Thor

I love my superhero movies, but I'm not exactly drunk with anticipation over Kenneth Branagh's Thor flick. I have nothing against Branagh. I think he's an inspired choice to direct the movie. But I've never been a big fan of Marvel Comics' God of Thunder. I like my superheroes to come packaged with plenty of real-world quirks: Spider-Man is an angsty put-upon teen, Iron Man is a womanizer and an alcoholic, and Batman is ... well ... a crazy person. Thor? He's an indestructible Norse god with Fabio hair who uses the word "thou" a lot. He's got no chinks in his armor, which makes him a bit boring.

OK, maybe I'm being a little too harsh on Thor. He's obviously one of Marvel's most beloved heroes, and I'm sure the movie will at least deliver some dazzling visuals and cool fight scenes. It's also got a great cast, and it's reportedly gonna set up Marvel's next big dream project – an Avengers movie. (Hmm ... I'm starting to anticipate the thing a whole lot more as I write this.)

Here's one reason I might show up to the theater for Thor on opening weekend: The film is co-scripted by Ashley Miller, one of the scribes behind two of my favorite sci-fi shows, Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Speaking to our pals at Airlock Alpha, Miller compared the Thor flick to Batman Begins.

With the news about Spider-Man 4 no longer moving ahead, what's Paramount to do? Promote another superhero, of course.

Variety reports that Spider -Man's loss is Thor's gain.

Thor was previously set to open May 20, 2011. The plagued production of Sony's Spider-Man 4 left a gap in the May 2011 release schedule. Disney quickly changed the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides into that slot, neatly filling the blockbuster gap. Pirates 4 didn't have a release date set before yesterday. Paramount has also taken advantage of the gap by moving Thor up by two weeks.

Two weeks may not seem like much, but it can make a huge difference in box office draw when there are competing blockbusters, particularly in the summer. With Pirates being an established franchise, and Paramount's Thor being untested, any foothold Thor gains before taking on Captain Jack Sparrow is unlikely to be wasted.

The cast for Marvel's upcoming Thor continues to grow and expand in surprising new directions. Today, Variety has announced that Rene Russo is joining the cast as Frigga, mother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and wife of Odin (Anthony Hopkins). If you had told me two years ago that Russo would be portraying a Norse deity in a Thor movie directed by Kenneth Branagh, I probably would have laughed in your face (but I would have felt bad about it later). Post-Iron Man, though, it just feels right. It feels natural. My knowledge of Norse mythology isn't quite up to snuff and my experience with comic book Thor is limited, but I'm really feeling this one. When he's on his A-Game, Branagh really knows how to deliver a killer movie (plus, he gets a couple decades of cred for Henry V alone).

Variety also has what feels like a pretty official synopsis of the movie, which I don't think I've heard laid out this plainly before:

"Mark Protosevich and Zack Stentz penned the script, which has the powerful but arrogant warrior Thor reigniting an ancient war. As punishment, Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans. Once here, he learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends dark forces of Asgard to invade Earth."

Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba, Stuart Townsend, Ray Stevenson, Kat Dennings and Tom Hiddleston will be among those traveling to and from Asgard and wielding mystical weapons come 2011. Thor begins to swing his mighty hammer (and filming begins) in January.

Just in case you were worried that this little vampire-Hollywood love affair might suddenly disappear, never fear, because we have yet another fanged feature coming our way.

Thor screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz will handle writing duties on Damn Nation, a vampire-survival flick set in the future. The project is based on Andrew Cosby and Jason Alexander's (no, not that Jason Alexander) Dark Horse Comics three-issue mini-series of the same name.

In Damn Nation, humans are plagued by carnivorous night-dwelling creatures that only come out at night (the plot descriptions I've read seem to carefully avoid "vampire"). The remnants of organized government have holed up in London while the survivors, well, survive until scientists can figure out a solution to the vampire problem.

There's probably one recent film in particular that comes to mind based on that brief synopsis (I Am thinking of a Will Smith movie...), so let's just leave it at this: Hopefully the Dark Horse Entertainment/ Damn Nation production team knows well enough to avoid going the CGI route for these post-apocalyptic night-dwellers. Because as we now know, CGI vampires (or blood-sucking night creatures, whatever you want to call or avoid calling them) may not look as silly as sparkling vampires, but it's still pretty awful.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

Let me get this out of the way first: I am a huge Hawkeye fan. When I was a pre-teen I'd pick up Solo Avengers (the Hawkeye solo title) and West Coast Avengers (the team where Hawkeye was the leader) every month while my friends were buying Wolverine or Uncanny X-Men. He may just be a guy that shoots arrows, but there's something about his personality that just clicks with me. He's the Han Solo-type--a rogue and a scoundrel--but with the quick tongue of Spider-Man.

Forgive me then if I geek out a little more than usual at the news (from Empire Online) that Jeremy Renner is talking like it's all but official that he'll be playing Clint Barton aka Hawkeye in Marvel's upcoming Avengers-related films. Renner tells Empire, "If I was a betting man, I would bet that Hawkeye would probably show up in Thor, and then be in The Avengers, but do I know for sure? I can't say. But I'd love for that to happen. It'd be fun." He admits he was considered for the role of Captain America, but Marvel screenwriter Zak Penn would like to work Renner into the stories as Hawkeye instead.

Thor's cast is already stuffed with characters, so I don't know how they'd fit in just one more hero (or villain...Hawkeye started as a bad guy, then changed his ways). Can we expect a cameo from Renner in Iron Man 2 in much the same manner as Downey Jr. showing up as Tony Stark at the end of Incredible Hulk?

Comic book casting rumors seem to happen on a daily basis lately , and, obviously, nothing is set in stone, but I think Renner's an inspired choice. I'm pretty excited. What do you guys think?

