Thor - Natalie Portman to play Jane Foster

It was back in March that we learnt Natalie Portman had been cast in Kenneth Branagh's adaption of Thor.

There was speculation as to who she would play - The warrior Sif, a female version of Loki or as the human, Jane Foster.

Loki has since been cast and will be played by Tom Hiddleston, Thor by Chris Hemsworth and Odin by Brian Blessed. All of which makes it sound like some kind of Asgardian range of aftershave.

Now OntheFlix have the news that Portman will be playing Jane Foster. This character is a nurse who had a bit of a thing with Thor's human alter-ego, Dr. Donald Blake.

Having Portman as the romantic lead with Blake (if they play up that side of the tale) may mean we will see more Earth bound action than previously thought.

The plot for the film has Thor as a powerful but arrogant warrior who reignites an ancient war with his reckless actions. Thor is then cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans.However,after he arrives, he learns how to be a hero when the most dangerous villain of his former world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Could this mean that Jessica Biel may be playing Sif? What are your thoughts on the Portster playing Jane Foster? Do you want to see lots of Thor on Earth or do you want the first film to be heavy on Asgard?

Thor is due out on 20th May 2011 so still quite a while to go.

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Jessica Biel may be in Thor. Clifton Collins Jr won't.

Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Brian Blessed are cast as Thor, Loki and Odin, but who elso will be in Kenneth Branagh's adaption of the Marvel comic?

Clifton Collins Jr. isn't. He mentioned a while back that he was meeting with the Thor people, but he didn't mention for what role. He told The Dead Bolt this week that he's no longer a part of the project.

"That was a long time ago. I wasn't really getting into it, I was just preparing stuff. It's a fantastic director, a great piece, but I have absolutely nothing to do with it."

Meanwhile Jessica Biel is now being rumored to be playing a female character and love interest to the titular hero in the project according to Nuke the Fridge.

The site's source also says the role is likely to be that of Amora The Enchantress , however it could be theAsgardian warrior Sif. Still no word on what role Natalie Portman or Josh Hartnett may be playing.

Do you want to see Biel in Thor? What character do you think she will be playing?

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Kenneth Branagh acted out the whole Thor film

In his latest Cup O’ Joe column, Joe Quesada spoke about his time with Thor director Kenneth Branagh and head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige. He mentioned one specific meeting as “one of the highlights of my time here at Marvel”.

“It was performance art,” Quesada recalled. “Kevin would give us the establishment of the shot and the situation: ‘Here we are. We’re in (take your pick of location). And here’s Odin and he’s coming up to (pick a character.)’ And then Kenneth would come in and give you the color commentary. ‘Odin has an air of majesty to him’ and he’d act out the Odin part or the Thor part. So we sat there and literally got a three-hour one-man show from Kenneth Branagh. It was fantastic.”

Quesada said that the “very Shakespearean” Kenneth Branagh had a phenomenal grasp on the characters of Thor, Loki, Odin and the rest of the film’s cast.

“He’s definitely about character, which is the quintessential trait you have to have to understand the Marvel characters,” he said. “It’s not just big hammers and capes and things like that. It’s about what makes the character tick. There’s definitely a reason for Thor, a reason for him being and a very deep family relationship and story in the movie that I think is going to be very cool.”

“I think it’s going to be [a tougher sell] on the surface,” he said when asked if it was going to be harder to market the film compared to Iron Man. “[But we've] got plans already to get Thor’s name out within a younger group of kids. I think the upcoming ‘Super Hero Squad’ and ‘Avengers Animated’ shows are going to do wonders to get that across, and then we’re working on a couple of ancillary things here and there to boost the desire for kids in particular to know more about Thor and the general public as well.”

I would love to see some video of Branagh acting out the Thor film. It would be amazing to watch. I wonder if he will have a cameo in the film as Jon Favreau did (although it was a bit more than a cameo) in Iron Man.

The more I hear about the Thor film the more excited I get.

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Gordon's Alive? Brian Blessed may play Odin in Thor

I am really looking forward to Kenneth Branagh's adaption of Marvel's Thor. Now this news has got me even more excited.

