Director Steven Spielberg is going to have two entries into this year’s awards season horse race, with his first films as director since 2008′sIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  One starring an actual horse, the appropriately titled, War Horse, and The Adventures of Tintin.

I saw the trailer for War Horse (that we showed you a couple of weeks ago) on the big screen this weekend. It’s impressive in the usual Spielbergian way. The colors are gorgeous, there are lots of closeups on the “Spielberg face” and the strings and trumpets of John Williams’ score all soar. I’m sure it will be wonderful and probably make me cry.

On the other hand is The Adventures of Tintin, which just looks like a lot of fun. Filmed using motion capture technology, it features the talents of Daniel Craig as Red Rackham, Andy Serkis as Capt. Haddock, Simon Pegg as Insp. Thompson, Nick Frost as Insp. Thomson, Toby Jones as Silk and Jamie Bell as Tintin.

The film is  based on a beloved Belgian comic by Herge. The character Tintin is a young journalist and in this particular adventure, written by Dr. Who show runner Steven Moffet,writer/directors Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs the World) and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), Tintin and his friends discover an old map to a sunken ship commanded by Capt. Haddock’s ancestor and go off on a treasure hunt. The Adventures of Tintin is also the first animated film for Steven Spielberg. He originally wanted to do a live-action version, and asked Peter Jackson if his Weta Workshop would help with the CGI. Jackson, as a longtime fan of Tintin, convinced Spielberg that live action would not do justice to the comic books, and that motion capture was the best way to represent the world of Tintin. His dog Snowy is still CGI.

The adventure begins 26 October in the UK and December 23 in the US & Canada.