Posts Tagged ‘ Thor ’

Well so far I have to say that there is nothing unexpected about the line-up for the new bright and shiny Avengers that we’ve seen.

Boring…

According to AICN, Robert De Niro and Jude Law may have been cast in Thor. With Loki’s role already filled, the obvious role for Law would be Fandral…

…and as such, I automatically picture De Niro as Hogun the Grim.

I’m still rooting for Oliver Platt for Volstagg, but that may just be me.

…Jaime Alexander, per THR.

I haven’t seen anything else she’s been in so I’m not sure if this is good casting or not, but she’s certainly got the hair down. Just hope she can use a sword a little.

According to the report, the reliable Colm Feore has been cast too, but no word on who he’ll be playing. I know the original script for the movie called for the majority of it to be set in Asgard, but that would seem at odds with not only setting Thor up for the Avengers movie but also casting Natalie Portman as Jane Foster.

I guess that its possible that Feore could play a regular Midgard/Earth character (although he does bear a passing resemblance to Tom Hiddleston…).

Hopefully he’s not Odin, because as you know, only one person can do him justice.

via

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

If this doesn’t make you grin like a loon, then you’re on the wrong blog…

Right, back to moving.

Via

Tom Hiddleston, an English actor who can currently be seen alongside Kenneth Branagh in the BBC’s Wallender, has been cast as Loki in Branagh’s Thor movie.

I caught an episode of Wallender at the Paley Center in NYC, followed by a discussion about the show with Branagh himself, and Hiddleston’s pretty good in it – but I didn’t see enough to form an opinion.

Still, I do like the casting of virtual unknowns in the movie.

Just as long as we still get Brian Blessed as Odin.

You’ve probably heard that Chris Hemsworth – George Kirk Sr in the latest Star Trek movie – has apparently been cast as Thor in the upcoming Marvel flick directed by Kenneth Branagh.

I can see it, actually – Hemsworth made a good impression during his brief screentime in Star Trek, and he certainly seems pretty imposing physically.

Yesterday Marvel announced changes to it’s film slate, with their revised offerings now playing out like this:

IRON MAN 2 – May 7, 2010
THOR – June 17, 2011
THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA – July 22, 2011
THE AVENGERS – May 4, 2012

Essentially, Thor has been pushed back a year, as has The Avengers.

I’d say that was a smart move. For an uncast movie that’s bound to be special-effects heavy, I think the turnaround on Thor was unrealistic. Now that it’s pushed back, we can look forward to a well produced, unrushed version – and with Kenneth Branagh behind it, I’m more than happy.

The move also makes more financial sense, spreading the risk and cost over a longer period, enabling the company to offset the cost with recouped profits on DVD sales on other movies somewhat (from a cashflow basis, anyway). I’m a little leery of the fact that Marvel Studios is pretty reliant on financing to get these films made in the first place, but this should spread the risk a little.

Just as long as the market starts recovering at some point…

I’m a little disappointed, if not surprised, that there’s no Incredible Hulk 2 on there, though. I like the idea of him being a driving force in getting the Avengers assembled in their movie, but by that time he will, presumably, have been off the big screen for four years. Can we get a big green cameo in any of the other movies along the way?

Bright side to the delay. None of this:

Marvel has signed Samuel L Jackson to appear as Nick Fury in nine – NINE movies.

So…Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America (maybe back in WWII?), Avengers and any future spin offs including possibly a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie.

Not mentioned in the THR article is this blog’s vote that clearly influenced Marvel’s decision.

Sorry, Avery Brooks!

EDITED for a late addition to the poll suggested by Scott King

It looks like Samuel L Jackson is enlisting the press in his efforts to get a little more money to play Nick Fury in the Avengers, or at least that’s how it seems to my cynical eyes; from the LA Times…

“There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down. I don’t know. Maybe I won’t be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won’t be in it. There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so , ‘We’re not making that deal.’”

I called Marvel Comics and they gave me a statement that suggested that they still want to see Jackson wearing the eyepatch. “Marvel does not comment on active negotiations,” was the boilerplate response, but there was that emphasis on the word “active” in the voice of the spokesman who phoned me back.