Rich Johnston over on Bleeding Cool had this to say:

I understand that British actor Brian Blessed has been cast in Kenneth Branagh’s THOR movie, based on the Marvel Comics title, as the character Odin.

Blessed is best known for his roles as Caesar Augustus in I CLAUDIUS and King Of The Hawk Men in FLASH GORDON as well as being a charity campaigner and mountaineer.

He has appeared in a number of Kenneth Branagh productions, including HAMLET and AS YOU LIKE IT, famed for his booming voice.

I still haven't found any official confirmation on this, however he apparantly confirmed it at a recent public appearance in York. I will keep looking for official confirmation on this, so at the moment count it as a rumour.
The fact that Branagh as previously worked makes even more sense as he has also worked with Tom Hiddleston who was recently cast as Loki. Chris Hemsworth is Thor. Now we just need to find out what characters Natalie Portman and Josh Hartnett are playing.

I personally think this is a brilliant piece of casting and hopefully it is true.

How would you feel with Brian Blessed as Odin?

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Thor to be gritty and dirty says the scriptwriter

CineFOOLS have a great interview with Ashley Miller. He is the screen writer for Kenneth Branagh's adaption of Thor for Marvel.

Reading it does make me feel even happier about the project. Here are some of the main bits from it.

Are you a fan of Thor?

AM-Would you like me to pull my Simonson run out of its bags and boards? Zack had to take me down with an elephant tranq to stop me from throwing in a scene between Thor and a frog.

Is there any Thor storylines you are inspired by?

AM-So many things. Certainly, Walt Simonson's take on the character greatly informs what we brought to the script although I wouldn't say we went to a specific story from his tenure on the book. We saw part of our job as taking all the many approaches to the character over the years (including the myths) and distilling them down into a form that worked for a two-hour movie. There's a tremendous amount of ground to cover, so inspiration has to come from everywhere.

As a writer what would you like to bring to the characters in the Thor Saga?

AM-Grit. Not in the sense that you'd want to see a generic "dark" take on Thor, but in the sense that you want to feel Thor's rage when he rages. You want to see him fight like hell, and take as much he dishes out -- maybe more. You want to have a visceral reaction to the guy, and what happens to him. You don't want his adventures to be clean and antiseptic. You want to see the dirt, and grime and blood. You want to feel every bone crunching moment of every fight. And when he unleashes the storm, you want to feel like you're seeing the power of a GOD at work.

The best example I can give you is the end of Ultimates 2. When Thor shows up and kicks ass, he shows up and kicks ass. He isn't screwing around. There's a certain brutal, cock-eyed realism to Thor in that moment (and through that book in general) that I really resonate to and want to expand on.

As most people will want to see Asgard does it feature prominently in the script or will it mostly be in our world?

AM-Marvel's official description gives you a pretty good idea of what the divide looks like.

With all the Marvel films converging do you have to write with a bigger story in mind? Will you be involved with any other Marvel comic/film writers? E.g J Michael Stratzynski?

AM-We definitely wrote with the bigger story in mind, or at least the bigger universe. Our script is very firmly rooted in the Marvel film world. We were constantly looking for ways to connect Thor to the other movies and heroes, even if they were simply in passing. Part of grounding Thor in the world is grounding him in the specific, fictional world he inhabits. How many of those references and connections make it to the final product are beyond our control, but they are everywhere.

I'll also tell you the nicest thing about working for Marvel, as a fan. You never have to defend the character to the people who own him. You never have to explain to them why Thor is cool, or what he can do. They are as likely as you are to come up with some awesome bit of obscure continuity and pitch it as a story or character element. It's a very writer friendly place.

It is great to see that a fan of Thor is writing the screenplay. I also like the sound of the fights in that we will see the dirt, grime and blood. If they can make it like that then it should be amazing. Can Chris Hemsworth as Thor pull this off?

How do you feel about the Thor film? How can they tie it into the Iron Man film and other Marvel films? What look do you want Thor to have - classic Marvel or the Ultimate version?

