Auditions start for Peter Jackson's Tintin

PULL YOUR SOCKS UP: Auditions have started for Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's first Tintin film.

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Auditions are under way in Los Angeles for some of the key supporting roles in three Tintin movies to be directed by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg.

Movie website IGN.com reported that auditions were taking place for 16 characters, included identical police officers Thomson and Thompson.

Jackson and Spielberg will direct at least one movie each, with Spielberg filming his in Los Angeles and Jackson in Wellington - but the two have been tight- lipped about casting or which of the 23 Tintin books they will film.

However, if the audition list is accurate, it provides clues to the books likely to make the big screen.

The roles include British Lieutenant Delacourt and soldier Ahmed - who both appear in The Crab with the Golden Claws, set in the Sahara. It is the first Tintin adventure to feature the hard-drinking Captain Haddock.

Other characters on the audition list include pirate Red Rackham, smugglers Max and Gerontium Bird, Tintin's landlady Mrs Finch, the mysterious Sakharine and pickpocket Aristides Silk - who feature in The Secret of the Unicorn and its sequel, Red Rackham's Treasure.

Spielberg recently said the three films would be shot entirely with motion-capture technology similar to that used in The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. Wellington visual effects studio Weta Digital is considered to be at the forefront of using the technology for computer-generated effects.

- © Fairfax NZ News