The God of Mischief speaks about Thor 2
- 11 January 2012
- Gerard Wood
This week, during a webchat hosted by Empire, Tom Hiddleston (aka Loki) let fall a few tasty morsels about the follow-up to Kenneth Branagh’s mighty Thor. The webchat was primarily concerned with Hiddleston’s latest movie, War Horse, but attention inevitably shifted to Thor 2 and the revelation, straight from the (War) Horse’s mouth, that filming will kick-off this summer in London. The release date has now drifted from 26 July 2013 to 15 November 2013, allowing Marvel Studios a healthy 18 months for filming and post-production.
It’s long been known that Kenneth Branagh would not be returning for the sequel, leaving some remarkably big boots for someone to fill. I've said it before and will happily repeat myself: more successfully than any other director adapting stories of comic book superheros for the screen, Branagh brought to life the magnificent capacity of the comic book for mythic storytelling but with a human heart. Thor is an unmitigated triumph of a superhero movie. At a time when the superhero comic book adaptation has come to dominate Hollywood’s offerings, it takes something exceptional to stand out from the crowd and Thor has that exceptional something. It's no surprise that the movie is heavy on action and humour, effects and big name actors, all of which is par for the course these days. What sets Thor apart from the crowd is (for want of a better word) a certain weightiness. To be sure, it’s there in the screenplay but I suspect that it would take a director with a similar background to Branagh - renowned Shakespearean actor and director that he is - to draw out so clearly what is a very human story from the doings of gods, kings and giants amongst men. After all, that's so often what it takes to bring the works of Shakespeare to life.
During the Empire webchat Hiddleston went on to confirm the recent announcement that Alan Taylor would be stepping into Branagh's shoes for the sequel. Although Taylor is a bit of an unknown quantity – he has no experience directing for the big screen - he does have an impressive TV CV, including episodes of Carnivale, Deadwood, The Sopranos, Mad Men and most relevant and impressive of all, my personal TV highlight for 2011, Game of Thrones. Taylor directed two episodes in Season 1, including the excellent final episode, and returned to direct a further four episodes in Season 2.
Taylor was not the only name in line for the directorial throne of Thor – fellow Game of Thrones director Brian Kirk was linked early on, followed more recently by Monster director, Patty Jenkins. Jenkins would have been the first female director of a major superhero movie but she left the project under mysterious circumstances - some say she quit over “creative differences”, others that she was shown the door by Marvel Studios - either way, Natalie Portman was apparently quite miffed at Jenkin’s departure.
Finally, Hiddleston had some intentionally unrevealing words of wisdom about Loki, an ambivalent character to say the least. Asked about what side of Loki’s character we’ll be treated to in Thor 2, he said "I don't want to spoil anything here. Loki's eternal predilection is to dance on the fault lines of villainy and redemption. I think whatever happens to him, he'll always keep people guessing."
As have you, Tom, as have you!
It's not often that SF and Fantasy literature gets the serio...
Joss Whedon's The Avengers has robbed me of my critical mojo...
Although it should come as no surprise to those of us hooked...
With little over three weeks until Season Two of HBO's Game ...
If you’ve not already committed the date to memory, take not...
Featured articles
10 Mar 2012
I have a confession to make. I'm not proud of it, but there's no use trying to hide it any longer, the damage has already been done. I was an Apple fanatic. Hard core. Completely obsessed. I'm not proud of my behaviour. I have no real excuses. All I can say in my defense is that I have always been a gadget fan, so naturally I was ripe for the plucking. My psyche was compromised, wide open to the fruit... Read more
25 Mar 2012
No movie release in 2011 was more misunderstood and unfairly maligned as a result of misunderstanding than Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch. Odds are you’ll disagree with that statement. An indication of the movie’s reception by “audiences” (non-professional reviewers) and the critics can be found on Rotten Tomatoes, where audience approval is calculated to be 47%, and of the 196 critical reviews... Read more
16 Oct 2007
Daren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is a movie that divides opinion. During its press screening at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival in September 2006 it was booed; at the public screening the following evening it received a 10 minute standing ovation. To get an idea of just how divided opinion is, take a look at Rotten Tomatoes, a website that rates movies based on published reviews. Of 181... Read more
09 Dec 2007
After 25 years since its original release, a definitive version of Ridley Scott's science fiction masterwork Blade Runner, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, has arrived. So what exactly has changed? And is it worth all the fuss? After attending a recent screening I can report that there are significant differences, mainly improvements, between this new version and Ridley's first Director's Cut released... Read more
30 Jan 2012
If you own an iPhone 4S you may have impressed your friends (or perhaps not) with the built in, voice-driven personal assistant called Siri. You can ask it to book appointments, call people, search nearby restaurants, make calculations, and a great deal more. Most of the time it gets it right too. Now Siri has an Android rival called Evi, and if first impressions are anything to go by, it's an impressive... Read more
02 Aug 2011
Dan Simmons’ latest novel, Flashback (July 2011), is “[a] provocative novel set in a future that seems scarily possible,” proving “why Dan Simmons is one of our most exciting and versatile writers." So says the publicist anyway. Dan Simmons is one of our most exciting and versatile writers, but sadly Flashback doesn’t prove that. And yes, Flashback is a provocative novel, but it doesn’t... Read more
19 Oct 2011
After watching the pilot to Fox’s ambitious TV time travelling dinosaur fest called Terra Nova, I am praying that when I watch the next episode the entire cast gets eaten by dinosaurs (in fact, that hope is the only reason I’ll be able to sit through another one). The entire cast’s gruesome deaths at the hands of a frenzied T-Rex or a velociraptor having a bad day can’t come soon enough.... Read more
08 Jul 2010
Almost any time we write anything about Neil Gaiman, you can be sure that someone will feel the need to post a comment “outing” the man as a Scientologist. While we have a fairly relaxed attitude to comments and will publish almost anything that contributes to an article, you won’t find many comments about Neil Gaiman’s alleged ties to the Church of Scientology published on this site. We simply... Read more
05 Oct 2009
Science fiction authors have long been outcasts from the literary world, in some cases critics using the worst examples of the genre as ammunition against it. Unfortunately though, at times even science fiction authors themselves can turn on their own kind: "Science fiction is rockets, chemicals and talking squids in outer space,” mocked Margaret Atwood (The Guardian, 28 January 2009), one of her... Read more
07 Jun 2010
Finally having had the opportunity to watch Nicholas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising, I now appreciate why it was received so well at film festivals and yet failed to get a wide theatrical release. It’s hard going. On one hand it’s almost unbearably brutal and on the other it is layered with the sort of mind-bending symbolic meaning that leads the viewer to the brink of utter confusion and leaves... Read more
Latest videos
 |  |
![Men In Black 3 Trailer 2 Official 2012 [1080 HD] - Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y2r9AIfYcV8/0.jpg)
![Looper - Official Trailer [HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UZyZWFYyxcU/0.jpg)
![Total Recall 2012 Official Trailer [HD]: Colin Farrell Recalls His Dangerous Past: ENTV](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sWMhADqlPYg/0.jpg)
Re: Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell to cameo in Quantum Leap movie
Some remakes are ok becausecof improvements in special...
Re: Chronicles of Riddick 3: Dead Man Stalking - Science Fiction World
What, Riddick became Lord Marshall and now hes...
Re: Rotten Apple: the war on Google's Android - Science Fiction World
That will be the legacy of Steve "Palpatine"...
Re: GodMachine
Strange...but cool. Definitely not EFC related in any...