The first movie will be entitled The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of The Unicorn and will cover one of the most famous storylines from the graphic novels. Wright and Cornish have condensed events from three of Hergé’s stories (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure) in order to introduce the major characters, but also provide a meaty adventure in which to showcase them.

The plot will follow intrepid journalist Tintin as he meets Captain Haddock for the first time, and finds himself embroiled with gun-fights, pirates and a quest to recover some long-buried treasure. All of which sounds suitably rip-roaring and Boys Own for a Steven Spielberg yarn!

One potential snag that has been mooted is the unfamiliarity of the character with the American market, but Simon Pegg is certain that the film will win over a legion of new fans Stateside.

“There’s been some talk about how nobody knows who Tintin is,” he told Collider recently, “but it’s a very odd thing to say because nobody knew who Indiana Jones was in 1979! Tintin is a great, great adventure story.”