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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Clifton Collins Jr may be in Thor

It looks as if J J Abrams Star Trek may have another link to Kenneth Branagh's Thor film after Chris Hemsworth was cast as Thor.

Clifton Collins Jr., who as the Romulan miner Ayel helped to kill Hemsworth’s character, George Kirk, appears to now be vying for a part alongside Hemsworth in the upcoming Marvel Studios film according to MTV.

“Studying my ass off for ‘Thor,’ gonna be a late night, well worth the loss of sleep!” Collins wrote Wednesday on Twitter. “Brewing big pot of joe, hitting ‘Thor’ hard this mornin!”

He also said that he would be heading into an audition for the part later that day, but didn’t specify which part he would be trying out for.

The question is what character would he be auditioning for? Possibily Fandral or Hogun from The Warriors Three. My feeling is that it will be for the part of Hogun based on the recent casting call announcement.

Official Casting Call for Hogun

[HOGUN]Male. ASIAN / SOUTH EAST ASIAN / MONGOLIAN / EAST INDIAN. Late 20s to mid 30s. Grim, stoic, fearless. A man of few words who lives for battle...SUPPORTING.

Clifton Collins Jr is one of those actors who always does top quality work. He was great in The Last Castle. Do you think Collins Jr would work as Hogun (he's the one on the right in the picture below)? If not Hogun who else could be play? Do you think Beta Ray Bill will be in the film?
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Tom Hiddleston cast as Loki in Branagh's Thor

I almost had this right. On the 4th May I mentioned how Tom Hiddleston, the co-star in Kenneth Branagh's Wallander series, could possibly be Thor.

This turned out to be incorrect when it was announced yesterday that Chris Hemsworth (George Kirk in Star Trek) had been cast as Thor in Kenneth Branagh’s big screen adaptation of Marvel’s Thor and the Summer 2012 superhero team-up film The Avengers.

However, Nikki Finke are now saying that Tom will be playing the evil Loki, the God of Mischief.

I was half right. Hiddleston is in the film, but playing the big bad. As I mentioned when Hemsworth was announced, I like the fact they are not using big names for this film. To the mainstream audience, Marvel's Thor is a bit of an unknown quanitity and you want the characters to prove their worth rather than be overshadowed by the actor playing them.

Also Hiddleston does have a look of Loki about him in some photos.

Robert Downey Jr worked so well as Tony Stark in Iron Man because Stark is a huge larger than life playboy kind of character.

It does make me wonder whether Josh Hartnett will still be in the film as he had previously been rumoured to play Loki, as had Natalie Portman. Maybe Hartnett will be playing another Asgardian - one of the Warriors Three?

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Captain Kirk's Dad is Thor

Chris Hemsworth, who played George Kirk in the opening of J J Abrams Star Trek has been cast as Thor in Kenneth Branagh’s big screen adaptation of Marvel’s comic. That means he will also be playing the Thunder God in the Summer 2012 film The Avengers.

Nikki Finke reports that Marvel and Branagh made the final decision earlier today after reviewing Hemsworth’s test footage. Chris is currently in production on the Joss Whedon-written Drew Goddard-directed horror film The Cabin in the Woods. The Australian actor (who used to star in Home and Away) was also just cast as the lead role in MGM’s Red Dawn remake last week.

Written by Mark Protosevich, Thor has been described as being “like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god”.

Marvel has announced a release date of 17th June 2011 for the film.

I thought Hemsworth was great in the Trek movie, so I'm happy with the casting. The other plus is that he is not a huge name or familiar face yet so it will be easier to buy into him as Thor.

How do you feel about the casting?

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Could Thor be an acting buddy of Kenneth Branagh's?

Kenneth Branagh has been speaking to IGN about the Thor movie’s development. Filming will begin in January of next year.

The gap in time between now and January means that Branagh can work on his TV series “Wallander,” based on the Henning Mankell series of novels about an existentialist police inspector. Branagh plays the titular Wallander alongside Tom Hiddleston, an actor who may or may not be donning the winged helmet for Marvel’s “Thor.”

