Filmonic » Kenneth Branagh

Thor has found it’s Three Warriors

Liam — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:29:59 +0000

Earlier today Variety ran an article announcing the three actors who would be playing The Three Warriors in Marvel’s Thor. Then they removed it. Had they made a mistake? Or did Marvel not want to reveal the casting news yet? Either way it’s ‘out there’ as a few sites picked up on it before it’s removal. Here’s the run down courtesy of Collider:

Stuart Townsend (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and partner of Charlize Theron) will play “Fandral the Dashing”, Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone) will play “Volstagg the Valiant”, and Tadanobu Asano (Mongol) will play “Hogun the Grim”.

Assuming this is official, this rounds off a pretty amazing cast consisting of Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) and Sir Anthony Hopkins (Odin). We also have Stellan Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Jaimie Alexander (Sif).

Thor will begin filming in January under the direction on Kenneth Brangh.

Thor filming schedule update

Liam — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:15 +0000

Production Weekly have tweeted filming details on Thor. We knew it would start filming early next year, and now they have given us the specifics:

Filming on Marvel’s “Thor” is scheduled to begin in LA mid-January, then move to Santa Fe, New Mexico from March till late-April.

I’m actually looking forward to Thor more than Iron Man 2. I have full faith in Kenneth Branagh after hearing where he’s heading and his ideas.

Chris Hemsworth will be wielding the hammer and Natalie Portman will play Jane Foster, his human love interest. We also recently learned that Sir Anthony Hopkins will play Odin, Thor’s father.

DeNiro and Law Probably NOT In Thor

Dave — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:52:54 +0000

Last week, Matthias Schweighöfer (actor in Valkyrie) spoke to German GQ about his audition to be in Marvel’s Thor movie starring Chris Hemsworth (Kirk’s father in this year’s Star Trek) and Natalie Portman. In the interview he mentioned that Robert DeNiro and Jude Law were attached to the project.

Needless to say, this was a surprising dose of A-List caliber acting for Thor. Kenneth Branagh will be directing and brings a Shakespearean level of credibility to the mythological character, but Robert DeNiro signing on to a Marvel movie would be quite the shock (If you’re mentioning Rocky and Bullwinkle in your head right now, you can just shut it, mister).

You’d think we would have heard some rumblings.

Well, there ended up being a good reason that these two huge castings came out of the blue: it’s just a rumor.

To Gossip Cop!:

Dozens of major industry gossip sites, including Ain’t It Cool News, are picking up the story and wondering who De Niro and Law will play.
Well, they can stop wondering. A rep for Law tells Gossip Cop rumors of the actor joining the film are “not true.”
Gossip Cop checked around, and as far as we can tell, De Niro won’t be doing “Thor” either.
Gotcha! wording aside, the Cop-O-Gossip rings true to me. I wouldn’t hold my breath for news of DeNiro or Law getting attached to a Marvel property until after The Avengers.

Jude Law and Robert De Niro join Thor?

Liam — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:53:36 +0000

Here’s a bit of interesting casting news. According to AICN Jude Law and Robert De Niro have joined the cast of Marvel’s Thor. There’s no word on who they are playing, however as Thor will apparently take place on both Earth and Asgard they could be playing one of the Gods, or they could be a human character.

According to actor, Matthias Schweighöfer, who you may have seen in VALKYRIE or RED BARON – in an article in the German edition of Gentlemen’s Quarterly aka GQ, he states that he’s in the running for a role in Branagh’s THOR, but he also mentions that Jude Law and Robert DeNiro have joined the cast.

If this turns out to be true it will add a bit of ’star power’ to the film as so far the cast is mainly made up of relative unknowns, apart from Natalie Portman. Thor will start filming early next year for a May 2011 release.

Thor casting call asks for Warriors

Liam — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:56:01 +0000

Marvel have filled the lead roles in Thor with Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. Now it’s time to sort out the smaller roles before filming begins early next year. Spoiler TV came across a casting call asking for an actress who’d be interested in playing a college student called Marcy, and another asking for tall individuals to play Warriors.

[MARCY LEWIS]
(20) Is a college student. Aloof, jaded beyond her years, she thought her internship with scientist Kate Spelling would be an easy 6 college credits. However, she’s been stuck for months in this small New Mexico town and relegated to a wide range of unglamorous activities. Kate has been particularly hard on Marcy, making it her personal project to see that Marcy lives up to her potential. Marcy deals with her situation both by using subtle irony and by being an overt wiseass
[WARRIORS] A fearless warrior race, where size, strength and ferocity define a member’s rank in both the social and military hierarchy. Warriors born in this society face the harshest ecological conditions imaginable and thrive in environments where lesser creatures, including humans, quickly perishes. Theirs is a world created to cull weakness from the universe to ensure their supreme sovereignty spreads across the stars. MUST BE 6′2 OR TALLER, NO BODYBUILDER TYPES. SAG ROLE BUT NO LINES. MUST BE COMFORTABLE WEARING PROSTHETICS.

