The Thor movie adaptation has been penned by screenwriter Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, The Cell). In 2007, whilst on strike, he commented on his plans for Thor with the Daily Herald:
“I loved Thor! [...] He was my favorite comic book character when I was growing up. When I moved out to L.A. I sold a pretty substantial comic book collection to finance the trip. But I kept all my old Thors.”
[...] “It’s going to be like a super hero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story of a Old Testament god who becomes a new Testament god.”
It will be mythic, but also bear the unmistakable qualities of a Marvel movie, an epic fantasy adventure.
“I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people”
In December 2008, actor and director Kenneth Branagh was confirmed as the directing choice for the Thor movie (MTV):
“I am directing “Thor” or “The Mighty Thor’ as you might like to call it,” he said with a smile before clarifying what the title of the film will be. “I think it will be ‘Thor.’”
ortunity to hear from Branagh about what appealed to him about the project. So what’s the appeal of “Thor,” Kenneth? “To work on a story about one of the immortals, Gods, extraordinary beings, inter-dimensional creatures,” he enthused.
He continued excitedly, “There’s science fiction and science fact and fantasy all woven into one. It’s based on Norse legends which Marvel sort of raided in a brilliant way.”
When questioned about casting and the then rumors surrounding Kevin McKidd:
“There’s been lots of talk [about casting] — I sound like a politician — but we are too early at this stage. We’re getting the story and the visual effects together and all of that is very exciting. Someone sensational is going to play the part but it is early days.”
“It’s a chance to tell a big story on a big scale,” said Branagh. “It’s a human story right in the center of a big epic scenario.”
The current release date is set to May 20th 2011, originally brought forward from a June release.
As part of Marvel’s efforts for a combined super-hero Avengers movie, there have been subtle references to Captain America in the two most recent releases, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk:
Iron Man
When Pepper Potts walks in on Tony Stark being undressed by JARVIS’ robot arms, at around the 1h30 mark, in the background you can see a half complete shield that matches Captain America’s red, white and blue design. According to the exclusive Walmart comic book that came with the Iron Man DVD, Howard Stark (now rumored to appear in Iron Man 2) created the shield’s technology and Tony is using an old discarded prototype to create an alloy for his suit’s armor. This implies that, rather than creating the shield, Tony Stark is taking it apart, as previously rumored when the shield was first spotted.
The Incredible Hulk
On the 3-disc special edition DVD there is a cut scene set in the snowy north where Bruce Banner goes to commit suicide, before turning into The Hulk and starting an avalanche. As the snow crumbles you can just about make out the outline of a human body and shield, meant to be Steve Rogers frozen in suspended animation, first spotted by Film School Rejects.
Other hat tips to Captain America include mention of the WWII ’supersoldier serum’ created by Dr. Reinstein, as injected into Emil Blonsky. Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier comments on this (IGN):
I wanted to address because I thought it was fun. But like Dr. Reinstein and Vita Rays, that actually was done on the day because we wanted the super serum. And the prop master said, “What do you want me to do with this?” And I said, “OK. Give me the serum.” And he said, “What color should the serum be?” I said, “Blue like Captain America and I want the cap for the vile to be red like Captain America.” And he said, “What do you want me to put on the sticker?” And I gave him Dr. Reinstein and Vita Rays;
The appearance is at 2:25 in this video, not that you can really see it in this quality:
Negotiations for a Captain America movie adaptation originally started in 1997, Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn were set to produce with Larry Wilson (“The Addams Family”) and Les Bohem (“Dante’s Peak”) penning the script, with financing help from Artisan in May 2000. (Variety)
However a lawsuit between Marvel Comics and Captain America co-creator Joe Simon halted the proceedings, a settlement was agreed upon in September 2003 (Variety) but by this time the original plans had been scrapped.
The project kick-started again in 2005 with Merrill Lynch’s $500m investment and a new plan to create 10 movies, one of those being Captain America, with distribution by Paramount Pictures.
In 2005 then producer Avi Arad commented on the plans (MTV), with a projected 2008 release date and Jon Favreau at the helm.
“Captain America is the most famous character out there, by name. The biggest opportunity with him is as a man ‘out of time,’ coming back today — looking at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town America. Sixty years go by, and who are we today? Are we better?
“I have a writer,” he says. “And I have someone in mind to be the star, and I definitely have someone in mind to be the director. This script is going to take a little bit of time, because it has to be a masterpiece. It’s ‘Back to the Future’ kind of stuff.”
SHH!: So why did you decide to do an Iron Man movie?
Favreau: [...] I’d always [Avi Arad] about “Captain America,” this was long before Marvel broke off and became its own studio, so that was the one I was interested in, because I thought there were a lot of comedic possibilities with a guy who got frozen and then turned around and now is fighting for America. “Iron Man” has always been the flipside of “Captain America,” representing maybe more pragmatic, darker aspects of America. When we first talked about the notion of doing “Iron Man,” I felt excited because it lends itself, very easily, to the technology that is available today. Where as an organic superhero, you know anybody who is a guy in tights is a little scary in CGI, but a robot-based guy is really a marriage made in heaven, so I’m exploring what the technology has to offer. To me, with the political climate what it is now, it’s such a complex character and these times are so complex, mirroring in a lot of ways, his inception in the 60’s when on the cusp of Vietnam, it was just as unpopular to have an arms manufacturer as your hero. I really wanted to explore that so it’s very exciting to me in that way. It’s also exciting because it’s Marvel’s first movie on its own.