“Tom Hiddleston is a great actor and he, amongst a number of others, has been part of the group we’ve spoken to and all that’s still a work in progress,” Branagh said of his “Wallander” co-star’s chances of playing Thor.

Other contenders to play the Norse God of Thunder have been Alexander Skarsgård, Charlie Hunnam, Kevin McKidd and Josh Hartnett. However, Josh was mooted to be playing Loki (but that could possibly be being played by Natalie Portman).

I've not seen Wallender so not sure what Hiddleston is like and whether he would be good as Thor. He doesn't seem physically big enough to play him, but I could see him as Dr Blake, Thor's alter ego. Personally, I'd like to see McKidd play Thor as he just has the right look.

What do you feel about the possibility of Hiddleston playing Thor? If not him who would you want to see?

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UPDATED: Natalie Portman may be the female lead in Thor - Could she be Loki?

There has been quite a bit of movement recently on the Marvel Studios' Thor film. It is being directed by Kenneth Branagh but the recent news has been on who will play Thor. S

Nikki Finke has posted a few names who have tested for the part of Thor and / or Loki.Josh Hartnett was rumoured to play the big bad Loki, but what if he was also testing for Thor? I don't think he has got the charisma needed to carry off the part of the Thunder God, neither does he have the slyness needed for Loki. Although his turn on stage as Iago in Othello is meant to be the reason why Branagh spoke to him. If that is the case then Iago and Loki have pretty much the same relationship with the respective leads.

Nikki then goes on to list other, lesser known actors, who have tested for the lead role - Charlie Hunnam (the British co-star of the F/X series Sons Of Anarchy); Tom Hiddleston (award-winning British actor and RADA graduate who played Winston Churchill's son in HBO's The Gathering Storm), Alexandar Skarsgard (Stellan's son who has appeared in the HBO Iraq War miniseries Generation Kill and vampire drama True Blood, and who's definitely visually right for the role), Liam Hemsworth (offered a significant role in The Expendables after Sly Stallone saw his tape), and Joel Kinnaman (some Swedish-American dude).

That's all well and good about Thor, but there is a small part of the post that mentions Natalie Portman is in the lead for the female lead. In my mind this is a bit out of left field.

This Thor film is meant to follow the early years of Thor in Asgard so I assume Natalie, if she is cast, would be playing either Amora the Enchantress (who is one of Thor's rogues gallery) or Sif, Thor's wife (in the middle image above she certainly has Portman's look). The final option could possibly someone on Earth. Maybe Jane Foster, a nurse who helps Dr Donald Black (Thor's alter ego).

I personally think it will be the part of Sif (which could be a rebrand of Cif which was rebrand of Jif...damn you SyFy for confusing me), purely based on the fact the film will mainly be set in Asgard and Sif has dark hair. Not a precise reason but at least it is a reason.

Do you feel Natalie Portman will be good as the female lead in Thor? Out of the actors mentioned who would be the best Thor or is there someone not on the list who should play the part?

UPDATE: I totally forgot that in the recent Thor reboot, Loki had decided to take the form of a woman (in the picture on the left). Could Natalie Portman possibly be down to play the Trickster God?

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Favreau to direct The Avengers, Alexander and Stellan Skarsgard as Thor and Odin and news on Daredevil and The Fantastic Four

AICN have a source on the inside who has the following news about various Marvel films. I really like the fact that a father and son may be playing a father and son in Thor and Favreau directing The Avengers is great news. It will bring a lot of consistency into the big screen Marvel Universe. That also explains the recent shuffling around of the various release dates for the films. Fingers crossed that most of these things actually happen. Still not sure about Hartnett as Loki though.

-Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so hes not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point.

- Iron Man starts rehearsals in a few days, which is why the casting is finally coming together so quickly.

-Alexander Skargard is indeed Branagh’s favorite to play Thor as some sites are reporting. If all goes well and it happens then we hope to get Stellan Skarsgard for Odin (though at present Odin is only a very small cameo part in this movie).

