Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the highly
anticipated motion picture adaptation of “Thor,” the latest from the Marvel
pantheon of legendary super heroes who have inspired generations of readers.
The epic adventure “Thor” spans the Marvel Universe from present day
Earth to the mystical realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty
Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient
war. As a result, Thor is banished to Earth, where he is forced to live among
humans. When the most dangerous villain of his world sends its darkest forces
to invade Earth, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero.
“Thor” is the tale of one man’s mythic journey: from a petulant prince
born to inherit the throne, to a humble super hero who earns the right to lead.
Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present A Marvel Studios
Production of A Film by Kenneth Branagh: “Thor,” starring Chris Hemsworth,
Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Clark
Gregg, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Tadanobu
Asano, Joshua Dallas, with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins as Odin. The film
is directed by Kenneth Branagh. The screenplay is by Ashley Edward Miller &
Zack Stentz and Don Payne, with a story by J. Michael Straczynski and Mark
Protosevich. It is produced by Kevin Feige. The executive producers are Alan
Fine, Stan Lee, David Maisel, Patricia Whitcher, Louis D’Esposito. The director
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of photography is Haris Zambarloukos, BSC. The production designer is Bo
Welch. The editor is Paul Rubell, A.C.E. The costume designer is Alexandra
Byrne.
The co-producers are Craig Kyle and Victoria Alonso.
The music
supervisor is Dave Jordan; the music is by Patrick Doyle. This film has not yet
been rated. www.Thor.Marvel.com.
A FORMIDABLE CRASH OF THUNDER
In 1962, the now-legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced The
Mighty Thor to readers of Marvel Comics, unleashing a new era of actionadventure with their take on the hammer-wielding Norse god.
Despite the
somewhat odd-sounding names, the story was rooted in familiar, universal
conflicts that have driven human drama since the beginning of time: a son
impatient to prove his worth to his father; a lethally resentful brother; and a
woman who helps a man see the world anew.
Royal bloodlines, a deadly
vendetta, pride that goes before a fall—in any world, these are stories well worth
telling.
A founding member of the super hero team known as “The Avengers,”
Thor emerged from the same Marvel Comics bullpen that had previously given
rise to Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men and Spiderman.
“Thor” motion picture producer and Marvel Studios President Kevin
Feige remembers, “Stan Lee tells the story that after he and Jack Kirby created
these other heroes, they thought, ‘Let’s do a god—and let’s bring a god down!’
And in a brilliant move, he looked at Norse mythology—a lot of people were
familiar with the Greek and Roman mythologies, not so much with the Norse.
When you read those stories, it’s like the best of the Marvel Comics, because it’s
people who are very human, despite their powers—despite their calling down
the storm, the thunder and the lightning. They have family issues, in the two
brothers fighting, Thor and Loki. It’s a family drama, and they’re just as flawed
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as any of us, or any of the Marvel heroes.
That’s what makes the Marvel
characters so relatable.
“On film, we’ve explored a lot of the ground-based Marvel heroes,” Feige
continues. “But it’s called the Marvel universe for a reason. It’s a big place, and
we’re going to a cosmic level with ‘Thor.’
It was the larger-than-life Thor that also captivated director Kenneth
Branagh as a boy growing up in 1960s Belfast. “It rained a lot in Northern
Ireland and could sometimes seem grayish,” Branagh recalls. “The color of the
Marvel Comics covers would pop out from the book shelves, and The Mighty
Thor was the one I was always drawn to.
“I liked its primal qualities—the connection to something ancient, the
weaponry, the Stonehenge feel of the lettering, and the character’s sheer physical
heft. He’s the first in line to fulfill that cliché of never asking anybody else to do
what he wouldn’t do himself. In fact, half the time you’ve got to try and stop
him from doing something you might never consider.”
Coincidentally, it is that very determined and headstrong nature that
stands between Thor and succeeding his father as the King of Asgard.
A
celebrated physique and success in battle are not enough to prepare the prince
for leading his people—flashes of anger, shortsighted decisions, rash actions,
these are things that will prove the ultimate downfall to a king. They are also the
traits that can and do make for the self-destruction of a human, even without the
weight of a crown hanging in the balance.
“The success of the Marvel connection with Norse mythology is an
understanding that the human dimension at the center of epic tales is the glue
that holds everything together,” observes Branagh, who knows a thing or two
about mythic tales, having made his reputation interpreting (as performer,
theatrical director and filmmaker) Shakespeare’s stories of royal family intrigue.
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“There’s an exhilaration, a visceral kind of enjoyment in seeing those kinds of
characters go through the same things we do.”
Producer Feige seconds, “When characters respond to situations the way
one would, when they’re thrust into overwhelming situations and just can’t deal
with it very easily, when there are trials and tribulations to overcome just like all
of us deal with all the time—that’s real, that’s relatable. So it doesn’t matter if
you’re a billionaire weapons manufacturer, or the son of Odin, if you’ve got
these problems or issues to overcome—even character flaws deep within
yourself—that makes you, essentially, one of us. There are a lot of fun things
that Stan and Jack did in the early Thor comics—that Walt Simonson brought to
life later—that J. Michael Straczynski has done an amazing job handling in the
recent comics. He has taken the myths and brought them home. You may have
heard of Thor, Loki, Odin…what you didn’t know is that they’re real. And that
if you could get intergalactic transportation, and bust through a few dimensions
and other spatial rifts in the process, you would come upon them. That’s the
concept that has been developed and has been brought to this adaptation.”
J. Michael Straczynski, an award-winning screenwriter (2008’s multiOscar®-nominated “Changeling”) and writer of Marvel’s Thor comic from July
2007 until November 2009, was thrilled that Branagh was chosen to direct the
hero’s motion picture debut: “With his classical training and his grounding in
language, Ken has the ability to make this both lofty and accessible. He can
bring these gods down to where a person can understand them.”
Feige expands on why Branagh was Marvel’s choice. He notes, “As has
been pointed out by minds far greater than mine, comic books are modern-day
mythology, and Ken Branagh is someone who can adapt literature in a way that
no one else can. He is, at heart, a gifted storyteller, and that’s what we wanted,
someone who can tell the story. Centuries ago, these tales were handed down
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around the fires—it’s really sort of the same today, only the fire is the light of the
projector.”
It goes without saying that the comic books were the key source material
for everyone involved in the production, but as the project underwent its
transformation from the four-color page to the motion picture screen, other
works of literature also became touchstones for the filmmakers, Team Thor and
the actors. Those involved in pre-production—and later, the actors given the
task of breathing life into the Marvel characters—were given reference materials
on the Vikings and Norse mythology along with their armload of comic books,
with several novels thrown in for good measure (Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha,
for one). Chris Hemsworth, the towering Aussie cast as Thor, explains, “It was
like a college course—I got books about people finding themselves and then
coming to terms with the reality of their existence. Ken knew that these were
relative to the story we were going to tell.”
“Thor’s nearly invulnerable,” offers screenwriter Ashley Edward Miller.
“He’s supernaturally strong, he has the ability to fly and he is gifted with a great
hammer that controls the storms. As the prince and golden boy, he’s never
heard the word ‘no,’ and he’s been allowed to do practically everything he’s ever
wanted to do. Now, at the point in the other stories where the hero is bitten by a
spider or hit by a gamma blast, Thor is stripped of every quality and possession
that makes him what he believes he is. And on top of that, he is banished to a
strange place. That makes him a displaced prince who is now a pauper—and so,
he’s one of us.”
Well, one of us if we were built and look like…a god, walking around a
desert in New Mexico…the very desert where a certain research scientist, Jane
Foster, is conducting fieldwork on some unexplainable phenomena in the night
sky. “Jane is very focused on her research,” says Natalie Portman, who plays the
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esoteric scientist. “She’s probably on the fringe of astrophysics, because she
believes in things that a lot of her colleagues might find nutty. His arrival seems
to demonstrate things she supposes to be true.
“At first, Jane thinks of Thor as a study subject,” the actress continues.
