The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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January 26 : 2009

Title, casting, and distribution for first Tintin film announced

Variety reports today that the main casting for the first of the three planned Tintin films is set. I hadn’t seen a title given up to this point, but it’s given there as The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. I had already posted the information that Simon Pegg, Nick Frost (both of Shaun of the Dead fame), and Andy Serkis had been cast. Now it has been announced that Jamie Bell (who played Billie Elliot) will be Tintin and Daniel Craig will co-star as Red Rackham. (Craig previously worked with Spielberg on Munich.)

The distribution is also set. Paramount will release the film in the U.S., other English-speaking territories, and Asia (excepting India). Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute it in continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, India, and other territories.

Peter Jackson is co-producing and is still set to direct the second Tintin film.

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    The Frodo Franchise
    by Kristin Thompson

    US flagbuy at best price

    Canadian flagbuy at best price

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    Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
    hardcover 978-0-520-24774-1
    421 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 12 color illustrations; 36 b/w illustrations; 1 map; 1 table

    “Once in a lifetime.”
    The phrase comes up over and over from the people who worked on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. The film’s 17 Oscars, record-setting earnings, huge fan base, and hundreds of ancillary products attest to its importance and to the fact that Rings is far more than a film. Its makers seized a crucial moment in Hollywood—the special effects digital revolution plus the rise of “infotainment” and the Internet—to satisfy the trilogy’s fans while fostering a huge new international audience. The resulting franchise of franchises has earned billions of dollars to date with no end in sight.

    Kristin Thompson interviewed 76 people to examine the movie’s scripting and design and the new technologies deployed to produce the films, video games, and DVDs. She demonstrates the impact Rings had on the companies that made it, on the fantasy genre, on New Zealand, and on independent cinema. In fast-paced, compulsively readable prose, she affirms Jackson’s Rings as one the most important films ever made.

    The Frodo Franchise

    cover of Penguin Books’ (NZ) edition of The Frodo Franchise, published September 2007. The tiny subtitle reads: “How ‘The Lord of the Rings’ became a Hollywood blockbuster and put New Zealand on the map.”