September 29th, 2008 -- Written by John Campea
Now this is something I never would have seen coming from 10 miles away nor from the tops of Asgard itself. Kenneth Branagh as the director of Thor?!?! That’s the word floating around right now.
Apparently the Shakespearian specialist is in negotiations to helm the Thor movie. Yes, that Kenneth Branagh. The same Kenneth Branagh who directed Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. The same Kenneth Branagh who gave one of the all time great performances in Henry V (the man seriously knocked the crap out of that role!). This same Kenneth Branagh to direct Thor? Wow.
The good folks over at MTV give us the following:
If the pairing does become official, it would put one of the primary ambassadors of Shakespeare’s work to mainstream culture behind the camera for the live-action debut of Marvel’s favorite Norse superhero — a character who, like many of Branagh’s roles, doesn’t shy away from using “thee” and “thou” in conversation. “Thor” is currently scheduled for release on June 4, 2010
Now here’s the thing… there is the question on if this is a good FIT. On that level I’m not sure. No, Branagh has never done anything like this before in his life, but at the same time if they want to bring that sort of old world shakespearian feel to Thor then I can’t think of many people who would be better for the task.
Also, outside of the issue of “fit”, I always say that “it’s never a mistake to add talent”, and there are very few people out there who would deny the pure talent that Branagh brings to the table… he oozes it. As a matter of fact it would be pretty cool to see him take one of the roles in the film as well considering how solid of an actor he is too. Perhaps one of the other gods.
This is still in the negotiating stage, but I’ll say that IF this works out and Kenneth Branagh ends up being the director for Thor, then you can count me in as a supporter of the decision.
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This movie is going to suck.
This is really sounding like a much different film from the project Mathew Vaughn was to helm.
(Type your comment here. Make sure you’ve read the commenting rules before doing so) even my balls make better movies than him , you can better put nic cage his hair on the directors chair and he will direct a 5 star movie.
An Unusual choice yet interesting ;)
That could make things verrrry interesting. Not crazy about his take on Frankenstein, although somewhat faithful to the MB Shelley story, this could work well.
I’ve got a good feeling about this. Though, I’ve also been wrong before, I’ll stick with my gut and back up Branagh IF the man lands the position.
Dr Loveless? Good Odin in Asgard!
You’re right John, he has talent but I just remember how badly he screwed up that Frankenstein movie. I’ll be cautiously optimistic.
Now I want Emma Thompson as Jane Foster, Hugh Laurie as Loki and Stephen Fry as Odin and you have my money.
i think it could work if he gets someone on board who can do awesome action sequences.
Man, Asgard is a big topic hear on the Movie Blog. Why is Gilderoy Lockhart directing this?
Dude please leave shakespeare the F out of this movie. Sorry dude but that’s all I remember you doing. I don’t see how you can direct this movie.
I would love for Luc Besson to do it. I just jumped over to IMDB and see that his plate is extremely full. I would even consider Antoine Fuqua to do it.
I love this news and hope it ends up true. Branagh is an excellent director whose skill in the director’s chair is usually in direct proportion to the scale of the film — the larger the scale, the better the picture. Henry V, Hamlet, Frankenstein — each is a classic to my mind, and each has that same impressive scale as Lawrence Of Arabia. If you’re a fan of Norse mythology, trust Branagh to deliver the goods and keep a story with the potential to veer into CGI silliness to be grounded in an earthy realism with a real sense of history behind all the hooey.
Expect a tremendous cast if he signs onto this as well.
since the movie blog never talks about thor for whatever reason (not enough anyways) i think that if i never get this out…i NEVER will
SURTUR AND YMIR BETTER BE THE THOR VILLAINS!!!
if you dont know who they are…WIKI THEM!!
i dont want to see weak ass villains! i want those 2! not one of them…not some other villain…BOTH of them AT THE SAME TIME!!!
theyre worthy villains for thor. they are amazing….just brutal characters..BRUTAL…
crazy awesome.
When was the last time Branagh directed a movie? I doubt very much this will happen. It makes no sense. Then again, I’m sorry, sense has nothing to do with the movies (Nicholas Cage and Richard Gere’s careers and the fact that they have one proves that)
Great choice, much better than if they had gotten a studio punk bitch like Louis Leterrier. And he has done stuff like this before, Henry V is a much bigger production than anything Jon Favreau had done before Iron Man.
My disappointment in this news isn’t that Branagh is in talks for this. It is in the comments above. We mentioned the Shakespeare flicks and the Mary Shelley’s Frankenstien, but may I give a mention to Dead Again? Nobody but me remembers Dead Again? Hmmm.. Okay.
In any case, I am once again at odds with the int’l friends. Thor or no Thor, I’d like to see Branagh back behind the cameras again. I’m in the “wait and see” approach, especially since nobody’s been cast yet. However, I do have one request:
Brian Blessed as Odin.
Darren - I remember Dead Again! I watched it again just a few months ago, it is a wonderful flick, it’s definitely held up.
Personally, I would like to see Branagh in the director’s chair for Thor.