Frost, Pegg for TinTin?

After what seems like months of no news on the project since it was first announced back in May last year, reports are appearing online suggesting Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have reportedly signed up to play the Thompson Twins in the new Tintin movie from Steven Speileberg and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

While Tin Tin himself has yet to be cast after Thomas Sangster dropped out of the movie, which will use motion capture to create a comic book feel to its look, Ain't It Cool News reports the Hot Fuzz stars will team up with Andy Serkis, who plays Captain Haddock.

The proposed trilogy of movies based on TinTin will be co-financed by Sony and Paramount after Universal opted out. The first film is scheduled for a 2010 release.

Firtst created in 1929 by Belgian artist Herge, Peter Jackson's special effects team Weta Digital will use 3-D animation to bring the junior reporter to life.

"Herge's characters have been reborn as living beings, expressing emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we've seen to date with computer animated characters," Spielberg, a longtime TinTin fan, told Variety last year, which revealed WETA had created a 20 minute test to prove the project could work. "We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honour the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created."

The TinTin series is estimated to have sold 200 million copies and been translated into over 50 languages, and has a huge following in the UK.

Last year, Moulinsart, who maintain Herge's most famous 'brand', courted controversy and outrage by cracking down on fan TinTin sites (see news story).

• View TinTin books on amazon.co.uk