In other Thor news comic book writer Brian Bendis spoke to G4TV about the “three-hour one-man show” that director Kenneth Branagh gave to the Marvel Creative Committee.

“’Thor’ is an extravaganza,” said Bendis. “The artwork is unbelievable… They flew us all here because Kenneth Branagh wanted to tell us his ‘Thor’ movie and he pitched it live. It was Shakespearean and went on for hours.”
“He wasn’t high selling it,” continued Bendis. “He is an actor and he just sold it. I looked to Joe [Quesada] and went ‘Isn’t this fun?’ When he was done, we were like ‘Great! You should do that!’”

Natalie Portman Joins Thor

Dave — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:26:09 +0000

Thor is the film I’m most cautiously curious about in the Marvel Film Universe as we advance down the timeline to The Avengers, the first superhero team-up film to be produced and written as a collaboration between free-standing franchises. Iron Man 2, Thor and the Captain America movie will all (hopefully) have threads that get connected in The Avengers, and it’s the little decisions within each franchise that determine if The Avengers will be the final layer of paint in a great collaborative masterpiece or a slap-shod assembly of left-over ideas that fails to feel like a single film.

Of the entries in the unified Universe, Thor is the only character who is, and always has been, a god. And that’s what makes me nervious. Captain America: iconic comic book character. Iron Man: already worked on screen. Thor has to bring a whole fictional realm to screen and make it believeable when the Thunder God is standing next to Robert Downey Jr in the Iron Man suit.

Adding to the equation of Kenneth Branagh’s big experiment in comic book movies is Natalie Portman, who has joined the cast as Jane Foster, Thor’s first love. In the comic books, Jane Foster is a Nurse who works with Donald Blake, the closest thing Thor has to a secret identity. In the comics, Blake would turn into the Thunder God, but the film version looks to be re-arranging Foster’s storyline, since Blake may not appear in the film at all (or that might be the ending, depending on what rumors you believe).

The Marvel press release does include our first hints of what the plot of Thor’s big screen debut is:

Marvel Studios expands its film universe with a new type of super hero: “Thor.” This epic adventure spans the Marvel Universe; from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Portman closes our principal casting trifecta thus far and will star opposite Chris Hemsworth who will play Thor and Tom Hiddleston who will play the villain Loki. The film will start shooting early next year and has a planned release date: May 20, 2011.

The Marvel Universe films that will be be squished in Thor’s characters also have release dates: Iron Man 2 on May 7, 2010, The First Avenger: Captain America on July 22, 2011, and The Avengers on May 4, 2012.

Jessica Biel In Talks To Join Thor?

Dave — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:29:51 +0000

Jessica Biel is a Boulder, Colorado native, and that’s where I grew up so part of me will always be rooting for her. The film-enthusiast part of me only recognizes two things she’s done: date Justin Timberlake and languish in the underrated Rules of Attraction.

As you probably know, voracious readers, Kenneth Branagh is helming Marvel’s Thor adaptation, one of the pre-requisite movies leading into The Avengers universe-uniting super-movie. What we know thus far is that the film will take place in fictional Asgard with the god played by Chris Hemsworth. Loki will be his nemesis, as always, and the gigantic multi-picture deal Sam Jackson signed with Marvel to portray Nick Fury suggests that he might pop up as a black dude in a fantastical land populated by Norse gods.

Now, Nuke The Fridge has a report on the first goddess circling the film:

Reportedly if cast, Biel will play the love interest of “Thor.” The most probable love interest for “Thor” would more than likely be “Jane Foster,” a nurse and girlfriend of “Thor” alter ego Donald Blake. But the problem is that our source was not sure of the character’s name, but seemed to believe it was the same female character from the animated “Hulk vs Thor.” If that is the case, since “Jane Foster” was not in the animated movie, Biel is more than likely playing either “Amora, The Enchantress” or “Sif.” Those characters did appear in “Hulk vs Thor.” “The Enchantress” is a powerful sorceress who seeks to make Thor fall in love with her. When Thor rejects her for “Sif,” an Asgardian warrior whom Thor falls in love with, “The Enchantress” helps Loki in his plot against Thor.

Having not read the majority of the Asgard-based Thor comics, it looks like a chunk of our collective internet-research time will be spent finding out what we can about The Enchantress and Sif.

Or, we can hope someone with a better track record steps up to dethrone Biel’s talks.

