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Some surprising news broke over the weekend: French director Patrice Leconte is in discussions to adapt The Castafiore Emerald for the big screen. It's early days, and details are sketchy, but one major stumbling block is the rights situation: they're currently held by Paramount in the US, and talks between them and an unnamed producer attached to the Castafiore project have reached a standstill.

Leconte will be shooting a Maigret film starring Gérard Depardieu in February, and would potentially be looking to move on to Tintin after that. Leconte envisages an all-star cast for The Castafiore Emerald, and teases he already has his Haddock and Castafiore.

Le Figaro have an article (in French) here.

(Note: Apologies to Richard - I must have been writing this post as he made his post above - I've moved it into this new thread, so that the Castafiore news is kept together, as and when we hear more...)
I don't place much store by it as yet, but I thought - given the traction that it appears to be gaining on the internet at the moment - I better mention that there is a story doing the rounds that the French film-maker Patrice Leconte is embarking on a live-action movie version of The Castafiore Emerald/ (Les bijoux de la Castafiore).
While a lot of the stories are presenting this in the headlines as if something that is going ahead, and are raising questions about casting, etc., it is clear from the text of these articles that this is (at the moment at least) a speculative venture, and that - as yet - while some overtures may have been made, nothing has been done to secure the rights.
Furthermore, as reports last year stated that Messrs Spielberg and Jackson renewed their screen options on the property in 2018, this would appear to be a fairly large hurdle to overcome at least in the short term.
However, 2020 has so far proved to be a year of complete surprises, and wholly unpredictable, so I am quite prepared to believe that almost anything can happen!

This new article from the French edition of Premiere claims to have more detail, but it doesn't make things much clearer.
It's saying he has the agreement of the Hergé estate, and some names in place for a cast, but doesn't have a script or (most importantly) the film rights held by Paramount and Sony.
This surely makes for a very awkward situation, as Studios Hergé are involved in the Spielberg/ Jackson films as producer - where does that leave developments of their sequel?

The plot thickens: Nick Rodwell, interviewed by Le Soir, has poured cold water on the Castafiore rumours, branding the project "fake news". Rodwell declared that he has never met M. Leconte, and the project does not exist and will never see the light of day...

Source: Le Soir (the article itself is behind a paywall).

Indeed - I can't help but think that it says as much about the media reacting uncritically to publicity stories and publishing them without checking any of the information back to source, as it does about the (alleged) film producers...
I mean, this is still 2020, and anything can happen, but my instinct all down the line has been to caveat anything to do with this story as in need of verification, whereas the media seem to go straight to "who will they cast...?"

Let's see what happens next...!

The next stage in the story... Some sort of rapprochement has been established.
Viviane Vandeninden, the press officer for Moulinsart, has issued the following communique:

Communiqué de presse 19/10/2020: "Patrice Leconte et Nick Rodwell ont été en contact et sont heureux d'annoncer que le respect mutuel a été rétabli. Si l'occasion se présente, ils seront ravis de travailler ensemble."

[Press Release 19/10/2020: "Patrice Leconte and Nick Rodwell have been in touch and are pleased to announce that mutual respect has been restored. If the opportunity presents itself, they will be delighted to work together."]

Beyond the obvious interpretation that there have been satisfactory explanations and/ or apologies to clear the air, it's not possible to say if there is any realistic chance of any movie adaptation - be it Castafiore or otherwise - resulting from this announcement at this time.

We'll have to wait and see! :-)

More hints, here, in French:

https://www.bfmtv.com/people/les-bijoux-de-la-castafiore-moulinsart-et-patrice-leconte-seront-ravis-de-travailler-ensemble_AN-202010200137.html