“Apart from her own research team, he’s the only witness to this extraordinary
event they’ve observed in the night sky over the New Mexico plains, so he’s
important to her work. Slowly, she starts to relate to him and, well, her emotions
start to get the better of her—then she faces that ever-present challenge for any
scientist or academic involved in research—remaining objective.”
Much like his character, who comes to appreciate his time as a stranger in
this strange land, Hemsworth savored the smaller, non-heroic interchanges that
help to transform the fallen prince: “’Thor’ is full of big moments, some huge
action and pyrotechnics, but some of my favorites are the sequences between
Thor and Jane – normal, everyday conversations. We shot those scenes in New
Mexico, with a beautiful backdrop of mountains. Now, we had to wait until the
snow melted, but it created a beautiful environment. These were the scenes
where the character research, the books on looking at existence and coming into
your own, paid off. And getting to play these with Natalie…well, sort of dream
time for me.”
This is not Thor’s attitude, however, when he lands—first with an
explosion, and then with a thud of Jane’s careering SUV—on Earth. But living
among humans, who seemed irrelevant from his lofty perch in his home planet
of Asgard, is a revelation for Thor. Of course, nobody knows who he is—in fact,
Jane and her crew believe him to be a slightly odd (and perhaps homeless) desert
nomad.
“Thor learns through Jane Foster how much humans are capable of,” says
screenwriter Zack Stentz. “It’s one of the best facets of human nature—when we
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find ourselves pushed to the wall and all hope is lost, that sometimes, that’s
when we find the measure of who we are—those can be our greatest moments.
This is where Thor is transformed, this is his journey. He is this close to packing
it in, because he’s not who he used to be. But then, he discovers what he can be.”
Hemsworth agrees and comments, “It’s all about Thor learning humility.
He comes in as a brash young guy with a ton of power at his fingertips. When
he goes against his father, he’s punished by being sent to Earth to learn a lesson,
on equal terms with other earthlings—as a mortal.
“Ken said very early on that fathers and sons are what this is about,”
Hemsworth continues. “The backdrop is a film about gods, but at the core, it’s
about human beings.”
*
*
*
Mythic though they may be, the characters in “Thor” had to be cast using
mere human beings. But it would take a handful of talented performers (who
met a well-established set of criteria for everything from stature to physicality) to
breathe life into the inhabitants of the three worlds that comprise Marvel’s tale of
the god of thunder and his family, fellow warriors and mortal enemies.
“Chris Hemsworth looks like a super hero,” says executive producer and
Marvel originator Stan Lee. “Out of make-up and wardrobe, he’s a really strong,
soulful, emotional guy. Dressed as Thor, he looks like he has the maturity and
wisdom to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
Veteran stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong agrees: “Chris is the real deal.
He’s in that rare category where all the women find him very attractive, and yet
every guy relates to him, too. Once I saw him work, I made a lot of the action
heavier and much more full-contact. He’s as tough and full-throttle as any stunt
man, a modern version of a 1950s film star like Robert Mitchum.”
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As it would prove to be with the sets and costumes, 50 years of comic
book runs had yielded many different interpretations of the iconic character.
“He’s been drawn with more muscles than any human could possibly have,”
says producer Kevin Feige. “But we knew early on that we didn’t want to cast a
body builder or wrestler.
“We decided to go for the actor who fit the part best, whether or not
anyone knew him, because the character itself is a marquee name,” he continues.
“We read dozens and dozens of people, and did screen tests with four or five.
At the end, there was no question, it was Chris. He has a presence, he has
humor, and he can deliver these lines in a way that you believe. You care about
him, and that is what makes somebody watchable.”
Size also mattered. “There are other characters—Volstagg, and the Frost
Giants—who are bigger than Thor, but he’s an imposing figure without any
manipulation, and that’s a bonus,” closes Feige.
Branagh recalls the early days of the casting process. “We waited and
watched and searched for a long time, until we felt in our bones that we had
exactly the right person. Chris is very impressive, with a physique that looked as
if it could take the kind of intense physical build-up we had to put him through.
He has an acting intelligence that is very special, and an ability to tap into his
primal side. At his screen test, he told a story about one of Thor’s exploits with
such relish, fun, power and sense of danger that we knew he was our Thor.”
Branagh was also pleased to cast Tom Hiddleston as Thor’s brother, Loki.
After acting with Hiddleston on stage, in a radio play and in the award-winning
television series “Wallander,” he was well aware of Hiddleston’s range. “We
needed someone with terrific versatility and an utter lack of fear about being the
many different kinds of personalities that Loki becomes.
Tom is also a
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wonderful blend with Chris. Both big lads, they feel like brothers, with the right
kind of contrasting and complimentary qualities.”
Once Thor falls to Earth, he lands square in the path of Jane Foster—who’s
made of equal parts smarts and looks. Feige tells, “We wanted Jane, the most
famous early love interest of Thor, to be part of his origin story. In the original
comics, she’s a nurse—we wanted to update her, and make her a doctor who,
while at school, became far more interested in astrophysics than she was in
anatomy.
But clearly, we needed someone beautiful who could also fit the
mould of being the love interest of a super hero—who also needed to be fully
believable as a clearly intelligent and powerful woman. So early on, as we were
compiling lists of people to audition, we just kept describing her as having that
Natalie Portman quality. And then, at some point, some genius just said, ‘Well,
why don’t we ask her?’”
As it turns out, the project had many draws for the newly Oscar®-anointed
Portman—being not only a fan of the genre and of the Marvel universe, but also,
keenly interested in working with director Kenneth Branagh. Several meetings
took place between actress and director—where it was stressed that Jane was not
a ‘tied to the train tracks type of damsel-in-distress,’ but in fact a key motivator
in the transformation of Thor over the course of the entire film. Portman was
sent away with a cartload of science books and biographies (“that she probably
read that night,” muses Feige), and returned with the character of Jane Foster,
ready to shoot and eager to dive into the larger-than-life goings-on.
Indeed, the key for Portman was the laser-sharp focus aimed at the finetuning of characters amidst the towering landscape of action set pieces. She says,
“I think Ken’s leadership really made this a very, very unique project. I’ve
worked on several large-scale productions, and this is the first one that I’ve really
felt this level of intensity and focus on performance from a director. I find it
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unique to have so much emphasis on performance, story and detail, and I feel
that all of that only makes the big, entertaining moments more real—and, in a
way, more entertaining.”
Portman had just wrapped on perhaps one of the most challenging roles
of her adult career—as the ballerina poised on the brink of both greatness and
madness in Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan”—and she had little intention of
going right into another project, especially not one as large in scale as “Thor.”
She explains, “I had just spent a year in training, and working with Darren, en
pointe, every day. I had been sleeping about four or five hours a night—I was
just spent.
I probably should have signed on for some sort of rehab!, but
working with Ken was just too great an opportunity to pass up. And I was very
glad that I signed on.”
As Jane’s mentor, Dr. Erik Selvig, Portman was joined by a fellow cast
member from a previous project, Milos Forman’s dark period piece, “Goya’s
Ghosts.” Stellan Skarsgård (who played the titular artist, Goya) admits, “It’s not
a gigantic part—but the project, for me, was attractive for several reasons. First
of all, it was working with Ken that really brought me to the project. Then I
heard that I would mainly be working with Natalie, with whom I fell in love as
an actress and a human being during ‘Goya’s Ghosts.’ Aside from any great,
huge psychological weight to my character or massive amounts of screen time,
these were fantastic reasons to sign on.”
As the wry and observant intern working alongside Jane and Dr. Selvig,
Kat Dennings was able to turn her early experience with Thor comics to her
advantage. Dennings explains, “I have an older brother who was a huge comic
book collector. Growing up, I would sneak peeks at his collection and his action
figures, and I have to say, Thor always attracted me. I was always into
mythology and Thor is the god of thunder, he comes from Norse mythology, and
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he was such a vivid character that I felt that he was imprinted into kids’
consciousness – and certainly mine. So you can imagine, landing a part on ‘Thor’
the movie is like a dream come true for me. And it’s always great to get to work
with friends like Natalie.”
