Rachel Abramowitz had a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times this week on the angst among Hollywood actors as they watch more major filmmakers embrace performance-capture techniques and animation approaches.  Here’s a great follow-up as she talks to Steven Spielberg about the making of “Tintin.”

Steven Spielberg says there was only one reason to make his new “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” with the cutting-edge performance-capture technology that James Cameron used on “Avatar.”

“It was based on my respect for the art of Hergé and wanting to get as close to that art as I could,” says the director, referring to Tintin’s author-illustrator, who created the international blockbuster graphic novel series (200 million copies in print) starring intrepid cub reporter Tintin, and his irrepressible canine companion, Snowy, as they venture through the pre-WWII world.

“Hergé wrote about fictional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe,” Spielberg said. “It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. It just seemed that live action would be too stylized for an audience to relate to. You’d have to have costumes that are a little outrageous when you see actors wearing them. The costumes seem to fit better when the medium chosen is a digital one.”

“Tintin” stars Jamie Bell (“King Kong”) as the title character, Andy Serkis (Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy) as his buddy Captain Haddock, and Daniel Craig (Bond, James Bond)  as the evil Red Rackham. Produced by Peter Jackson, with the animation done by Jackson’s Weta Workshop, the film is due in theaters in 2011.

Read the rest of the article over at Hero Complex and stop by Meltdown/Sunset Blvd. for Tintin books, toys, apparel and statues.

SPOILER ALERT: THIS POST REVEALS SEVERAL PLOT POINTS IN THE CAPTAIN AMERICA FILM

It’s one thing to take Batman off the comic-book page and make his costume still look good in a live-action feature, but Captain America presents a far bigger challenge — the hero is essentially a walking flag, which might leave many average moviegoers giggling instead of saluting.

But director Joe Johnston and the team at Marvel Studios have a plan for “The First Avenger: Captain America,” which is due in Summer 2011: They’ve added a new wrinkle to the classic mythology to explain why a scientifically enhanced super-soldier would venture out in the WWII battlefields in a costume that leans a bit heavy on the old Betsy Ross imagery.

“The costume is a flag, but the way we’re getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit. After he’s made into this super-soldier, they decide they can’t send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He’s the only one and they can’t make more. So they say, ‘You’re going to be in this USO show’ and they give him a flag suit. He can’t wait to get out of it.”

That’s a whole new concept and it’s one that sounds pretty promising. “It was never in the comics,” Johnston said, “because they didn’t really need it. In comics, he puts on the costume and the reader just justifies because of the nature of the medium.”

Johnston told me all this when we sat down for lunch today at the Four Seasons Hotel. For an hour we chatted about his new film, “The Wolfman” (which you can read about next week right here at the Hero Complex) but I had to ask him a bit about the Captain America production.  Filming starts in London at the end of June. “There’s a lot of work we have to do on it,” the 59-year-old director said.

And who will wear the costume and carry the shield? “Well, we’re testing five or six guys,” Johnston said. “The youngest is 23, the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London.”

Read the rest of the article over at  Hero Complex.

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Guillermo del Toro curses a bit — in Spanish and English — but his fan friendliness may know no bounds.

The director of the Academy Award-winning “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the well-received “Hellboy” films was on hand at midnight last night at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood to autograph copies of his new vampire book “The Strain,” co-written by Chuck Hogan. He stated that he would not leave until “every last geek” was satisfied — and he meant it.  I didn’t get to record this bit of video until 3:30 a.m., when he signed his last book.

Throughout the night, the director remained animated and amiable while autographing, taking scores of photos, and giving advice to fans and up-and-coming filmmakers who stood in line.  Some exchanges and words of wisdom from Del Toro included:

- “How come you haven’t read more vampire books?  I have a list …”

- ” … you should go find that DVD.  It’s in the Criterion Collection …”

- “Did you see ‘Drag Me to Hell’? No?  Are you gonna go?”

- “Is your short still making the rounds?”

And so on. A person in line commented, “He seems to have something in common with everyone.”  That was true, but with his banter, it was more that he found connections with the fans. Despite the popularity of his upcoming project, the director didn’t get an overabundance of questions about “The Hobbit.” He can think about that later. For now, on to New York, London, back to the State

CLICK TO ORDER SIGNED COPIES OF THE STRAIN

CLICK TO ORDER SIGNED COPIES OF THE STRAIN

Check out this fun Flash program sent over by the folks at Industrial Light & Magic. They’re in a tough Oscars race for effects this year (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Dark Knight” are also up in the category), but even if they don’t win the trophy they say there was something special about working on “Iron Man.”

The storied shop doesn’t traditionally “audition” for jobs, but they did work up spec presentations for “Iron Man” because there were so many in-house fans of the armored Avenger and such enthusiasm for Jon Favreau’s plans to bring the hero to the screen.

“This one was special for us all the way through,” says ILM’s Bruce Holcomb, the model supervisor on the film. “There’s a lot of love for ‘Iron Man’ and what was accomplished … and what will be accomplished.” “Iron Man 2″ is due in theaters in 2010.