Prolific filmmaker Steven Spielberg recently spoke with The Times of India, revealing some details on a number of upcoming projects on the director’s slate, mostly in a producer role. After directing THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: SECRET OF THE UNICORN in 2011, a two-part deal that would have the director tag team the new franchise with Peter Jackson, the next installment is ready to go.
“Peter Jackson is directing the next one, I’m producing. We have a script and we’re going to start performance capture probably at the end of this year.
“Don’t hold me to it, but we’re hoping the film will come out around Christmas-time in 2015. We know which books we’re making, we can’t share that now but we’re combining two books which were always intended to be combined by Herge.”
Spielberg also revealed that the famous ‘Blue Lotus’ story would likely be the third TIN TIN film. The director also gave details on the planned Martin Luther King, Jr. pic, saying:
“DreamWorks-Reliance is also planning a movie on Martin Luther King Jr. I wouldn’t call it a biopic, it’s more a story of King and the movement and also about how his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi helped to shape his moral core. About the slavery issue, it’s very hard for me to wrap my mind around how a group of people could ever—for profit or power—enslave another group of people.”
The director discussed shooting another film in India, which he hasn’t done since INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, saying there are plans for a picture in that region:
“We have finalized a script for a movie that DreamWorks (the studio he co-owns) and our partners Reliance Entertainment plan to make together. Part of it will take place on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir. But we’re still trying to figure out the casting, locations and who’s going to direct it.”
>Spielberg also talked about trying to convince Bond producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli to direct a film for the franchise on two separate occasions, saying:
“I spoke to him after making ‘Jaws’ , which was a huge hit but Cubby said I wasn’t experienced enough and they’d call me if they did a Bond film on water. After ‘Close Encounters’ , I told him that by now I had two Oscar nominations. And he asked ‘Did you win’? And I hadn’t. So that was that.
Spielberg has yet to announce a new directing venture after putting the breaks on ROBOPOCALYPSE, which was set to star Chris Hemsworth and Anne Hathaway. The film is currently being restructured.