Miscellaneous Miscellany: Tintin, The 80s, Dragon Ball

Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, Logan's Run, Space: 1999 ...

I'm rambling about the TV shows I saw as a kid in the 80s. What brought this on? After a series of movie versions that kind of ... sucked, like S.W.A.T., Starsky And Hutch, The Dukes Of Hazzard, Charlie's Angels, etc, I was thinking about which of my favourite sci-fi series they were going to eye next. Fortunately none of the above. But talks of The A-Team has recently resurfaced, and John Singleton has been attached to the production. Early rumours were that Ice-Cube would be the new B.A. Barracus (played by Mr T in the series, fool!), but that was soon proven untrue.

Singleton? He's had an inconsistent record, and 2 Fast 2 Furious grates on the memory like a cheese shredder. But you can expect updates on The A-Team; they're now a bunch of Iraq war vets wanted for crimes they did not commit. That sounds pretty dodgy, politically.

One more cast member has been announced for Dragon Ball the movie. Emmy Rossum will play Bulma. And now I get on my knees and make a plea to the film's producer, Stephen Chow: "Mr Chow, I've been a fan of yours since time immemorial. Heck, I even like Curry And Pepper! So, please, I beg of you, don't let Hollywood screw up Dragon Ball!"

Ahem. OK, grovelling over.

We already know Spielberg and Peter Jackson are making a trilogy based on The Adventures Of Tintin. That's another great series that I grew up with in the 80s. I've recently re-collected the series in the large, single volume versions (not the three- or four-in-one volumes), including the very racist and politically incorrect Tintin In The Congo. This production has naturally piqued my interest considerably.

Andy Serkis has been announced as part of the cast for Jackson's production. And no, you can breathe again because, thank goodness, he's not playing Tintin. And yes, it IS going to be in 3D. But what worries me are the words "performance capture technology." That's weird tech territory were in, as evidenced by Polar Express and Beowulf. I'm not so concerned with the creepy, lifeless eyes of the characters, as many have complained about. But this technology isn't aesthetically great either.

The French have been making pretty entertaining live-action movie versions of Asterix, so perhaps Spielberg and Jackson could learn a thing or two there.