With acting legend Sir Anthony Hopkins cast as Odin, the aging king and
Thor’s father, the stakes were heightened for the young cast, particularly
Hemsworth—most specifically in the pivotal scene where Thor is cast out to
Earth. Chris remembers, “The film had been shooting for about a month and I
was starting to feel pretty good, like I had the character down. So the day comes
for the big father/son confrontation. It’s very angry, with yelling back and forth
between the two of us. Then Ken comes over to Anthony and says, ‘Let it affect
you. Be upset. I dare you.’ And Anthony stands for a second and then responds,
‘Okay, good idea.’ So, I’m wondering, ‘Oh my gosh, what is he going to do
now?’
“And we start the scene again,” continues Hemsworth, “and I make my
entrance. I come in, start doing my thing, and he’s just silent. His eyes start to
well up.
He’s the father who’s hurt and disappointed that his son has
disrespected him, and dishonored the family, the kingdom and everything
they’ve stood for. And you realize it’s tearing his heart out.
“When they called ‘Cut!’, people were crying. Then the crew started
applauding and I remember thinking, ‘That’s amazing…and I’m useless. I may
as well drop this hammer and leave.’ But those are the moments you live for in
this business,” concludes Hemsworth.
“I called my parents back home in
Australia that night to tell all about it and how much they had to look forward
to.”
Tom Hiddleston (cast as Thor’s brother, Loki), is also part of the
banishment scene.
Hiddleston concurs with his co-star and observes,
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“Something happened in that take. It was as if the air changed in the room. In
the middle of the take, I was suddenly very emotional, which was okay, thank
goodness, because the camera wasn’t on me.
But everyone in the room was
feeling it. Afterwards, I went over to him and said, ‘Tony, I just have to tell you,
that was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen as an actor.’ And he
said, ‘He’s good, isn’t he, that Branagh?’”
The humility of a great king—something that great actors can also
possess. Hopkins admits that he was not, perhaps, a big fan of the Thor comic
books (“I read Captain Marvel, sort of the post-War comics,”), but he was of its
director: “My agent phoned and asked if I wanted to play Odin, and so I met
with Ken, whom I’d met a few times before. He’s such an engaging personality,
brilliant man. A great actor and a great director. He’s one of those unstoppable
guys who believes that if you put your mind to it, you can do virtually anything.
And he puts himself out there—that’s his personality. I think this has been one
of the better times of my life in working on this film. I kind of wish I had more to
do in it, in fact!”
As Odin’s wife, Frigga, the calm and cool Rene Russo signed on—and just
like every other “Thor” cast member, the actress had her own combination of
reasons for participating. Russo smiles, “Well, I hadn’t really done anything in
about three years, and this project came to me.
I’ve been told that I’m a
‘contemporary’ actress, whatever that means, so to pull off this Queen, with an
accent, opposite Anthony, with whom I had most of my scenes…well, I thought
it would be a bit of a challenge, but I also thought it would be a blast. In the end,
I thought, ‘Okay, I’m a Queen, and it’s working with Kenneth Branagh—how
cool is that?’ It was a challenge, but it was fun. Sounds like a great day at work
for me!”
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Hemsworth tips his hat to his director as well: “He pushes you in every
single direction your character might go. Six or seven takes, each a different
version of what could be done with that scene—‘Try this and smile through the
whole thing. Okay, now give me vicious.’ It’s like forging metal. He would
keep working it until it became as strong as it could be.”
The veteran Hopkins was as invigorated as the actors playing his sons.
“Ken Branagh gave me back my chops,” he admits. “Working with Ken and
these young actors has been an injection of new energy into my life.”
Although all in the cast were ecstatic to be working with the venerable
Hopkins, one “Thor” cast member actually found it an impediment to creating
his character: Canadian actor Colm Feore, cast as Laufey, the leader of the Frost
Giants. Feore jokes, “When I got cast, I was still trying to figure out who my
character was…who really was this guy? And then, when Ken cast Tony, I told
him that he had ruined it for me, because by then, I had decided I was going to
play Laufey like Anthony Hopkins. So what was I supposed to do, now? Ken
said, ‘Well, I suppose we could film you first.’ So I did some revising, and he
became more of Tony Hopkins, filtered through Max von Sydow, with a little bit
of Paul Scofield thrown in for good measure!”
Unphased by the gentle ribbing, Hopkins himself actually participated in
a little joking of his own. “I sometimes called Ken ‘Governor,’” Hopkins picks
back up. “You watch him walking about the set and he’s so authoritative, but
not in a pompous way. He’s got a great sense of humor, great compassion, great
drive and a philosophical insight into life. It takes a lot of courage to do a big
movie like this, and that’s what he’s got.
Not just talent, but courage and
tenacity, and it’s inspiring.”
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On a king-to-king basis, the recognition of courage is a tacit sign of the
ultimate respect. At its very core, the story of “Thor” is about the relationship of
father Odin to son and heir Thor—and about the earning and giving of respect.
A GOD FALLS
The story begins in Asgard, the celestial realm at the top of the universe
ruled by the aging King Odin, as he prepares to pass his crown to his son, Thor.
Odin has maintained a peace-through-treaty throughout the universe, despite
long festering grievances on the side of Odin’s enemy Laufey, who rules over the
frozen celestial realm of Jotunheim. On the day that Thor is to be crowned, a
small group of Laufey’s forces breach palace security, in direct violation of the
longstanding treaty. Appalled by the affront, Thor takes great liberties in his
willful pursuit of revenge, and his actions lead to near-catastrophic results. Odin
banishes Thor to Earth—a lower realm called Midgard—stripped of everything
that defines him, including Mjolnir, the massive hammer he wields in battle.
Thor tumbles from the heavens into a patch of New Mexico desert, where
astrophysicist Jane Foster, her mentor Dr. Erik Selvig and intern Darcy are
investigating celestial disturbances. Mjolnir also falls to Earth, creating a massive
crater outside the town of Puente Antiguo. The super-secretive government
agency SHIELD rushes to the site, while curious locals make sport of trying to
hoist the immovable hammer.
Back in Asgard, Thor’s brother Loki, a different sort of blueblood with a
lopsided hate/love relationship with his sibling, has inherited the crown, as Odin
has fallen ill. Determined to stop whatever it is Loki is planning to do once he
take full control of Asgard, a band of warriors, included the veteran Volstagg
(Ray Stevenson), follow their comrade to this strange new world with help from
the guardian of Asgard’s gate, Heimdall (Idris Elba). But soon after arrival in
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New Mexico and locating their lost leader, the group discover that they are not
the only visitors to crash down in this corner of New Mexico. Thor must now
face one of the most deadly foes he’s ever encountered, and this time around, he
possesses none of his powers that might ensure his victory.
So, one story, three worlds, and in the minds of the filmmakers, each
world had to feel as real as the other. The task became even more challenging
when you consider that one of the three worlds—Midgard, or Earth—is, in fact, a
very real world. As for Asgard and Jotunheim—the Marvel lore establishes them
as diametrically opposed as possible. Asgard is golden, glowing in its power
and blanketed by the sense of world order that comes with centuries of peace
and strong leadership.
But while Asgard enjoys the sunlight of victory,
Jotunheim is covered in the shadows of the defeated (so Laufey and his people
believe). It is a cold land, inhabited by enormous blue-skinned Frost Giants, who
dream of nothing but exacting vengeance on Asgard’s citizens. It may be only a
matter of time before Laufey makes his move to crush Odin and overrun Asgard.
To bridge the reality gap between Midgard, Asgard and Jotunheim,
Branagh needed to create “a marriage between the spectacular requirements of
the physical world of the gods and contemporary Earth. We had to find a style
that unites them, but allows the characters to go from one place to the other, so
you get the excitement, the fish-out-of-water feeling, and the fun, which is so
important in ‘Thor.’”
Screenwriter Don Payne puts it in another way: “When you’re going from
Asgard to Jotunheim to Earth to Asgard, it’s a pretty wild journey. You want to
give audience members, who aren’t fan boys like me, a chance to sit back, take it
all in and feel it. They need to be distinctly different environments, but all within
the same reality.”
