Director Steven Spielberg, Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment have announced the release dates for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

The motion capture film which stars Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will be released in the US on the 23rd December 2011, whilst everywhere else the film will be released late October and early November 2011.

This strange move signals Tintin’s overwhelming popularity in both Continental and Eastern Europe and the studio’s own belief in the production, which will now be given a 3-D release. Sony Pictures Releasing Intl will oversee distribution in Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and India, and Paramount will distribute everywhere else.

The film is the first in a planned series of stories for the character, created by Georges “Herge” Remi, with the second film scheduled to be directed by Peter Jackson.

Source: Variety