3-D Future for Steven Spielberg & Peter Jackson

Director Peter Jackson continues to develop his relationship with Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks. Weeks after Jackson's Lovely Bones landed at DW, the two are teaming up to direct and produce three back-to-back features based on Georges Remi's Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin, to be made in 3-D, Variety is reporting today.

The films will be made using technology developed at Jackson's WETA studio. Jackson and Spielberg will direct at least one movie (it's unclear who will direct the third) and they will be released through DreamWorks Animation. Tintin has long been a passion project for Spielberg, who has held various film rights to the property over the past 25 years. "We want Tintin's adventures to have th reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honor the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created," Spielberg told Variety.

The deal between Jackson and Spielberg is just the latest in a return to 3-D in Hollywood. DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg recently said in an earning announcement that the studio would begin producing and releasing all of its films in 3-D starting in 2009.