Tintin (Jamie Bell) in the scene from "The Adventures of Tintin."

It doesn't open until December in North America, but Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin is already earning raves in Europe, where it's premiered.

("Action-packed" and "gorgeous," according to Empire magazine, to name one.)

If audiences are equally enthused, it should translate to sequels from the team of Spielberg and Peter Jackson. The powerhouse duo split duties on the first film -- Spielberg directed while he and Jackson produced -- and a follow-up would see Jackson direct with he and Spielberg producing.

What surprised Jackson most about working with Spielberg on the 3D motion-capture adaptation of the Belgian comic strip?

"I thought that Steven would have a process," the Lord of the Rings director says. "I was imagining there would be a way in which Steven would make the movie and I was looking forward to seeing it. But what I discovered -- which was delightful in a way -- is that Steven walks onto the set and it's like the first time that he's ever walked onto a film set. I mean, there's a childish excitement that Steven brings to it -- an enthusiasm that I wasn't expecting and it's very inspiring."

Spielberg doesn't dispute this. "In a sense, Peter is right. I get very, very anxious on the set. I suddenly have a thousand ideas and I don't censor myself. I wind up cutting some of them out in the editing room. If I was more like Peter, I would save myself a lot of needless footage "¦ because Peter does have a very good sense of seeing the big picture and the finding the most expedient way into that image or that emotional moment.

"I realized that we were just two sort of scientists in a lab just trying to figure out how to make something work. There's no ego; there's no competition. (We're) two huge Tintin fanboys just trying to bring this movie to you in a way you will like."

3D OR NOT 3D: Should that 3D movie you're about to see carry a warning label if it's actually a 2D conversion? Paul W.S. Anderson thinks so.

Next James Cameron, Anderson (The Three Musketeers) is the biggest defender of 3D (in fact, he's been using equipment from Cameron's own company in his Resident Evil movies).

But he fears the medium he calls "the future" is in jeopardy because of a "money grab" by the studios.

"I love 3D, but it has to be done well," he says. "If you're asking an audience to pay a premium price for something, you'd better deliver a premium product. And I don't think 2D conversions (like Clash of the Titans and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, and the upcoming Clash sequel and Star Wars conversion) are a premium product by any means.

"I think the way to do correct 3D is to mount your movie as a 3D movie, rent really expensive 3D cameras, pay for more lights because you require more light, spend more time shooting. But the end result, if you originate in 3D is the kind of premium product that deserves to be called 3D."

Asked if that distinction should be made at point-of-purchase, he said simply, "Yes."

ALL THE KING'S MEN: You don't have to sit through a Halloween movie marathon for long before the Stephen King thrillers (Silver Bullet, Carrie, Christine, The Mist, etc.) begin rolling. So what's the status of the adaptations of two of the author's best-loved works: The Stand and The Dark Tower?

Of the latter, producer Brian Grazer recently told The Playlist that, while a plan for a Ron Howard-directed trilogy and TV series stalled, he expects the project to still happen, albeit with a reduced budget.

No word, however, on whether Howard or rumoured star Javier Bardem will still be involved.

Meanwhile reports suggest Ben Affleck -- whose career as a director is generating a lot more respect and heat than his work as an actor ever did -- is the studio's first choice to helm an adaptation of The Stand, King's massive (1,000-plus pages) apocalyptic page-turner about a superflu that sets the stage for a mythic battle between good and evil.