Director Peter Jackson will take a break from Middle Earth next year to shoot The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun. The filmmaker revealed during a Belgian press tour for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey that he hopes to shoot the performance capture sequel in 2013 for a 2015 release.

We reported last October that Peter Jackson will direct this sequel after he finishes work on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which at the time was only slated to be a two-part film. Now that he has a full-blown trilogy, with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug debuting next December and The Hobbit: There and Back Again closing out the series in December 2014, it leaves one to wonder where this busy filmmaker will find time in his schedule for a follow-up to last year's The Adventures of Tintin, directed by Steven Spielberg.

We reported last April that Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker) is writing the screenplay.