-Loki will probably be played by Hartnett, if his pay negotiations work out. All the commentary about him wanting to do a Ledger and play a villain is B.S. though – WE APPROACHED HARTNETT because Branagh’s a big fan of the Othello adaptation O where Hartnett played Iago who is very similar character wise to how he sees Loki.

- Fox is serious about doing remakes of Daredevil and FF. They have to make new movies with these characters every few years because otherwise the options will revert to us. This point is kinda obvious but Im not sure people realise it –I haven't seen anybody pointing it out anywhere. The mood around here is pretty negative about Rothman’s potential to execute these properties properly, (Im sure you know why it might be particularly negative at the moment) but we are all hoping his recent promotion will mean hes kept away from direct control of these movies.

What are your thoughts on all that? Happy to hear Favreau could be directing The Avengers? Who would want to play Daredevil?

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Loki - Arch Nemesis of Thor could be Josh Hartnett.

Yesterday it was mentioned that Alexander Skarsgard could be cast as Thor. Now news is coming out about who might be playing the Thunder-god's evil half-brother, Loki.

According to IESB.net, Josh Hartnett is currently on the short list to take on the role of the god of mischief and evil.

This is all very much a rumour although Hartnett has met with director Kenneth Branagh and both parties are interested in seeing if they can make it work.

In the comics, and mythology, Loki is Thor's adopted brother, and is actually a diminutive Frost Giant. Loki fancies himself the God of Mischief, but ultimately becomes the God of Evil. He has been Thor's longest running foe throughout the comics, and in mythology is supposed to be one of the key forces behind Ragnarok.

I think this is a bad, bad, bad idea to have Josh Hartnett as Loki. I just don't feel that he has the acting chops to pull off the intelligent, twisted, ruthless, machiavellian character of Loki.

Up until this point I hadn't even thought about who would play the other characters in the Marvel Studios film. Not sure who would be a good choice to portray Loki, Odin or the Warriors Three. Ron Perlman as Odin could be cool.

Any thoughts on who could play Loki or do you feel Josh Hatnett do the part justice?

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Has Thor been cast? Just a rumour but you never know

Alexander Skarsgård played Meekus in Zoolander and starred in the TV show True Blood. He is also the son of the great actor Stellan Skarsgård. Why am I telling you this? Well the title of the post kind of gives it away. A rumour is gathering pace around the internet that he may be the Norse God of Thunder in Marvel Studio's Thor film to be directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Latino Review had discounted a previous rumour that he was down for the role, but today they received a tip that Thor director Kenneth Branagh was spotted having lunch with Skarsgård and a couple unrecognizable gentleman.

He certainly looks the part. Still very much a rumour though. How would you feel with Alexander as Thor if the rumour comes true?

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The Boat That Rocked - International Trailer

Inspired by the British pirate radio revolution in the '60s, the majority of the film's shoot took place in a large rusty metal fishing trawler moored off the coast of England in the very waters that kept the rock of the '60s booming into the U.K.

In 1966 -- arguably British pop music's finest era -- the BBC played only two hours of rock and roll every week. But pirate radio blasted rock and pop from the high seas 24 hours a day. And 25 million people -- more than half the population of Britain -- listened to these pirates every single day.

The Boat That Rocked is an ensemble comedy in which the romance takes place between the young people of the '60s and pop music. It's about a band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that, incomprehensibly, preferred jazz.

Leading the cast are Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Count, a big, brash, American god of the airwaves; Bill Nighy as Quentin, the boss of Radio Rock -- a pirate radio station in the middle of the North Sea that's populated by an eclectic crew of rock and roll DJs; Rhys Ifans as Gavin, the greatest DJ in Britain who has just returned from his drug tour of America to reclaim his rightful position; Nick Frost as Dave, an ironic, intelligent and cruelly funny co-broadcaster; and Kenneth Branagh (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Hamlet) as British Minister Dormandy, a fearsome government official out for blood against the drug takers and lawbreakers of a once-great nation.

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Joe Quesada talks Twitter, Kenneth Branagh and Thor

The Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics and a superstar illustrator in his own right, Joe Quesada talks to CBR TV about all things Marvel, including the staff's Twitter obsession and what director Kenneth Brannagh has cooking for "Thor."