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Branagh chose four-time Oscar®-nominated production designer Bo
Welch to bring these worlds to life. “What I wanted from Bo and what he
provided in spades was varied and multifarious acts of imagination,” supplies
Branagh. “He was unafraid of the challenge of presenting contemporary Earth,
cosmic Asgard, and terribly scary snow planet Jotunheim. Nor did he fear the
creative design challenges of traveling across these dimensions, and joining them
all up. He has a diverse background, and is ready for anything.”
Even with all of the ready materials (courtesy of Marvel), and the wealth
of research and reference elements, the world of Asgard was far from prêt à
porter—which is exactly how filmmaker and designer intended it to be. “Bo
offered dozens and dozens of different ways of looking at Asgard,” says
Branagh. “His ideas were based on inspirations from Earth, from the comics,
and from our own idea of what’s out there right now via the Hubble Telescope—
what we literally see in the cosmos. The research into what’s possible in terms of
astrophysics, and the possibility of travel and life out there, came through Bo and
his department…and we worked and constructed it from the ground up.”
Welch savored the idea of creating these other worlds, but the designer
quickly realized that the process would be, in a word, complicated. Multiple
writers and artists had contributed to the Thor comics over the years, and each
had put a unique spin on the look of Asgard and its inhabitants.
“In production design, you normally have some very specific visual cues,
but the Thor comics varied wildly from one run to the next, so the visual cues
were all over the place,” Welch explains.
What would eventually become Welch’s massive sets for Asgard and
Jotunheim, constructed on soundstages at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach,
California (and later rendered even grander with the assistance of visual effects),
were conceived over many months. Per Welch: “The hardest part was finding
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the aesthetic of Asgard. In this quest, we did not land on our first, second or
third impulse. It was months and months and months of exploring, location
scouting and abstract thinking that pushed me and our illustrators into the far
reaches of the universe…and funnily enough, we ended up arriving at
something relatively simple.
“Ken and I decided that because it’s inhabited by warrior gods who live at
the top of the nine realms,” further explains Welch, “their privileged perspective
on the universe would be very advanced, peaceful and elegant—not cluttered
with the details we associate with human beings. It evolved into a minimalist
architectural environment, with just a whiff of an ancient Nordic strain in the
detailing, in order to ground it in Norse mythology.”
But the Nordic designs were not the only influences to play upon Welch’s
designs: “We embraced [Thor originator] Jack Kirby in the so-called furniture of
Asgard—Odin’s bed and throne, for example…very specific set pieces against
very serene environments. I think it’s the right balance between Kirby versus
modernism, with a little ancient Norse thrown in for good measure.”
The resulting realm pleased its maker.
Welch continues, “In the
beginning, you just think in terms of imagery—what is the picture? Then you
begin the negotiation between what’s real and what’s digital. It always works to
everyone’s advantage to create as much practically as you can…it gives the
actors, the director and everyone else something to really hang on to.”
With everyone’s caveat to find the believable in the fantastic, the actors
were quite pleased to be able to ground their work in very real places. Anthony
Hopkins found great inspiration in the physical rendering of Asgard, and found
the sets informed his performance with their verisimilitude. Hopkins confesses,
“Bo’s sets are astonishing. I came to have a look as they were being built and
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thought, ‘Well, I won’t have to do much – just grow the beard, learn the lines,
show up, put on the armor…and let it happen.”
Hiddleston was equally dazzled, particularly by the set for Heimdall’s
Observatory, the gate through which all visitors to and emigrants from Asgard
must pass. It is also where some of Hiddleston’s biggest scenes occur. Tom
describes, “The Observatory sits on the edge of a city in the sky where the gods
live. Idris Elba, who plays Heimdall, guardian of the gods, sits there, watching
over everything in the universe. We’re not going small in ‘Thor’—it’s as big as
you can get.”
In a testament to the lengths to which Branagh and his design team were
willing to go, Heimdall’s Observatory does not appear in any of the comics. The
production designer relates, “It was always simply Heimdall standing on the
Rainbow Bridge, staring into space and guarding Asgard, which was always
behind him at the end of the bridge. In movies, you need visual representation,
or it might as well be a radio show. So, we designed something that’s not in the
comics—we spent months coming up with the fiction of how the Observatory
actually works.”
Director of photography Haris Zambarloukos played a key role in the
creation of the atmosphere of each realm, and worked closely with Welch and
Branagh early in the design process.
“Asgard is warm,” declares Zambarloukos. “Because of the reflectivity in
the metallic paints and glossy finishes used in the sets and costumes, it became
obvious that this kind of space needed to reflect light, not be directly lit. There
are no lamps, just a few fires and streaming sunshine, with a lot of gold colors
and sweeping shots that make you feel like you’re floating through space.”
But the story of “Thor” is not all light, sunshine, and peaceful well-being.
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“Jotunheim is the opposite of Asgard, a very cold place,” Zambarloukos
continues. “I would imagine it’s a Viking’s idea of hell, where they’re stuck in an
open forest with constant snow, constant cold and no access to any form of
shelter or warmth.
“It was supposed to be an open planet at twilight, but dark and ominous,”
the cinematographer goes on. “We worked with [special effects coordinator]
Dan Sudick early on and arrived at a way of using swirling patterns of mist that
were both cold and a little creepy. There’s a glow, but not a comfortable one.”
Zambarloukos found inspiration for his celestial visions by looking in a
nearly opposite direction.
“One of my biggest influences was the work of
underwater photographer David Doubilet. He achieved something we were
looking for, which is a world we don’t know described in a really beautiful way,
without a lot of artificiality. The way he photographs, say, a kelp bed, it can look
like you’re miles out in space.”
Born on the island of Cyprus and schooled in the Greek education system,
Zambarloukos grew up studying mythology…and reading comic books. “’Thor’
was a favorite, because it included some of the storytelling I’d been taught as a
child,” he recollects. “With any project based on a book or play or another
source someone may know, I think you want to take the audience to a place they
haven’t been with that story, even though it’s familiar ground. The minute you
see Thor in the red cape and hammer, you know where you are.”
Zambarloukos employed dozens of majestic crane shots in his depictions
of the realms Thor inhabits and visits. Per Haris: “We wanted to go back to the
eloquence and beauty of classic, epic filmmaking. It is one of the most difficult
types of filmmaking, but I think it totally engages an audience and suits a
character like Thor. We are telling the story of the Nordic god of thunder, and I
think you have to dare as much as your character dares.”
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WELCOME TO THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
As “Thor” fans know (and as moviegoers will come to know), the gods
travel from one realm to another via a celestial portal (or, as Jane Foster would
call it, “a wormhole.”) They launch from Heimdall’s Observatory at the edge of
Asgard, in a blast of Bifrost energy. That’s how Thor and his small band of
warriors get themselves to Jotunheim (seeking revenge), and how Thor ends up
in New Mexico (paying the price).
As writer of the comic The Mighty Thor for two years, J. Michael
Straczynski was the first to drop the super hero into the Land of Enchantment.
“There was a time in Greek and Roman mythology when gods and humans
walked side by side,” Straczynski offers.
“They were part of each other’s
everyday life. So the idea of rooting Thor in New Mexico seemed like a natural
thing to round out the character. To see that development grow and how this
film has given life to that idea is immensely gratifying.”
The mountain came to Mohammed with the creation of both Asgard and
Jotunheim on soundstages (and inside computers)—but filmmakers took the
journey to New Mexico for about six weeks of location filming in the early spring
of 2010 to film the scenes on Earth. Anyone familiar with the state’s climates also
knows that to call March and April ‘spring’ by no means conjures weather
conducive to location filming. The cast and crew encountered snow, hail and
heavy winds on a regular basis—but the experience seemed to only add to the
communal ‘magic’ on the set.
For Branagh, the nature of the state and its people added an intriguing
layer to the film. He muses, “We’re in a part of the world where people do
watch the skies. If you’re from another world, and you’d like the possibility of a
welcome upon arrival on Earth, it’s a good place to land.”
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Welch liked the thought of that, too. “We decided early on that because
the celestial realms are causing disturbances in the sky, we wanted a Midgard
location that allowed shots with massive amounts of sky. That suggested desert,
so a small town in a vast desert with a big sky became the concept.”
