Mumbai: Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment have begun the principal production in Los Angeles on the 3D motion capture film, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which is to be directed by Steven Spielberg.

It stars Jamie Bell as Tintin, the young reporter whose pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure, and Daniel Craig as Red Rackham.

Bell and Craig are joined by an international cast that includes Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, from a screenplay by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, is produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy.

It is the first in the series of 3D motion capture films based on the iconic character created by Georges Remi, better known to the world by his pen name Herge and is due for release in 2011.

Executive producers are Nick Rodwell, Stephane Sperry and Ken Kamins. Paramount Pictures will release domestically and in all English speaking territories and Asia, excluding India.

Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute the film in Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and the rest of the world.

The second feature in the series is scheduled to be directed by Jackson, with a potential for a third film as well.

Spielberg and Jackson will bring Herge’s stories to life employing state-of-the-art performance capture technology developed by Jackson’s Weta Digital.