In this exclusive on-camera interview filmed at New York Comic Con, Quesada discusses with CBR Executive Producer Jonah Weiland why Twitter is Marvel's 21st answer to Stan Lee's classic "Stan's Soapbox" communiques to fans, saying the popular messaging system allows him to answer reader concerns at a rate of thousands at a time. Quesada also details his meeting with "Thor" director Kenneth Brannagh, and what the venerable filmmaker has in mind for Marvel's thunder god. "This is going to be the Marvel Universe on the big screen," he said.

[Branagh] has immersed himself in [the comics]... He was talking about characters and villains that even I was going, like, who was that?, y'know. But if you're a Thor-head, you're going to go, oh right... So it was wonderful to hear this stuff. He wasn't just concerned about Thor, but he also understood going in, from the beginning - because we established very early on... Well, at the end of the Iron Man movie, but very early on [in the process], that there's going to be other movies that become part of this tapestry. This is essentially our Star Wars, our universe is our Star Wars, and he understands that his Thor movie is one of the legs of this table that will interplay with an Iron Man movie down the road, or the Avengers movie down the road.

I've chatted to Joe a couple of times via Twitter and he's always on the ball.

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Thor - "Branagh gets it"

Two of Marvel Comics’ biggest names had a very public chat via Twitter this week according to MTV news. In the discussion, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada and Brian Michael Bendis, revealed a very interesting meeting that took place with Thor movie director Kenneth Branagh.

“Okay, three words describe my day today ‘Branagh gets it!’” wrote Quesada, initiating the dialogue between the two creators. Asked by Bendis whether they could reveal what their meeting was about, Quesada elaborated a little more: “We can’t go into detail but maybe we can say that we met with Branagh about ‘Thor.’”

“Sweet is when [Branagh] starts quoting continuity and past storylines,” Quesada responded to one of his Twitter fans. “The man has immersed himself in Marvel.”

The meeting also seems to signify a continuing trend of collaboration between the comic book side of Marvel and their Marvel Studios wing that helming the films.

Sounds very promising. Now who can play Thor? Karl Urban?

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Valkyrie - First 5 minutes

Here are the first 5 minutes of Valkyrie for your viewing pleasure.

n a country in the grips of evil, in a police state where every move is being watched, in a world where justice and honor have been subverted, a group of men hidden inside the highest reaches of power decide to take action. Tom Cruise stars in the suspense film, Valkyrie, based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (CRUISE) and the daring and ingenious plot to eliminate one of the most evil tyrants the world has ever known. Director Bryan Singer (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, X-MEN, SUPERMAN RETURNS) re-teams with Academy Award®-winning USUAL SUSPECTS screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to bring to life the story of the men who led the operation to assassinate Hitler. The film also stars an acclaimed cast including Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel and Terence Stamp.

A proud military man, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is a loyal officer who serves his country all the while hoping that someone will find a way to stop Hitler before Europe and Germany are destroyed. Realizing that time is running out, he decides that he must take action himself and joins the German resistance. Armed with a cunning strategy to use Hitler’s own emergency plan – known as Operation Valkyrie – these men plot to assassinate the dictator and overthrow his Nazi government from the inside.

With everything in place, with the future of the world, the fate of millions and the lives of his wife and children hanging in the balance, von Stauffenberg is thrust from being one of many who oppose Hitler to the one who must kill Hitler himself.

Valkyrie is produced by Bryan Singer, Christopher McQuarrie and Gilbert Adler. McQuarrie co-wrote the original screenplay with Nathan Alexander who also serves as co-producer. The executive producers are Chris Lee, Ken Kamins, Daniel M. Snyder, Dwight C. Schar and Mark Shapiro. The film was shot in Germany at various locations where many of the actual events occurred, including the historic Bendlerblock. Recreating the atmosphere of urgency and paranoia inside the German resistance is a team that includes Singer’s frequent collaborators Newton Thomas Sigel (SUPERMAN RETURNS, X2, X-MEN) as director of photography and editor/composer John Ottman (SUPERMAN RETURNS, X2); as well as production designers Lilly Kilvert (two-time Oscar-nominee for THE LAST SAMURAI and LEGENDS OF THE FALL) and Patrick Lumb (THE OMEN) and costume designer Joanna Johnston (MUNICH, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN).

