Filming on THOR has been underway since January, and is slated to hit theaters on May 6, 2011. Recently, an anonymous insider gave Latino Review some behind-the-scenes low down on the Kenneth Branagh directed production, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman.
[Potential Spoilers After The Jump]
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Back in February 2010, Jon Favreau took to twitter and confirmed that Iron Man 2 takes place before the Incredible Hulk, so where does THOR fit into all this?
In terms of time-line, Thor is set after the Incredible Hulk. In the script we make mention of gamma radiation and one of the scientist characters, I think Stellan Skarsgard’s Professor Ford recalls, “There was brilliant scientist (Bruce Banner). He was a genius with gamma radiation and somehow S.H.I.E.L.D. made him disappear.” So Thor’s story would take place after the Incredible Hulk.
How does Thor figure into the Avengers? Does he become a full-fledged member of the team?
Basically, at the end of the movie, Thor makes mention to Clark Gregg’s character Agent Coulson that his kingdom of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. are on the same side and whenever they need his help, he will be there to assist them in battle. It does leave it open, with Thor basically saying “When you need me and you want to assemble a team, I’m down.” So, this is obviously pre-Avengers, post-Incredible Hulk.
So at this point are the Avengers already “assembled” like when Tony Stark told General Ross (William Hurt) at the Incredible Hulk’s conclusion: “We’re putting a team together”?
At this point, Nick Fury and Tony Stark would have already started amassing people.
How is an actor and director as deeply rooted in the world of Shakespeare like Kenneth Branagh handling comic book material like Thor?
Branagh is fantastic. The guy is a passionate director. He makes everything and everyone important, no matter how small their role in the production is. He’s keeping the material very close to the comic. The tone is – even the way the stuff looks – is darker. So it’s cool. Iron Man was cool because it was light, but not too light like the Batman movies that Tim Burton made and it was not as heavy as say, Chris Nolan’s the Dark Knight. Iron Man was the perfect comic book movie because it was the light and the dark sides sort of mixed together. Thor balances the same things as well. It plays the light side with the stuff on Earth and then the heavier side with what happens up in Asgard and the battle that occurs. Marvel has done a really good job of trying to blend what they need to have a successful movie and what they need to keep all the fan boys happy. They’re doing an excellent job.
Chris Hemsworth in the lead role of Thor.
He’s not only [expletive] great, but a cool guy and about as normal a guy that you’ll ever meet. I know everyone is saying that. Chris had auditioned for another movie, but failed to win the part, yet he was very open and self-deprecating about it. He even said “Yeah, yeah. I auditioned for that. But apparently I was pretty terrible.” He’ll have that sort of attitude about it and kind of make fun of himself. “Yeah, I pretty much stunk the joint up when I went in and auditioned for that.” He’s got that kind of self deprecating humor. Very, very cool dude. He is a perfect Thor. The guy’s a physical specimen. He’s 6’4″/6’5″ and he’s built like a brick house. He looks like he came down off that Rainbow Bridge and was ready to rock.
What about the look of Thor’s costume and the iconic hammer?
Surprisingly, the costume looks amazing. We could tell early on from the production sketches of costumes and sets that this was going to be something good. It’s just beautiful and the designers really took it to heart. If you look at some of the more recent Thor comics that are out now, the tone and the costuming is that. It’s basically, the way you read the comics now, [they’ve] updated the way they are now and that’s how the costumes are. I think everyone is going to be very, very happy. Nothing looks cheesy or cheap. Everything looks like it’s real. Everything looks like it came from that period. And everything looks right on all the actors. Nothing looks stupid. I guess that’s the best word. It’s just jaw-dropping even to the Marvel executives.
What’s funny is that when you see these Marvel executives you immediately think, “You guys are young. You guys read the comics?” They’re involved in everything and they’re the first ones to make a joke. So they would be like, “Yo, that hammer is [expletive] wrong”, because they know that they have this fan base and they have to respect them. They know that those comics are their bread and butter. They took a big gamble with Marvel Studios and it’s paying off because they pay attention to detail. And not only that, it’s their movie watching experience. They want to watch it too and not be distracted by how bad the costumes are. So they really paid attention to it and they made it look flawless. It just looks flawless when you watch it.
Was Samuel L. Jackson telling the truth when he said that he doesn’t appear in Thor?
Yes. In the official script version, he is not. That could change in time though. He wasn’t in the original script of Iron Man either but they changed it late in the game. The same can be said for Robert Downey Jr. In fact the only cameo of great significance is from Stan Lee.
Besides Thor what other Asgardians from the comics are a part of the story.
Idris Elba, who did some great work on HBO’s The Wire plays Heimdall the keeper of the Rainbow Bridge that connects Asagard to Earth. He basically controls who crosses that bridge and comes in and out of Asgard. Basically, there are nine realms. Earth is one of the realms and Asgard is another. Heimdall watches over the nine realms from his observatory. What’s great is, the Asgardians are supposed to be Norse gods, but a black actor was chosen to be one of them. Someone like Idris Elba is a leading man type of guy and is nice to have. Some people may think “Oh, he shouldn’t be black,” but Elba has a strong presence and it’s really good casting.