The screenplay of “Thor” also suggested one more set of circumstances
that lodged itself in Welch’s thinking. He describes, “The final confrontation
between Thor and the Destroyer reads to me like a showdown in the Old West.
That led me to the Tom Ford ranch where such films as ‘Silverado,’ ‘Wyatt Earp’
and ‘3:10 to Yuma’ were shot. Our showdown is an updated take on a classic
shoot-out that takes place on the main street in the center of a small town in the
wild, wild West.”
The fictitious town that came to be Puente Antiguo is located on Ford’s
24,000-acre ranch outside Galisteo, New Mexico, about 25 miles south of Santa
Fe. (An old-fashioned Western movie town already existed on Ford’s land, to
which Welch and his team made extensive changes.)
While early screenplay development toyed with the idea of Thor being
plonked down in the Old West of the 1850’s, it was decided that engagement to
the story was dependent upon relating to not only the characters, but also the
environment in which they find themselves. According to Welch: “Instead of
filming it as an 1850s period town, we decided to make it real. I wanted it to feel
like a character, so you’d feel empathy for its inhabitants when the Destroyer
begins blowing it up.”
Zambarloukos describes the resulting style of Puente Antiguo as,
“Edward Hopper-ish Americana, which Ken, Bo and I really loved. We always
tried to have a fluffy cloud in the blue sky, and layers in our vistas, with
something man-made and constructed in the foreground, and perfect nature in
the background.”
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Welch also wanted to evoke a hint of Asgard in Puente Antiguo.
“Heimdall’s Observatory is the entrance to Asgard, across the Rainbow Bridge,
to a central palace flanked by buildings,” he explains.
“In Puente Antiguo
[literally “old bridge” in Spanish], we have one street that comes out of the
desert, flanked by buildings, and leading to an old car dealership. Smith Motors,
in a weird way, echoes the shape of the Asgard palace…but it’s a much more
modest, and a kind of heart-breaking, version.”
After designing the fantasy-heavy environs of Asgard, Jotunheim,
Heimdall’s Observatory and the Rainbow Bridge, Welch felt that working on
Puente Antiguo “was like a holiday. Nevertheless, it had to fit into the universe
of the film, and somehow, dovetail into the other realms.”
Those familiar with sites that are supposed landing places of crafts and
beings from other worlds acknowledge that every craft (and pilot), no matter
what universe or planet they are from, requires some kind of landing place. So, a
bi-frost landing site was designed by Welch and his team—a stencil (inspired by
ancient runes and Celtic designs) was created. Once this was applied to the
approximately 20-foot-across site (ground lava rocks were sprinkled into the
lines set down from the stencil), a circular patch of the desert floor was
transformed into a place fit for an Asgardian landing.
Assistant art director Richard Bloom was in charge of applying the stencil.
He and assistant Megg Fleck would arrive at the location before sunrise, while
the greens crew prepared the ground. “We always entered the circle wearing
shoes without treads to try and keep the design pristine,” tells Bloom. “But the
winds usually had us re-setting throughout the day.”
CAPES AND ARMOR FIT FOR A KING
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Creating realms inhabited by gods is one thing; dressing those gods is
another.
That job fell to costume designer Alexandra Byrne, an Academy
Award® winner in 2008 for her contributions to Shekhar Kapur’s “Elizabeth: The
Golden Age.”
Branagh knew “Thor” would be a huge challenge for any costume
designer, just as it was for his production designer.
“There’s a plethora of
choices from great artists inside the nearly 50 years of Thor comic books,” he
explains. “We needed someone of great taste to find ways that let us tip our hats
to certain inspiring iconic versions of the characters, but still let the film live in
2011.”
Branagh and Byrne first collaborated 25 years ago in the theatre, and
Branagh knew she wouldn’t flinch from bold choices: “Alexandra is unafraid of
the so-called theatricality of some of the costumes. She’s unafraid of working
with bright colors, vivid cuts and strong silhouettes. She embraces that, and is
very interested in what physically goes on with muscle suits and body
sculpting.”
Byrne accepted her assignment with a working knowledge of Norse
mythology, developed from her reading bedtime stories to her kids, and she had
ready access to her son’s stash of Thor comic books. But, while seeking visual
keys and information, she also made a concerted effort to look beyond the
prescribed terrain of the story and its roots. Byrne offers, “I work very much by
looking. I flip through all kinds of books to find the unexpected and then do big
collage mood boards of ideas that seem relevant for a character or a moment in
the story.”
As was required of a large group of designers collaborating on a big
project, Alexandra worked closely with Branagh, the producers and Welch in
creating a look for Asgard. “We were creating an unknown world and the
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people had to look as if they belonged in their environment. Bo and I eventually
evolved the term ‘ancient modernism.’”
Thor’s cape was one of Byrne’s biggest challenges. She knew better than
to think she could move seamlessly from sketch to completed cape. Yet, Byrne
being Byrne, she had unshakable faith that she and her team could create it.
“Every time we said ‘cape,’ someone would say, ‘That’ll be done in post.
You won’t be able to make it work,’” Byrne recalls.
“But our cape does
work…because we made it before we drew it.
“Physicality and movement are huge components of these costumes,” she
continues. “We did not want to end up with a drawing that could not be
realized, so we set up a workroom where we made practical examples along with
the drawings as the design process evolved.”
Much more than a sartorial flourish, the cape defines Thor, along with his
winged helmet and hammer.
“The cape needed to look both completely believable and sublimely
magical,” says Byrne. “In the comic books, Kirby used it as a great graphic
device for movement, tension and drama. So our cape needed that amount of
expression. It also had to frame Chris’s shape and proportion when he’s not
moving, and then billow, move and fly with him when he’s fighting. It’s easy to
make a cape do all that in a drawing, but not so easy with a piece of fabric.”
Said fabric is wool, which Byrne and her team found in England. After
repeated dyeing experiments, they achieved a shade of red that pleased every
eye. “We had a graveyard of capes that didn’t work,” she jokes. “But we kept
moving on, trying new fabrics, and different ways of cutting, bonding and
weighting. We finally got it to a stage where we pronounced, ‘The cape is
working. Don’t touch it. Just leave it alone.’”
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During this period, Hemsworth’s physique was also a work-in-progress.
“He was working hard in the gym and we were tracking his body,” declares
Byrne. “We thought, at one point, we’d need a muscle suit to make him bigger,
but in the end, he did it all. It’s all him.”
When Hemsworth came onboard, Byrne and her team had been at work
for more than a year on costume concepts and design. “It was the stage where
they said, ‘We’ve got to get it to fit you,’” tells Hemsworth. “It was incredibly
detailed and beautiful, and my first time that I put on a costume, I really felt like
the character.”
A complex construction of many pieces and layers of fabric, leather and
armor, the resulting Thor ‘hero’ costume (the main design for the majority of the
scenes) was heavy and hot. It typically took about an hour to dress the actor
(and another 90 minutes for hair and makeup to fully transform the sandy-haired
Australian into the blond god of thunder).
“The first couple weeks of filming, I was pouring sweat,” Hemsworth
laughs. “I’d spent the four months prior trying to put on all this weight and
then, suddenly, it was just falling off me. But Alexandra and her team came up
with this cooling vest, which I think race car drivers wear – a little vest with
pipes that cold water runs through to cool you down. It was a relief.”
On Earth, Thor is humbly garbed in a plaid flannel shirt and non-designer
jeans. But when his friends show up to rescue him, they’re in full Asgardian
regalia.
The arrival in Puente Antiguo of Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun—along
with beautiful female warrior Sif—is a mix of many things…a little startling,
somewhat emotional and more than slightly comical. The locals have never seen
anything like them, but the warriors are oblivious to the stunned and curious
reactions around them.
Byrne comments, “They had to look both real and
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unreal. One of the biggest excitements for me was seeing the warriors and Thor
on Earth, because we’d all wondered how it would look when these guys start
walking through small-town America. It’s almost like they should have their
own theme music blaring out of a speaker.”
