Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have known all along that their huge-budget adventure The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn would be a tough sell Stateside. It's based on a Belgian comic that's beloved in Europe but never really caught on over here, and you know how much we Americans like seeing movies that are based on characters we already know very, very well.

So, smartly, Paramount and Sony will be releasing Tintin first in the countries that love it best. Variety reports that it will launch internationally in late October and early November 2011, before showing up in the U.S. on December 23. Also--surprise!-- Tintin will be released in 3D. That's not actually a surprise for anyone who's been following the huge grosses for movies like Monsters vs. Aliens released in 3D. Spielberg may not still be teamed up with the 3D-crazy Jeffrey Katzenberg, but he knows a good thing when he sees it.

There's definitely some excitement building for Tintin in the U.S., both because it's taken so long to get off the ground and a pairing of Spielberg and Jackson is pretty much a blockbuster dream come true. Sony and Paramount seem to be handling this as smartly as they can, and now all they can hope is that the international box provides all the buzz they need to keep the thing afloat.