle HD, there’s an option to play it in standard format. There’s also a making-of short (about 25 minutes). The official site has various pages that provide a lot of production background.

If you like the film and want to find out how the world has reacted to it, check the blog about the film. The May 4 entry contains lots of URLs for reviews and news stories. Some of these are live links, but for some reason most aren’t. I found, however, that cutting and pasting the URLs worked.

In Chapter 6 of The Frodo Franchise, I talked about fan websites, fanfiction, fanfilms, and so on as a sort of unofficial wing of the franchise. I think a lot of fans will consider this a filling-in story that sits alongside Peter Jackson’s trilogy quite comfortably. Congratulations to the filmmakers for having achieved such success with what was obviously a long labor of love! Over 200,000 views in the one day it has been up, at least according to the Dailymotion site.