Filmonic » Thor

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.

Marvel’s profits drop 60%

Liam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:11:47 +0000

As Marvel Entertainment had no tent-pole movies released in 2009 it’s not surprising to see that they didn’t make as much money this year, and they are reporting a 60% drop in profits from the 3rd Quarter of 2009. However, they did make quite a lot from the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk last year, with DVD/Blu-ray, merchandise and TV sales flowing through to 2009.

Despite the drop in profits the report from Yahoo! shows Marvel have nothing to be worried about. As we all know Iron Man 2 will be released next May which should top up their bank balance (Iron Man made $580+ million worldwide). They also have Thor and Captain America starting production over the upcoming months for 2011 releases, and then The Avengers in 2012. Marvel are also developing games with Sega to coincide with the release of all these movies. Lets not forget Spider-Man 4 in 2011 either.

Should all the above movies flop (which is highly unlikely) they still have TV shows such as a second season of Wolverine and the X-Men and Black Panther in the works. They also have a Spider-Man Broadway musical opening sometime next year, DVDs and games such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 which has already started bringing in revenue.

So an average end to 2009 for Marvel, although the best is yet to come (which is probably why Disney bought them earlier this year.)

Anthony Hopkins to play Odin in Marvel’s Thor

Liam — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:20:03 +0000

Marvel are assembling quite a cast for their next big superhero outing. Thor will start filming next year so they now finalizing the cast, and now according to Heat Vision the latest member to join is Sir Anthony Hopkins who will play Odin, Thor’s father. Odin is also the ruler of Asgard, which Thor gets cast from and he then finds himself on Earth among the humans.

Chris Hemsworth will be wielding the hammer and Natalie Portman will play Jane Foster, his human love interest.

Anthony Hopkins will next be seen playing Benicio Del Toro’s father in The Wolfman which will be released in February.

J.J Abrams on Thor’s Chris Hemsworth

Liam — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:50:43 +0000

Before Chris Hemsworth landed the lead in Thor (and a part in The Avengers) he had a small role in J.J Abram’s Star Trek as George Kirk. He was the heroic guy who sacrificed himself to save the crew members and his pregnant wife at the beginning of the movie. Director J.J Abrams recently spoke to MTV and commented on Hemsworth’s ‘leading man look’, and he always hoped that Star Trek would give the actor more opportunities.

“He’s so crazy handsome and he’s so strapping with the classic leading man look. I sort of wish I had dirtied him up a little bit, messed his hair up a little bit.”
“The guy’s hair up until the last moment is sort of perfect. In retrospect I look at that and am like a little smudge or a hair out of place would have been a good thing,” he said. “The guy is a sweetheart and terrific actor.”
According to Abrams, the last time he had a chance to chat with Hemsworth was prior to his “Thor” announcement, but he knew the actor was destined for big things.
“[Hemsworth] was in a moment where he was trying to figure out what his next thing was going to be and he stayed strong in terms of what his commitments were to various projects. I knew that he was going to be given a lot of opportunities sooner or later and I was hoping it would be off of Trek,” said Abrams.

Chris Hemsworth will be picking up the hammer in a few months as Thor is expected to start filming early next year.

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.

Jon Favreau won’t be directing The Avengers

Liam — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:58:13 +0000

A year ago it was announced that Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau would be an executive producer on The Avengers, and there was talk that Marvel wanted him in the director chair too. However, Favreau recently sat down with MTV and denied that he would be directing, and explained why not.

“They’ll have to [find a different director], because I’m not going to be available,” he explained. “It’s something I’m being the executive producer on, so I’ll definitely have input and a say.”
“It’s going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero, and then with ‘Avengers’ you’re going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor,” he continued. “How you mix the two of those works very well in the comic books, but it’s going to take a lot of thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we’ve created.”
Favreau also confessed that his focus on a single member of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” might not be the best fit for the team-up film.
“That’s why it’s good that you have the guys from Marvel like Kevin Feige, who knows the books well and has been involved with the making of all the movies, and he’ll be very involved with ‘Thor’ and ‘Cap,’” said Favreau. “You need somebody who has the perspective of all the different franchises to bring them together. I have the myopic vision of just knowing and loving Iron Man.”

So if not Favreau then who? As the film won’t be released until 2012 there’s plenty of time for Marvel to find the right guy (or female?) for the job. Although there is a chance it could either be Thor director Kenneth Branagh or Captain America director Joe Johnston.

Who do you want to direct The Avengers?

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!’”

Stellan Skarsgard joins Thor

Liam — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:53:55 +0000

It was only a few months ago that we were hearing Alexander Skarsgard’s name being thrown around as a possible contender to play Thor, but the role eventually went to Chris Hemsworth. However, there will still be a Skarsgard in Thor. Stellan Skarsgard, Alexander’s father, recently revealed that he had joined the cast to Swedish site Ystads Allehanda:

Stellan Skarsgård is ready for a role in action movie “Thor.”
Everything is still secret about the project and Skarsgård can not reveal what role he will play.
“They wanted me to sign without reading the script. That I refused to do. Then they sent one to me that was so coded that I could only print one copy,” said Stellan Skarsgård to TT spectra.

Stellan is probably best known for playing Bootstrap Bill in two Pirates of the Caribbean films. He also had a role in Angels and Demons earlier this year. No word on who he will be playing in Thor, although we do know he will be joining Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson and filming is expected to begin early next year.