Posts Tagged ‘Machu Picchu’

Tintin’s Newest Adventure!

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Tintin and Snowy

I am excited to announce that the classic comic by Hergé, featuring Tintin and his dog Snowy, will soon be made into three full-length movies!

Peter Jackson has teamed up with Steven Spielberg, who holds the film rights for the books, to make the movies. They will be based on three of the 23 comic books and the first of the series is hopefully to be released in 2009/2010.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this news! I’ve been a Tintin fan since I discovered the comic, over 15 years ago, in a used book store. Now, I have the entire collection of comics and even a novel featuring the Belgian reporter titled Tintin in the New World. In the novel, Tintin even visits Machu Picchu!

Anyway, I digress. Back to more about the movies! From what I’ve read, they are going to be made back-to-back, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and they will be a combination of computer animation and motion capture technology, with actors playing the characters. The budget will be in the region of $100 million per movie.

As far as I know they are still looking for the perfect actor to play Tintin. I’m assuming because of the search for the “perfect face”, the movie might take longer than anticipated to be released. That’s okay, though, because Tintin is the main character, so the perfect person has to play him. I’d rather wait an extra year for a superb movie than have them rush to make a mediocre one.

Dream Trek to Machu Picchu

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

Machu Picchu

There are two ways to Machu Picchu. One is by train; the other by foot. My lifelong dream has always been to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu – to experience the trek the way the ancient Incas did. This Spring, my dream will become a reality.

Even though I’ve always wanted to visit Machu Picchu, the actual steps to realizing that dream only started very recently. Last summer, Kevin and I decided to choose one place we each wanted to visit most in the world. His choice was Thailand and, you guessed it, mine was Machu Picchu.

We crossed Thailand off our list in October 2007 (and had an amazing time doing it)! Next, it’s my turn to visit the place to which I’ve always dreamed of traveling.

Why did I choose Machu Picchu? Honestly, I can’t quite put into words why I am so drawn there. When I was in second grade, we were asked to create a simple paper book about oneself. To help facilitate the process, there were leading questions on each page, and one of them was “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go”? (Heh, even back then we did memes). (more…)