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Valkyrie, 2008 - Movie Review

Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel, David Bamber
Running Time: 120 minutes
Score: 7 / 10

This review by James Meeley.

One of the tricky things about doing films based on a true moment of history, is that, oftentimes, the actual events are not nearly as interesting as the film will portray it. This will lead to a "Hollywood-ification" of history, which can hurt the believability of the film. It is only made more difficult, when you use a moment that is also very well known, such as this plot by the Germany army to kill Hitler, and in which knowing the outcome can cost you much dramatic tension. Fortunately, director Bryan Singer doesn't take many liberties with the actual history of events and produces a film that, while not perfect, is very much entertaining and somewhat moving.

First off, the look of the film is flawless. The cinematography, with its wide-angle shots and sweeping overviews of the landscape and architecture, truly captured the times in which this event took place. It really felt like 1940's Germany, under the Nazi Reich. It is, quite easily, the strongest point of the film.

The performances range a bit from adequate to very good. Tom Cruise's take on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is more the former. It isn't bad and he certainly plays up how Stauffenberg put his love of his country above everything else, but I never really got a very good impression of why he felt this way. There was no sense of depth to the character, which one would think would be key to such an important figure of this historical moment. The fact we saw little of Stauffenberg's interaction with his family also played a part in lessening the impact of his great gamble.

Fortunately, some of the others who support Cruise help to raise the film (and his performance) from being totally lackluster. Tom Wilkinson as General Friedrich Fromm, was certainly one of the standout performances. He played the character with a true sense of duplicity and cunning guile. The way he straddles the fence on the plot to killer Hitler, is very much in keeping with how many of the high ranking Nazis seemed to navigate the political schemes within the Third Reich. Also of note, is Christian Berkel as Colonel Mertz von Quirnheim and Terence Stamp as Ludwig Beck. Both of whom turn in excellent supporting roles and have key moments of tension within the story. And while David Bamber has very few scenes in the film, he is very effective in conveying the side of Adolf Hitler that was never shown very much to the cameras of the times.

In the end, "Valkyrie" is good, but falls a bit short of the truly epic scope it wants to have. This film will become a standard for high school history teachers, when they study WWII in class, as well as being a solid entry into the war movie genre. However, there are too many little things, like almost no one speaking actual German (or even using an accent like one), or the mediocre score that lacks any memorable feeling of emotion, which keep the film out of the realm of a truly great cinema experience. Still, it is a good film, which is fairly historically accurate with the events it depicts, has some wonderful cinematography, and has an excellent cast with some standout supporting performances.

It is no "Schindler's List" or "Saving Private Ryan," but it is an entertaining look at some of the events of WWII from within the Nazi Reich, from the view of those who were involved with the atrocities that were being committed in the name of Germany. While certainly not an uplifting film (especially if you know the outcome of the plot), it is still one that is worth seeing.

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Kenneth Branagh confirms he is directing Thor

MTV has been chatting to Kenneth Branagh about his next directing gig for the Thor movie.

“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’.”

“To work on a story about one of the immortals, Gods, extraordinary beings, inter-dimensional creatures,” was what he found appealing about the character.

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.

"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.”

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Kevin McKidd wants to be Thor

He wore a roman helmet in Rome, travelled back in time in Jouneyman, fought werewolves in Dog Soldiers, died of a heroin addiction in Trainspotting and plays a doctor in Grey's Anatomy.

Four of those five things may help Kevin McKidd win the role of Thor in the Kenneth Branagh directed movie from Marvel Studios.

He has been chatting to IGN about the fact he is still a contender for the role. McKidd stressed that the part that he's up for is indeed that of Thor and not a supporting role.

Do you think McKidd would be good as the God of Thunder? I think he certainly looks the part and he sure can act. If not him who else?

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