Marvel got “three-hour one-man show” from Thor director Kenneth Branagh

Liam — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:31:33 +0000

Being both an actor and a director has it’s advantages, especially when you are presenting an idea to someone in order for them to give you lots and lots of money to make your dream movie. A recent case study for this is when Kenneth Branagh (Valkyrie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) pitched his idea for Thor to the Marvel Creative Committee. Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics Joe Quesada was there, and he recounted the event to Comic Book Resources.

We had one big creative meeting with the Marvel Creative Committee, which now works on all of our movies and I have the honor to be a part of. We sat with Kenneth and discussed the “Thor” movie and the overarching story of what that’s going to be, just to give our input before anything was put down to paper by screenwriters.
And it was one of the highlights of my time here at Marvel because not only did Branagh sit there and give you the story beat for beat, he and [Marvel Studios head] Kevin Feige formed a great team. It was performance art. Kevin would give us the establishment of the shot and the situation: “Here we are. We’re in (take your pick of location). And here’s Odin and he’s coming up to (pick a character).” And then Kenneth would come in and give you the color commentary. “Odin has an air of majesty to him” and he’d act out the Odin part or the Thor part. So we sat there and literally got a three-hour one-man show from Kenneth Branagh. It was fantastic. People pay a lot of money for that kind of performance by one of the world’s greatest living actors.
And of course, he’s got that great, charming British accent, so it makes it all go down easy too. [laughs] He could have said anything, and we would have said, “Yeah. Make that.” He has such a passion for the material, and he’s sitting there describing things from the Kirby run and things from the Simonson run, citing places where the mythology conflicted in Marvel history and how we’re going to streamline it. It was just fascinating to watch.

He also spoke about Iron Man 2 and his fondness for director Jon Favreau. Click here to read the whole thing!

Everything I’ve read about Thor so far is getting me excited, and I haven’t even read one single Thor comic. It will be a while before we get anything cool to look at as filming doesn’t start till January, but at least we know Kenneth Branagh is the right man for the job.

Alexander Skarsgard talks about missing out on Thor

Liam — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:49:06 +0000

Alexander Skarsgard was on the list of potential Thor’s. He met with director Kenneth Branagh and even held the hammer, however last month Marvel decided that Chris Hemsworth was their man. MTV got the chance to speak to him about it, and while he is obviously a bit disappointed, meeting with the Marvel guys may land him a different role in the future:

“Yeah, I met with [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin [Feige] a few times and the director [Kenneth Branagh],” the affable Skarsgard admitted when asked about rumors that he was one of the last people cut before Chris Hemsworth was chosen to play the Norse god of thunder. “There was definitely some truth in that, yeah.”
The casting process got so far along, in fact, that Skarsgard — who plays Eric Northman, a secretive vampire Sheriff on “True Blood” — even filmed an audition in the complete Thor costume, hammer and all.
“Yeah,” he remembered of slipping into the hero’s threads. “That was pretty fun.”
But, even though he ultimately lost the role to Hemsworth, Skarsgard told me that he’ll keep an open mind and remain hopeful to someday land another comic-book-based role. And, since Feige has made recent statements saying that the people he met during the “Thor” auditions could be brought back for other Marvel roles, we might still see him in Spandex and a cowl someday.
“It depends on the circumstances,” Skarsgard said of possible roles in “Captain America” or beyond. “It’s pretty hard to say [whether I’d take another comic role]. It depends on the circumstances – who the director is, and what the character is. But of course [I’d be interested in looking into it]. I think it’s every little boy’s dream; it would be a person’s dream to play an action hero.”

I think Marvel made the right decision, however it must have been a touch choice as I could easily see Skarsgard in the role.

Guillermo del Toro nearly directed Thor

Liam — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:53:32 +0000

Here is another story for your ‘what if’ booklet. Way back before Guillermo del Toro got involved with Middle Earth, and even before he got involved with Hellboy 2, Marvel and Guillermo del Toro were is discussions about him possibly directing Thor. From Splash Page:

They approached me for ‘Thor,’” Del Toro told MTV News when asked whether Marvel had tried to tag him for any of their upcoming movies. “And for a long time we talked about that, because the mythology and the images were very attractive to me.”
“This was before ‘Hellboy II,’” he said.
While director Kenneth Branagh eventually landed behind the camera for “Thor,” Del Toro had quite a bit to say about why he was so attracted to the character.
“I’m a fan of [Jack] Kirby and the power he has, and I’m a fan of the original mythology,” explained Del Toro. “So I thought we could go back to the original mythology a lot. I love Loki, I think he’s a great figure.”

It’s always interesting to hear what could have been, however from what we have heard so far it looks like Kenneth Branagh will do Thor justice. I also like the current set up, whereby Marvel are going to interlock Thor with Iron Man and Captain America. If del Toro did end up directing Thor back in 2006/2007 the current Avengers set-up may not be happening.