Paramount to Fund ‘Tintin’
The saga of Tintin continues to unfold as it now appears that Paramount Pictures will cover the $130 budget for the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson Tintin movie. As reported at Deadline Hollywood, the deal calls for Paramount to produce the movie entirely on its own as long as the principals remain on budget. Filming remains on target to begin in October.
Concern remains that the popular European character has yet to penetrate the American consciousness despite previous attempts, which made Universal skittish over the price tag since it meant the film would have to gross in excess of $400 million to show a profit. Without a huge American contribution, there was concern on this issue.
Meantime, this is only secondary to the split of DreamWorks from Paramount as they ally with India’s Reliance Media to once more become an independent production entity. The messy breakup will take weeks to resolve all the details including which film properties will remain with DreamWorks and which will be retained by Paramount. The studio is claiming rights to at least three Spielberg projects including the story of the Chicago Seven trial.
At present they have yet to sign a distribution deal for DW films but Universal remains the odd-on favorite with 20th-Century Fox also reported to be interested.