We can all thank Natalie Portman for letting slip this bit of casting news for the upcoming Thor movie. While plugging the American remake of Brothers (hitting theaters Dec. 4), Portman told MTV News she is "really excited" to work with her friend Kat Dennings on Thor. It just feels like cast announcements have been pouring in for the upcoming Marvel adaptation -- Dennings will join Portman (love interest Jane Foster), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Hopkins (Odin), Stellan Skarsgård, Colm Feore, Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and just about everyone else under the sun for what is shaping up to be a very interesting stab at the Norse superhero. Kenneth Branagh will be directing from the script by Mark Protosevich (with Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller).

Of course the burning question here is who will Dennings be playing? MTV's Splash Page and /film both mention the possibility of Enchantress, which seems to make a lot of sense given Dennings's physical likeness to the character. Also, the character's ties to Iron Man and the Avengers could be crucial for connecting Thor to the more reality-based Iron Man movies and the larger Avengers universe. Jon Favreau definitely has a point when mentioning the uphill battle some director will have in incorporating Thor's fantastic/mythological angle into the planned Avengers flick. Not that Enchantress -- a magic-wiedling native of Asgard -- would solve those issues, but at least there's an established plot line from the source material.

By: Elisabeth Rappe

There's big news from Asgard tonight! According to The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary Sir Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of Thor. This isn't one of these tightly kept casting announcements either, as THR reports that he and no one else is playing Odin. (Incidentally, there's no mention of Robert DeNiro and Jude Law among the confirmed cast members, so I'm guessing that was just a fever dream of a rumor.)

If you're not up on your Thor or Nordic mythology, Odin is the father of Thor and the ruler of Asgard. He's your typical white-bearded god sort, fond of wine, women, and wisdom. He's not immortal (none of the gods of Asgard are), but ages slowly, and possesses amazing powers of strength and wisdom. He famously sacrifices his eye for the foresight to prevent Ragnarok, a sadly futile act, but you can't blame a god for trying.

While a lot of people were hoping that the Brian Blessed would be Odin (and my own money was on the recently signed Stellan Skarsgard), you can't really get much better than Sir Hopkins. He'll add just the right amount of gravitas, but he's an actor who can still have fun in a role. I can't wait to see him go up against Loki, and watching him smack down Thor for his arrogance is going to be pure theater. Cheers, Kenneth Branagh!

This post originally appeared at Cinematical

The online world was buzzing over the weekend when word came down via AICN that, according to actor Matthias Schweighöfer, both Jude Law and Robert DeNiro had been cast in Marvel's upcoming superhero flick Thor. Schweighöfer had made the comments in the German version of GQ magazine after admitting that he was also in the running for a part in the film. Now, though, according to the website Gossip Cop, Law's reps have denied the casting, saying it's "not true". As far as DeNiro goes, they claim to have "checked around" and, as far as they can tell, DeNiro isn't doing the film either.

Now, maybe it's because I've been doing this for awhile, but I just don't plain trust actor's reps. If all parties involved wanted this news out there, it would've been out there already. So, if these casting rumors are indeed true, chances are negotiations are still ongoing and no one wants to say anything until the deals are done. Either that or Schweighöfer was told the wrong info or old info, or whatever. Point is the guy isn't going to pull two random names out of a hat for the hell of it -- either Law and DeNiro are involved or were involved at some point, in my opinion. In the meantime, let's chill out for a little bit and see if this one comes back to life later this month.

Thor hits theaters on May 20, 2011.

I'm not sure how reliable a source for movie news the German version of GQ magazine is, but Ain't It Cool was alerted by one of their German readers that actor Matthaius Schweigholer confirmed to German GQ that not only is he up for a possible role, but Robert DeNiro and Jude Law are also now part of Kenneth Branaugh's Thor cast.

I can't seem to turn up any information about what Schweigholer's role in the film is, but the bigger question is what Marvel Universe roles are DeNiro and Law being considered for? Most of the principals are cast, including Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. Last week Stellan Skarsgard joined the cast, and most assumed he was going to play Odin.

There are plenty of colorful secondary characters in Marvel Comics' Thor, so it will be interesting to see just who DeNiro and Law are supposed to play. I'm taking this news with a giant grain of salt, but if it holds true, they'll both make fine additions to the cast. Thor is set for release Summer 2011. I'm curious--what characters would you like to see these actors play?

By Elisabeth Rappe

We're entering into a frustrating trend with Thor news now. Excellent actors continue to sign on, but we have no idea who they are playing, which certainly keeps things interesting, but hurts when it comes to the geek discussions we could be having. The latest to reportedly join the cast is a Skarsgard, but not the one who you might expect.. According to Swedish news site Ystands Allehanda, Stellan Skarsgard has joined the cast of Thor in an unspecified role.

As you Thor fans undoubtedly remember, Stellan's son Alexander was in the running to play Thor. Skarsgard confirmed that he was so close as to have tried on the costume, and was one of the last contenders cut before Kenneth Branagh chose Chris Hemsworth. (Every episode of True Blood I see, I think Hemsworth has to be something really special if they cut Skarsgard, who would have been my pick.) If the elder Skarsgard is indeed part of the cast, I would like to be a fly on the wall for that family phone call.

My immediate guess (or my biggest hope) as to who Skarsgard might be playing would be Odin. While Marvel's version of Odin is a very beefy one, Skarsgard would be more in tune with how the god is usually portrayed in Nordic art and mythology. It would certainly be more interesting to have the crafty, American Gods version of Odin over one that just looks like an older Thor. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine. Hopefully, we won't have to make too many guesses, and Skarsgard will not only be confirmed through official channels, but those official channels will reveal just where he fits into Asgard.

[via Empire]