Then in 2007 current producer Kevin Feige reported a 2009 release with David Self writing (hired in 2006) (IGN),
“I have a writer on Captain America right now. [...] I’m hoping to get a director on that very soon, to get that into the pipeline in the next year or so. David Self is writing Captain America.”
The movie would be split half and half between present day and World War II. Feige also commented on the political climate and the strongly American themed hero:
“I certainly think we’ll have to play with that. Play with Captain America being this patriotic propaganda machine on one hand, but being a very human Steve Rogers, interesting, fascinating hero in his own right,” Feige says. “The good news is Marvel is perceived pretty well around the world right now, and I think putting another uber-Marvel hero into the worldwide box office would be a good thing. The script David Self is writing [and] the director that we end up hiring… we certainly are going into it with our eyes open that these are all things that we have to deal with much the same way that Captain America, when thawed from the Arctic ice entered a world that he didn’t recognize, and had to sort of deal with the changes, whether it was when Stan [Lee] did it in the ’60s and that world Steve Rogers was coming into, or the world of 2009.”
“He’s a Norman Rockwell character who is faced with today’s America and is forced to look at his own past, things in the ’40s that weren’t necessarily what they were cracked up to be, and also how today’s country may be different than it looks,”
The movie’s production was put on hold by the 2007-2008 Writer’s Guild of America strikes, with production starting up again in January ‘08. On May 5th 2008 the film’s release date was set at May 6th, 2011. Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III) officially signed on to direct in November 2008 with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Chronicles of Narnia) hired to re-write the script.
With Barack Obama’s election, international opinion on American politics has had an up surge in popularity leading to changes in the movie, Kevin Feige (EW):
“The idea of change and hope has permeated the country, regardless of politics, and that includes Hollywood. Discussions in all our development meetings include the zeitgeist and how it’s changed in the last two weeks. Things are being adjusted.
The production release date has since been pushed back slightly, to July 22nd 2011.
Harold Ramis sat down with MTV to talk about his latest project, “The Year One”, but – much to our satisfaction, the conversation also turned to Ghostbusters 3. Ramis confirmed that all of the original Ghostbusters would have an appearance in the movie in some regard, including Bill Murray as Peter Venkman:
“We’re all going to be in it in different kinds of roles. [...] We’re going to be the sage mentors. There are going to be young Ghostbusters.”
I am a little apprehensive about the term ‘young’ rather than ‘new’, I see child ghost-busting characters and teen heroics – reminiscent of the appalling Thunderbirds movie adaptation. Currently the rumors surround actors such as Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, which is more the age I would expect.
As for the progress of the script being penned by Eisenberg and Stupnitsky (The Office):
“Gene and Lee, both of whom I mentored, are now writing the new ‘Ghostbusters,’ [...] I’m consulting with them, as is Dan Aykroyd and [original director] Ivan Reitman.
Neither Ramis or Reitman are expecting to direct GB3 which raises the next big question, who will?
“I’m sure we’re all hoping someone else will do it,” the 64-year-old Ramis said. “It’s a lot of work!”
I’m quite enjoying Favreau’s twittering, it gives me that strange personal window into the Iron Man 2 production cycle. Recent tweets of note to Iron Man followers,
Rehearsed today with Gwyneth. She looks ripped. I gotta read GOOP and see what the hell she’s eating.
Great rehearsal today with Gwyneth, RDJ [Robert Downey Jr.] and Don Cheadle.
MTV caught up with Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster to ask him about Bond 23:
“They asked me if I wanted to [...] I’ll never say never again, but at this point I would say no.”
As for what he would like to see in the next Bond movie, Forster added:
“It really depends on what direction they want to take it. [...] For me, I wanted to take it to a harder and darker place, but now that that journey I’ve gone on has succeeded, I feel like the next one can take it to a bit more humorous place again.”
“I feel like next time you should take it in a lighter and more humorous way, maybe add a few more girls and a bit more sex – all that kind of stuff [...] I think that would be interesting.”
Speaking in the UK’s Metro newspaper, Daniel Craig briefly commented on the schedule for Bond 23:
‘[Dame Judi] is great. I’m sure she will be back when we get rolling again next year.’
When in 2010 we don’t know, not really helping us guess the next release date. Meanwhile Michael G Wilson commented at the Bradford International Film Festival that no further, significant work on Bond 23 has yet taken place:
The only news Wilson broke about the next Bond film is that there is no news at all. He said there had been no significant work done on the next entry.
TF08 have posted their second batch of images for the week, this time showing Skids and Megatron in their boxes, alongside the new blue motorcycle character, ‘Chromia‘.
The packet describes Chromia’s character as a female friend of Ironhide (partners – aka a love interest) with sisters, presumably two given the three different bikes. This character profile matches the outline of Chromia given on Wikipedia based on the first generation animated series in the episode, “The Search for Alpha Trion.”. There appears to be no mention of Chromia combining with any other robot/toys to form what was thought would be Arcee.
Chromia is tough as nails, and always spoiling for a fight. She’s [...] friends with Ironhide for centuries, and their reunion on Earth [...] one of the high points of the war for both of them. Now they [...] side-by-side, hunting and destroying Decepticons. neither of [...] has ever been happier. The two robots make great partners, and [...] along with her sisters, are an invaluable part of the [...].
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