THE GOD/MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH…FIGHTING ALL THE WAY
Principal photography for “Thor” began January 11, 2010 in Manhattan
Beach with a huge fight sequence between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants.
Thor shows how deadly he and his hammer can be, which gave Hemsworth the
opportunity to show what he’d accomplished in four long months of training.
“You’ve got so much adrenaline running through you at the beginning of
any shoot, and I think getting it out physically is the best remedy for that,” says
Hemsworth (who’d exceeded expectations in his work-outs and had to shed
some bulk in the final two weeks before filming began). “Running around in
those big, heavy costumes, sweating, fighting, injuring ourselves—it shakes the
cobwebs out.”
Hemsworth and stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong were inspired by
Mike Tyson in determining Thor’s fighting style when he’s wielding Mjolnir.
The choice was a great image for the young actor: “I’ve done a lot of boxing over
the years and that made sense to me. We decided that’s how Thor would fight—
a lot of shoulders and hips, big movements, a powerful stance, rooted into the
ground.”
Mjolnir is a majestic implement, weighted with Odin’s portentous words:
“WHOSOEVER HOLDS THIS HAMMER, IF HE BE WORTHY, SHALL POSSESS
THE POWER OF THOR.” According to prop master Russell Bobbitt, nearly 200
drawings (in various shapes) were considered, and almost 14 weeks were spent
getting the approved design to final form. As with other design elements of
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“Thor” – Production Information
“Thor,” the goal was to create something that looked right in today’s world, but
emanated the flavor of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original work. Bobbitt was also
charged with creating signature weapons for Sif, the Warriors Three, Heimdall,
Loki and, of course, Odin. Lighter-weight rubber versions of these weapons
were made for stunt sequences.
The hero version of Odin’s shape-shifting spear, Gungnir, was made of
solid brass, carved with designs that included a representation of Yggdrasil, the
ancient tree that unites the nine realms—in its final form, it weighed in at 30
pounds.
“Anthony Hopkins carried the 30-pound brass Gungnir every single day
of filming,” tells Bobbitt. “I gave him a lighter one a couple times, when I
thought he might want it, but he’d always hand it back and say, ‘Russell, give me
the real one.’”
One doesn’t refuse Odin.
When Mjolnir crashes to earth, it creates a giant crater outside Puente
Antiguo. SHIELD agents lock down the site with a warren of tubular tunnels,
where Thor fights another pitched battle, this one, a bare-knuckles brawl.
Hemsworth recounts, “Andy and the stunt guys said, ‘Okay, you’ll come in here,
throw a punch, kick him.’ I said, ‘Do we rehearse?’ They said, ‘No, let’s just
shoot it.’ The idea was to keep it rough and real and messy, not a staged kung fu
fight. It was a hell of a lot of fun.”
Far less fun—as the hero is fighting not only for his own life, but for the
lives of his friends who have gathered to help defend him—is the enormous
showdown between Thor and the Destroyer, which unfolds on the streets of the
now-in-ruins Puente Antiguo.
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“When we were discussing that fight, we got giddy like kids,” says
Hemsworth. “It was a nice top-off to all the fight sequences, and pretty evenly
matched between the toughest guy and the baddest guy.”
Second-unit director Vic Armstrong and his team had blown up most of
the town a few days earlier, and the once-tidy streets were littered with burning
embers and broken glass. A nine-foot stationary Destroyer was hunkered down
in the middle of the road, its movements to be articulated in post-production by
Wesley Sewell’s visual effects team. On set, Branagh and first assistant director
Luc Etienne vividly narrated the mayhem for Hemsworth and his fellow
Asgardian warriors, as they took turns trying to neutralize their impervious foe.
The Destroyer was in Odin’s service for many years, to deter any threats
to the fragile peace that prevailed. But at this point in the story, it is quite clear
that someone else is controlling it and its unbeatable weaponry.
“The name says so much,” Branagh says. “It’s a soulless piece of violent,
destructive, wreckage-making power, an empty suit of armor embodied by the
person who is in control of it at that moment.
It makes a huge, powerful
appearance in our film – you must watch to see what happens!”
*
*
*
Indeed, there are many surprising elements to “Thor,” not the least of
which is a cast that includes Academy Award® winners sprinkled among the
accomplished veterans and a plethora of up-and-comers. The list of crew reads
like a ‘who’s who’ among lauded motion picture artisans.
To see such a high-profile, high-octane project helmed by a famed
interpreter of William Shakespeare, might surprise the fans of the Superhero
genre. And yet, quite possibly, the person least surprised by his involvement is
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Branagh himself.
Kenneth Branagh closes, “It’s got everything that I love. A
hero who is a reckless, headstrong young man who has to confront his past and
deal with a complicated relationship with his father. There are a lot of savage
Europeans hacking each other to death at various points and actually, it sounds
very much like ‘Henry V’ to me. ‘I’ve been down this road before…’ So, you
could say that I started in super hero films - the only difference in my previous
ones, is that people talk funny!”
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ABOUT MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT
With a library of more than 8,000 characters, Marvel Entertainment, LLC
is one of the world's preeminent character-based entertainment companies.
Marvel's operations are focused on utilizing its character franchises in licensing,
entertainment, publishing and toys. Marvel Entertainment’s areas of emphasis
include feature films, DVD/home videos, consumer products, video games,
action figures and role-playing toys, television and promotions. Rooted in the
creative success of more than 60 years of comic book publishing, Marvel has
successfully transformed its cornerstone comic book characters into blockbuster
film franchises.
In December 2009, The Walt Disney Co. completed its acquisition of
Marvel Entertainment and its library of characters. “The Walt Disney Co. is the
perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability
to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said Marvel Chief
Executive Ike Perlmutter. “This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to
build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's
tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”
Marvel Studios’ Hollywood renaissance has been nothing short of
spectacular, with record-breaking franchises such as “Iron Man,” “Spider-Man,”
“X-Men,” “The Fantastic Four” and “Ghost Rider” – resulting in a string of eight
consecutive #1 box office openings. Since 1998, Marvel films have grossed more
than $6.1 billion worldwide at the box office, firmly establishing the company as
one of the most successful entertainment brands in the world.
Marvel Entertainment is currently in production on “Captain America:
The First Avenger,” directed by Joe Johnston, screenplay by Christopher Markus
& Stephen McFeely. Its future slate of films in development include, “Marvel
Studios’ The Avengers,” “Iron Man 3,” “Spider-Man 4,” “Deadpool,” “Ant-Man”
and “X-Men Origins: Magneto.”
President of Marvel Entertainment and “Thor” producer Kevin Feige
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explains why Marvel has been so successful in adapting its comic book
characters to the big screen: “The secret to Marvel comics is the depth and
complexity of the characters, all of whom are flawed in some way,” says Feige.
“That’s what makes our characters interesting and why they have withstood the
test of time. This dynamic has also allowed us to successfully transition Marvel
characters into the film medium and expose them to a large segment of the
audience that has never read a comic book. We have also been very fortunate
that we have been able to attract uniquely talented actors and directors, as well
as the best film technicians from top to bottom which has resulted in the best
kind of mega-event movies out there.”
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt
Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based
entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters
featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character
franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing.
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ABOUT THE CAST
Australian actor CHRIS HEMSWORTH (Thor) is quickly becoming one
of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. He made his U.S. film debut in J.J.
Abrams’ “Star Trek,” playing the pivotal role of George Kirk alongside Chris
Pine, Eric Bana, Zachary Quinto, Zoë Saldana and Karl Urban.
In addition to landing the lead in Kenneth Branagh’s highly anticipated
film version of the Marvel comic book, will also star in Dan Bradley’s remake of
“Red Dawn” in the role originated by Patrick Swayze in 1984, and in the Joss
Whedon & Drew Goddard scripted “Cabin in the Woods” (opposite Richard
Jenkins and Bradley Whitford), both for MGM.
Hemsworth will begin
production on “Marvel Studios’ The Avengers” this year, once again starring as
Thor.
