The first images from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson‘s planned trilogy adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin have been released online.

The performance-capture films will begin with the Spielberg-directed The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which is set for release on December 28, 2011. The opening film is a combination of three stories — The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham’s Treasure — follows Tintin (Jamie Bell), a young reporter who meets a man known as Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), and the two discover a clue that might lead to a treasure belonging to Haddock’s great ancestor.

Now comes our first peek at what the movie will look like by way of Empire Magazine. It’s nothing too surprising here — the movies look like the classic Tintin with a nice performance-capture/CGI makeover, and that was exactly the idea.

Be sure to click over right now to see the two first images, and you can also click the image up top for Empire’s magazine cover.

When speaking about the movies, Peter Jackson had this to say:

After the first movie, Jackson is expected to helm the second, and Jackson and Spielberg may team up to co-direct the third. With Jackson caving in to fan demand that he direct The Hobbit after Guillermo del Toro left, it’s also unclear whether or not that will affect his involvement in Tintin.

The movies also star Daniel Craig as Red Rackham, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thomson, Cary Elwes, Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook, and Daniel Mays.

In the pictures below you’ll see what Serkis’s Captain Haddock and Tintin and Haddock stranded and seeking rescue.

Images