We can't tell you how much we want the upcoming Tintin movies to be sci-fi; what genre wouldn't want to claim a couple of movies written by Steven Moffat, directed by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg and starring (amongst others) Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (as the Thompson Twins) alongside Andy "I was Gollum and King Kong, you know" Serkis, after all? It's like the ideal science-fiction movie... except that, really, Tintin isn't really science fiction.

Oh, we've tried to convince ourselves otherwise, pointing out that he went to the moon in a couple of books, not to mention an appearance by a strange meteor. But the fact remains that, overall, The Adventures of Tintin remains a more grounded series, despite occasionally wandering into stranger territories (Plus, sadly, the movies are apparently based on the very not science fiction books The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure).

And so, we're left looking at the amazing collection of talent behind the Tintin movies, wishing that they could come to their senses and just work on a proper science fiction story instead of this Boy Reporter And Pirates stuff, and also sneakily reporting on it nonetheless by disguising it as a post about being sad that the movies aren't science fiction after all.

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost join 'Tintin' [Variety]

The interesting thing is that Chocky is actually the perfect model for Spielberg to project all of his absentee father concerns onto. For those who haven't read the novel, it centers around a father who slowly comes to realize that his son's odd behavior has less to do with his own role in the child's development and more to do with the fact that his son's imaginary friend is actually a disembodied alien consciousness living inside his brain... all of which you're already imagining being accompanied by a John Williams score and personified by a soft-focus Paul Giamatti and some random Culkin kid, I'm sure. But that doesn't mean that that's a good thing — I'd want to see the book being brought to the screen by someone who'd be able to bring out the unsettling qualities about it, the uncertainty and horror of having an alien living inside your son's head, and that's not someone who replaced guns with cellphones in a 20-year-old film so as not to scare the kids.

(It's also not you, M. Night Shyamalan. So don't get any ideas.)

My one hope is that the confusion over exactly which studio actually owns Spielberg's Dreamworks properties right now will be enough to convince him that it's not worth the trouble — or else, that Tintin gets back on its feet quick enough to fill up his schedule, saving us from a cute Chocky and giving us a new Stephen Moffat movie in the process.

Steven Spielberg's kidding again [Hollywood Reporter]

Given the choice between taking the reins of Doctor Who and fulfilling his contract to write the second Tintin movie for Spielberg and Jackson was a no-brainer, according to Moffat:

I know a lot of people won't understand it but I've been dreaming about writing for Doctor Who since I was seven. There are no bad feelings between Spielberg and me, but Doctor Who has to come before Hollywood... I could not work on the second Tintin film and work on Doctor Who. So I chose Doctor Who. Steven is a fan and he understood my passion for the series completely.

Moffat, who's already written the first of a planned Tintin trilogy, was originally contracted to write the first two before being offered the Who gig. In a classic British tabloid attempt, the Mail of Sunday story quotes an anonymous (and potentially fictional) Hollywood insider to give the story some more spice:

No one walks away from Spielberg and all that money for a show no one has heard of. I mean, what is this doctor show about? It sounds a little silly.

More silly than a Belgian boy reporter and his cute little dog hanging out with alcoholic sea captains and having adventures on the moon? Somehow, I don't think so, Johnny Hollywood.

£500,000 Mr Spielberg? Sorry, I've got a date with the Beeb, says the new Dr Who writer [Mail on Sunday]