Hemsworth made a name for himself in Australia as a series regular on
the popular television series “Home and Away.” His performance garnered him
the Most Popular New Male Talent Award at Australia’s TV Week Logie Awards
in 2005, in addition to two previous nominations in 2004. His other Australian
television credits include “Fergus McPhail,” “The Saddle Club,” “Marshall Law,”
“Guinevere Jones” and “Neighbours.” Additional film credits include Stephen
Milburn Anderson’s “Ca$h” and the independent short film “Tom and Nancy
Go Boating.”
Hemsworth was born and raised in Australia.
NATALIE PORTMAN (Jane Foster) most recently received her second
Academy Award® nomination and first Best Actress win for her performance in
Darren Aronofsky’s critically acclaimed film, “Black Swan.”
For her role,
Portman also received a Golden Globe®, BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild
Award and Critics Choice Award.
Upcoming, Portman will be seen in David Gordon Green’s “Your
Highness,” co-starring with Danny McBride, James Franco and Zooey Deschanel.
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The story focuses on an arrogant, lazy prince who must complete a quest to save
his father’s kingdom, with Portman as his love interest. The Universal Pictures
film is set for release April 8, 2011. Following “Thor,” she will be seen in Spencer
Susser’s “Hesher,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rainn Wilson. The film,
which Portman also produced, is slated for release on May 13, 2011 by Wrekin
Hill/Newmarket Films.
On screen, Portman has starred in over 25 films. She made her debut in
Luc Besson’s 1994 film, “The Professional,” and went on to star in “Heat,”
“Beautiful Girls,” “Everyone Says I Love You,” “Mars Attacks!,” “Anywhere But
Here” (Golden Globe® nomination), “Where the Heart Is,” “Cold Mountain,”
“Garden State,” “Closer” (Academy Award® nomination and Golden Globe®
Award), “Free Zone,” “V for Vendetta,” “Paris je t’aime,” “Goya’s Ghosts,” “My
Blueberry Nights,” “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,” “The Other Boleyn
Girl,” “New York, I Love You,” “Brothers” and “No Strings Attached.”
Additionally, she starred in George Lucas’ “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom
Menace,” “Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones,” and “Star Wars: Episode
III Revenge of the Sith.” The prequels to the wildly popular “Star Wars” trilogy
of the ‘70s and ‘80s rank among the top-grossing films ever produced
worldwide.
On stage, Portman starred in Mike Nichol’s Shakespeare in the Park
production of “The Seagull,” opposite Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline and Philip
Seymour Hoffman; as well as in James Lapine’s Broadway production of “The
Diary of Anne Frank.”
Behind the lens, Portman has taken turns writing, directing and
producing. Her credits include “Eve,” which she wrote and directed, telling the
story of a young woman who ends up on her grandmother’s date. The film
debuted at the 2008 Venice Film Festival and stars Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara
and Olivia Thirlby. She also wrote and directed a short film for “New York, I
Love You,” about a day in the life of a father and daughter in Central Park. The
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film showcases 12 filmmakers who each directed a vignette illustrating the
universal theme of love within the five boroughs of New York City.
Additionally, she executive-produced and starred in Don Roos’ adaptation of
Ayelet Waldman’s novel “The Other Woman,” opposite Scott Cohen and Charlie
Tahan. The film revolves around a young woman who tries to recover her
marriage through her relationship with her stepson.
Portman is currently developing film projects through her production
company, HandsomeCharlie Films. Together with producer Annette Savitch, the
company is focused on finding intelligent, accessible films across varied genres,
as well as female-driven comedies. Upcoming projects include The New York
Times bestselling novel “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” which is set up at
Lionsgate with a script by David O. Russell, and they are partnered with Plan B
at Paramount to produce “Important Artifacts,” based on the book by Leanne
Shapton, with Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman attached to star, and Greg Mottola
to write.
Completed films include “No Strings Attached,” starring Natalie
Portman, Ashton Kutcher, and directed by Ivan Reitman; and “Hesher,” starring
Joseph Gordon Levitt, Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson, and directed by
Spencer Susser.
Portman became the first Ambassador of Hope for FINCA, an
international village banking microfinance program providing small loans and
savings programs to the world’s poorest families so they may create their own
jobs, raise household incomes, and improve their standard of living, thereby
reducing poverty worldwide. As the Ambassador of Hope, Portman has proved
to be a globally aware and dedicated individual who supports the work of
FINCA through her advocacy and visits to FINCA International programs in
countries such as Guatemala, Ecuador and Uganda. She has also met with highlevel United States Members of Congress to lobby for support of international
microfinance funding.
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A Harvard graduate with a degree in psychology, Portman has also
studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she learned Arabic and
Hebrew, and studied the anthropology of violence and Israeli history.
TOM HIDDLESTON (Loki) was born in London and grew up in Oxford,
where he was educated at The Dragon School, and later at Eton College where,
under the guidance of a group of incredibly inspirational teachers, his interest
and involvement in theatre and film began to flourish. He remembers being
taken, aged 14, to see Ibsen’s “John Gabriel Borkman” at the National Theatre in
1996 – directed by Richard Eyre, with Paul Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave and
Eileen Atkins – and being inspired and profoundly moved by both the writing
and the performances. It was a turning point. Seven years later he would be
playing Vanessa Redgrave’s son in the HBO/BBC Churchill biopic, “The
Gathering Storm.”
Towards the end of his time at school Hiddleston applied to study classics
at Cambridge University, and was offered a place at Pembroke College, the alma
mater of Peter Cook, Ted Hughes and Eric Idle. Before starting, in the summer of
1999, he played Captain Stanhope in a production of R.C Sheriff’s “Journey’s
End,” among a cast of his school peers, which they had put together with the sole
intention of performing it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was a greater
success than any of them could have hoped for. The Scotsman gave them five
stars and the last line of their review read: “They just do not make ‘em like this
any more.”
In his second term at Cambridge, he was seen in a production of
Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Lorraine Hamilton of the
notable actors’ agency Hamilton Hodell, and was shortly thereafter given his
first television role in Stephen Whittaker’s adaptation of “Nicholas Nickleby”
(2001) for ITV, starring Charles Dance, James D’Arcy and Sophia Myles.
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During his last two years at Cambridge roles followed in two one-off
television dramas co-produced by HBO and the BBC.
The first was
“Conspiracy” (2001), a film surrounding the story of the Wannsee Conference in
1942 to consolidate the decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The film
prompted Tom’s first encounter with Kenneth Branagh, who starred in the lead
role of Heydrich. The second project came in 2002 in the critically acclaimed and
Emmy® Award-winning biopic of Winston Churchill “The Gathering Storm,”
starring Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave. Tom played the important role of
Randolph Churchill, Winston’s son, and cites that particular experience –
working alongside Finney and Redgrave, as well as Ronnie Barker, Tom
Wilkinson, and Jim Broadbent – as extraordinary; one that changed his
perspective on the art, craft and life of an actor. It was then that he first thought
of applying to drama school.
Tom graduated from Cambridge in the summer of 2002 with a ‘doublefirst’ honors degree and enrolled at RADA later that autumn. He graduated
from RADA in June 2005, and within a few weeks was cast as Oakley in the
British independent film “Unrelated” by first-time director Joanna Hogg.
“Unrelated” tells the story of a woman in her mid-40s who arrives alone at the
Italian holiday home of an extended bourgeois family. “Unrelated” premiered at
the Times BFI 51st London Film Festival in 2007, where it was awarded the
FIPRESCI International Critics’ Award, and went on to win the Guardian First
Film Award, the Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer Award for
Joanna Hogg, and was nominated for the Evening Standard Best Film Award
and the Critics’ Circle Breakthrough Filmmaker Award. It was also cited as the
21st best film of the decade by the Guardian newspaper.
Upon his return from Italy, Tom met Declan Donnellan, artistic director of
the award-winning theatre company Cheek By Jowl, and was cast as Alsemero in
“The Changeling” by Thomas Middleton, starring alongside Olivia Williams and
Will Keen. The production toured Europe for six months in 2006, and ran in the
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main house at the Barbican for six weeks. For “The Changeling” Tom was
nominated for the 2006 Ian Charleson Award, which recognizes exceptional
classical stage performances by actors under the age of 30.