The same could be said for Hogun, who’s also a Norse god, but in the comics actually looks Mongolian. In the film he’s played by a Japanese actor. That’s what’s so great about Branagh, this is a multi-cultural cast and he doesn’t care because wants the best people. There’s even a Hispanic actor playing a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Branagh doesn’t care what an actor’s nationality he, he just wants the best performers and treats everyone, big and small like they’re important. The film has a pretty relaxed set too, because everyone here are professionals and know what jobs they have to do. And then there’s Stuart Townsend.
What’s the real story about Townsend’s abrupt exit from the production?
It appears he wasn’t happy with the limited screen-time of his character Fandral. There was friction with him from the very beginning as far back as his screen test which he basically blew off. He wasn’t the first choice of either Marvel or the film’s producers to begin with, but when they brought him in they liked him. They thought he did a good job. It looks like the fact that his character doesn’t have a pivotal role in the movie made him sort of slack off and say, “Well, f**k this movie. I’m not the lead, so who f*cking cares?” They say he had a similar attitude when he made The Lord of the Rings ten years ago and look how that turned out. They replaced him with Viggo Mortensen and the rest is history. He failed to realize the movie is not called Fandral, it’s called Thor. The movie’s not about him. Its surprising, because he was one of the longest working actors on the project yet he still acts like a diva. There was an incident where he had a costume test and blew that off. The studio had people working under deadlines fly in to meet him and he showed up six hours late. When they complained, his response was something like “Oh, well could we just do it now?” Talk about arrogance. Townsend’s been replaced by another actor named Joshua Dallas and he’s just come from doing Red Tails near San Francisco where the rumors of George Lucas directing re-shoots on the film are not rumors, they’re true.
George Lucas is actually directing Red Tails?
Lucas is directing the re-shoots for the film’s director Anthony Hemingway. This is his first feature since has only really directed TV including episodes of The Wire. They’ve already completed a great deal of shooting in Prague. Most of the CGI work was all done at Industrial Light and Magic, but Lucas doesn’t appear too happy with some of the footage. He’s directing the re-shoots so I don’t think that bodes well for the director of the movie. But it’s George Lucas, he’s not really that happy unless he’s doing it himself. He’s just that guy who feels, “You know what? I could do better”, and always likes to jump in. Not always to great results, but he likes to have the weight on his shoulders and be like, “All right. I’m gonna show you guys how to do it.”
Have they completed any visual f/x work on Thor like Red Tails?
Some. All the work they are doing now is the difficult stuff like the Asgard sequences. The sound stages for that have already been completed and they are beautiful. They’re shooting it out at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach and the sets they’ve built are six stories high. You’re inside a gigantic building and you’re like, “This is unbelievable. I can’t believe that people physically built this.” It looks like something that’s ancient and from another world. They really did a great job. Natalie Portman should be heading there soon, she just finished Black Swan and has just started shooting her scenes in New Mexico.
What about Tom Hiddleston as Loki the film’s main villain
He’s great and what’s funny is that Tom had actually come in to audition for Thor but he’s very tall and very thin. Kind of lanky. Marvel said, “No”, but then it came up that maybe he should audition for Loki and he apparently put himself on tape and was amazing. He had also worked with Kenneth Branagh already in London. This movie is as much an origin story for Loki as it is for Thor and he’s not only the hero’s nemesis but his brother. How do you deal with a situation like that where the very person who is trying to destroy you is your adopted brother? In the script, Thor is basically banished to Earth because he’s arrogant and proud and must learn what it is to live among mortals. And while the cat’s away, the mouse will play. While he’s gone, Loki starts discovering things about himself, including his desire to be all powerful. He wants to be as well loved as Thor and that jealousy starts creating these complications. “Why can’t I be the ruler? Why am I always in his shadow?” So he starts developing those feelings while Thor’s gone. It’s a very good script with pretty much half of the movie in Asgard and the other half on Earth. I think people will be pleased with the way it unfolds.
When might we finally see a teaser trailer?
Probably at Comic Con. The scheduled release is date is May 6, 2011. I think that’s the actual release date, handed down from Marvel. They could put it in front of the new Iron Man 2 movie, but that’s this May and a little too soon. Marvel wants to release the film exactly a year after Iron Man 2. The release is almost 365 days later. And then Captain America in July 2011 and The Avengers will be the following year, 2012. That’s what they’re trying to do, line them up like that. May of every year, there will be a new Marvel movie out.
Are there any Easter eggs or hidden clues in Thor?
No, in terms of the script, it’s pretty straight forward. It’s more through the dialogue, here and there that they’ll say something. Everything’s obviously connected, like every piece of S.H.I.E.L.D. tech has the Stark Industries logo on it. Even on a pen or computer screens in the movie. You’ll notice it on the computer screen’s upper left-hand corner, everything says Stark Industries. You already know that we have a deal with Tony Stark, which you kind of got from the first Iron Man’s conclusion. Now you know S.H.I.E.L.D. is officially in league with him. And you’ll probably see stuff like that in Captain America or The Avengers on a S.H.I.E.L.D. heli-carrier.
[Source] LatinoReview
