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Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson Looking for Tintin Financing

Titan directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are currently looking to secure both co-financing and co-distribution for their planned trilogy of films launching with Tintin, which is based on a famed comic strip. The project is currently set up at Paramount, which is in discussions with Sony to help finance and distribute the films internationally. Universal, which entered into a seven-year distribution deal with Spielberg's DreamWorks after that company's separation from Paramount, declined to finance half of the first film, which came with a price tag of $130 million.

Paramount offered to finance the entire project, but the massively successful filmmakers were reportedly turned off by the terms of the deal and decided to look elsewhere for funding. If Sony agrees to finance the other half of the project, the company won't have any creative input into development. Spielberg is currently in the process of directing the first film in the trilogy, due out in 2010, with Jackson planning to direct the second.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
11.04.08