Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig, seen in London in January, will star as Tintin and pirate villain Red Rackham respectively. (Matt Dunham/Associated Press)

Steven Spielberg's anticipated Tintin movie, a 3-D motion-capture film about the intrepid cartoon reporter, will get a staggered opening around the globe in 2011, producers announced.

Paramount and Sony Pictures said Thursday that The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn will debut before international audiences in late October and early November.

The North American release is set for Dec. 23, 2011.

Filming on the production began in January, with Jamie Bell starring as the titular young investigative reporter. Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Mackenzie Crook are also among the film's cast.

The Secret of the Unicorn will be the first of a series of 3-D motion-capture Tintin films. Peter Jackson will direct the second installment, with the possibility of a third film. All will use 3-D motion-capture technology from Jackson's Weta Digital effects house.

Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who worked under the pen name Hergé, introduced Tintin in 1929, eventually producing two dozen books about the globe-trotting reporter's exploits and adventures. Remi died in 1983 and specified that no new Tintin stories be created after his death.