That sounds to me like Marvel are trying to work a budget for the Avengers movie which, if it includes Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Samuel L Jackson, maybe Ed Norton, Tim Roth, William Hurt and whoever is cast as Thor or Cap or anyone else, could be astronomical. The smart thing to do would to negotiate lower salaries and more points on the back end – or just recast the part.

After all, Jackson appeared as Fury in only one scene; treat Fury as a codename instead of a real name and you’re done. Or you could just recut any Samuel L Jackson roles from the past ten years where he’s played exactly the same character and build the role around those sound clips.

But if you do recast there are two three obvious options.

One:
And two:

Oh yeah.

And three: late addition:

Vote in the poll on the right!

Looks like it’s a Thor day – somehow I missed this report about the God of Thunder scaring a burglar on New Year’s Eve on Scotland.

A burglar leaped out of a first floor window after being disturbed by a man dressed as the Norse god Thor. Great bits from the report (bold is mine) include…

Torvald Alexander was still wearing a red cape and the thunder god’s silver-winged helmet and breastplate after a New Year’s Eve fancy dress party when he discovered the man rummaging through drawers in the front room of his home in Inverleith, Edinburgh.

Alexander, a 6ft builder who had made his costume out of tin foil, frightened the intruder by charging at him.

…
…

“As soon as he saw me his eyes went wide with terror,” he said. “He looked like he had had a few drinks and decided to do a late-night break-in, but he hadn’t counted on the God of Thunder living here.

…

He added: “It took ages making the cape, helmet and breast plate, and I must admit it was a bit chilly walking home, but when I saw that guy I just went mad and charged, my cape flying behind me.”

Pic via

I have a confession to make – like I mentioned yesterday, I still haven’t picked up last week’s monster comics haul. Also, I have a crapload of comics to read here at home.

From Joe Quesada’s Twitter this morning:

Knowing what I know today, let me try to put this as simply as I can- – THE THOR MOVIE IS GOING TO ROCK!!!

I can’t be the only one who can read between the lines, can I?

I mean, obviously, he can’t come right out and say who’s been cast as Thor, but he’s dropping a pretty big hint there, right?

Right?

Totally*.

*(No, I don’t for one second believe this. The Rock is quite obviously being lined up for Namor in the Avengers movie.)

In the same spirit as yesterday’s Gotham MiniDude post…

little love for Marvel by ~duss005 on deviantART
I think Dustin Nguyen may have just jumped up my favorite artist list!

Quint at AICN has an in depth interview with Jon Favreau, which includes this excerpt:

I think they’re the only books that could return to a nice round number in the year – Hulk’s due a renumbering to #600 on #8 of the new volume, but that seems early in the current run, and I’m not even sure how you’d handle Avengers and Iron Man with multiple titles running at the same time.

On another note, I’m still kind of skeeved out by Loki having breasts.

EDIT: Just corrected the Captain America math above – forgot about Tales of Suspense prior to Cap taking over the title…although that means that technically, Cap could have a issue #50 celebration one month and a #600 the next.

Maybe they could have a hologram cover or something too. Or a zombie Steve Rogers variant…

I miss there being a Hulk book on the market that I’m interested in.

With all due respect to Ed McGuinness, whose almost cartoon-styled art I’ve always liked, I have little interest in reading a Red Hulk book. That’s mainly because I have no interest in reading about a character that’s as unlikeable as he seems to be (from what I’ve seen flicking through the book), and also because it’s quite clear that writer Jeph Loeb is writing him up to be a bad ass just because.

He has a gun! (You know that was ‘kewl’ in the 90s…).

He punches out the Watcher! (Galactus is probably next on the list).

He can take Thor out because he’s smart! (Jumping and holding the hammer makes no sense, and I’m not sure that zero gravity trumps mystical Norse magic, but that’s just me).

You know, I’m not one of those fanboys who cries into my cornflakes over whether Thor could take Superman or whatever, but this isn’t good storytelling from what I’ve seen; it’s pandering to a writer who honestly does his best work on moody, emotional flashback tales. He’s not that good at the big action stories that he seem to gravitate to these days.

It’s a shame, because prior to this the Hulk had been on a roll with Planet Hulk and World War Hulk (which wasn’t as great as it could have been, but still).

Maybe I should give Skaar, Son of Hulk a try?

Thor Girl!

…well maybe not now…