Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced Jamie Bell will play Tintin in Steven Spielberg's upcoming 3D motion capture film "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," which has officially started production.

Also joining the cast is Daniel Craig, who will portray Red Rackham. Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook are already on board.

Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish wrote the script for this first film, which Spielberg is directing and Peter Jackson is co-producing. Jackson is set to direct the second flick in the upcoming series.

Bell's credits include "Billy Elliot," "King Kong" and "Jumper." He is currently onscreen alongside Craig in "Defiance." The guy's got talent, and I'm sure he'll do just fine portraying the famous young reporter created by Herge.

If you have no clue who popular Tintin really is, here is some extra info from the official press release:

"The Adventures of Tintin - a series of 24 books, the final unfinished adventure was published after Herge's death - became Herge's life's work. The first adventure was published in 1929. Over 200 million copies have been sold worldwide. The popular series has been translated into 70 languages and still attracts thousands of new fans each year."

Yep, I always adored "Tintin," and I'm certainly looking forward to this flick, which is currently scheduled to open in 2011.