In 2007 Cheek By Jowl once again asked Tom to perform for them as the
hero, Posthumus Leonatus, and the anti-hero Cloten, in Declan Donnellan’s
production of Shakespeare’s late romance, “Cymbeline.” The production toured
the world for seven months in 2007, playing in New York, Milan, Paris, Moscow,
Madrid and in London at the Barbican. The Guardian praised Tom’s performance
“The masterstroke of Donnellan’s production is to have both Posthumus, who
comes to doubt Imogen’s fidelity, and Cloten played by the same actor, Tom
Hiddleston. Remember that name, because one day the lad is going to be a star,
and deservedly so.” The Sunday Times agreed that Tom stole the show: “Tom
Hiddleston plays Cloten as a snooty Hooray Henry, giving the outstanding
performance of the evening.”
Later that summer, Tom shot the period BBC drama, “Miss Austen
Regrets,” about the last five years of Jane Austen’s life. He starred as John
Plumptre alongside Olivia Williams, Imogen Poots, Hugh Bonneville and Greta
Scacchi. It went on to win both a BAFTA Award and a Writer’s Guild of Great
Britain Award.
It was on the strength of his performance in “Cymbeline” that Tom was
invited to audition to play Cassio in Michael Grandage’s production of “Othello”
at the Donmar Warehouse, starring Ewan McGregor, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kelly
Reilly. The play opened to extraordinary reviews. The Independent on Sunday
said, “McGregor is actually outshone by Tom Hiddleston, a barely known
newcomer and name to watch. His youthful Cassio is startlingly charismatic and
dangerous in its own way, naively mixing professional duty with womanizing.”
Tom was nominated twice in the category of Best Newcomer at the 2008
Laurence Olivier Awards for “Cymbeline” and “Othello” and won the category
for his performance in “Cymbeline.”
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In 2008 Tom joined forces with Kenneth Branagh again to film the first
series of “Wallander,” a BAFTA and Broadcasting Press Guild Award-winning
and Emmy®, Golden Globe® and Satellite Award-nominated television series
based on the detective novels by Swedish author Henning Mankell. In the same
year Tom went on to star in the Donmar Warehouse/West End production of
Chekhov’s “Ivanov,” again opposite Branagh, as well as Gina McKee and
Andrea Riseborough.
As well as shooting the second series of “Wallander” in 2009, Tom also
starred in the second series of the highly acclaimed BAFTA and Emmy® Awardwinning “Return to Cranford,” starring opposite Judi Dench and Jonathan Pryce.
In 2009 Tom also filmed Joanna Hogg’s second film “Archipelago,” in
which he plays the lead role, as well as the lead role of Loki, in Kenneth
Branagh’s “Thor” for Marvel. In 2010 Tom filmed a number of projects including
Woody Allen’s film “Midnight in Paris,” Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” and
“The Deep Blue Sea,” opposite Rachel Weisz.
A native of Sweden, STELLAN SKARSGÅRD (Dr. Erik Selvig) is
considered one of the country’s top stage and film actors. He began his career
with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where he spent 16 years working
with such leading directors as Alf Sjoberg and Ingmar Bergman.
His
breakthrough role came in the 1982 Swedish film “The Simpleminded
Murderer,” for which he received the Best Actor award at the Berlin Film
Festival.
In addition to the more than 30 films in which he starred in Sweden,
Skarsgård’s additional credits include “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,”
“The Hunt for Red October,” “The Ox” (Oscar®-nominated for Best Foreign
Film), “Breaking the Waves” (which won the Grand Prix at the 1996 Cannes Film
Festival) and the Norwegian Film “Insomnia.”
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Skarsgård has been honored with awards from the Berlin Film Festival,
the Swedish motion picture industry, the Rouen Film Festival, the Chicago Film
Festival, the St. Sebastian Film Festival, and the Telluride Film Festival. He won
Best European Achievement in World Cinema (1998).
He is currently working on David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo,” the upcoming “Marvel Studios’ The Avengers” (helmed by Joss
Whedon) and just wrapped Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia.”
He can also be seen in other hits such as “Angels and Demons,” “Mamma
Mia!,” the second and third installments in the “Pirates of the Caribbean”
franchise and “Good Will Hunting.”
COLM FEORE (Laufey) is a veteran talent with a distinguished catalogue
of work. Feore’s talent crosses many borders: an international success story, he
acts in both English and French and has conquered many media, with starring
roles in film, television and on stage.
Feore will next be seen on Showtime’s new historic drama series, “The
Borgias.” He will star opposite Jeremy Irons in the story of powerful Italian
families in 1492. Feore plays Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere, nemesis to Rodrigo
Borgia (Irons). He was the guest star on “Law & Order SVU”’s recent episode
“Flight.” Feore is Principal Berkhoff to Jay Baruchel’s Leon Bronstein in the
recently released “The Trotsky.”
Celebrated as a fine stage actor, he recently had a triumphant return to
Canada’s renowned Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where he played two lead
roles, “Cyrano de Bergerac,” directed by Donna Feore, and “MacBeth,” directed
by Stratford Artistic Director Des McAnuff .
On the Canadian big screen, he will next be seen in a Kevin Tierneyproduced and -directed project entitled “French Immersion.” Feore and Tierney
have happily collaborated on several movies, including the recently released
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“The Trotsky” and on the hit film “Bon Cop, Bad Cop,” one of the highestgrossing Canadian films of all time.
In 2005, Feore starred with Denzel Washington and received widespread
critical acclaim for his portrayal of Cassius in the Broadway production of
Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” The power of his performance earned him the St.
Clair Bayfield Award, denoting the best performance by an actor in a
Shakespearean play in the New York metropolitan area.
Feore’s credits on the big screen include Universal’s Academy Award®nominated “Changeling” for director Clint Eastwood, the Academy Award®
winner for Best Picture “Chicago” (which also won the 2003 SAG Award for
Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture), “The
Chronicles of Riddick,” “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” “Paycheck,” ”The Sum of
All Fears,” “Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould” (which won the Genie
Award for Best Picture and earned him a nomination for his performance), “The
Insider” and “Titus.”
His list of small screen movie credentials is as long as it is varied, ranging
from historical roles in “Nuremburg,” “The Day Reagan was Shot,” “And
Starring Pancho Villa as Himself,” “Empire” and “Trudeau” (for which he won
the 2002 Monte Carlo Television Festival Award for Best Actor and the 2002
Gemini Award for Best Actor in a Mini Series), to classic dramas including
“Romeo and Juliet” and “The Taming of the Shrew.” Feore has also had many
roles in such successful contemporary shows as “24,” “Flashpoint,” “The West
Wing,” “Boston Public” and the Canadian mini-series “Slings and Arrows II,” a
look behind the scenes at the chaotic world of theatre. Feore also enjoys acting as
narrator for various projects, including the short film “Voodoo” and the new
series “Museum Secrets.”
Feore was featured in the 2006 Stratford Festival, starring in Moliere’s
“Don Juan,” in which he played the title role in both the English and the French
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performances of the play. Feore also played the title role in “Coriolanus,” and
performed the role of Fagin in “Oliver!” to rave reviews.
He first gained prominence as one of Canada’s premiere stage actors
through 13 seasons with the prestigious Stratford Festival, playing virtually all of
Shakespeare’s leading men, from Richard III and Iago, to Romeo and Hamlet.
Feore was also seen on stage as Claudius in Liev Schreiber’s “Hamlet” for the
Public Theatre in New York. He returned to Stratford for its 50th Anniversary
season, playing Professor Higgins in “My Fair Lady.”
Feore was the 2007 recipient of the NBC Universal Canada Award of
Distinction at the Banff World Television Festival.
He makes his home in
Ontario with his wife, director/choreographer Donna Feore, and their three
children.
Perhaps-best known for his starring role in the HBO/BBC television series
“Rome,” RAY STEVENSON (Volstagg) portrayed the legionary Titus Pullo to
both critical and public acclaim. Since the series wrapped, he has been working
non-stop in a wide variety of feature films.
Among his current projects, Stevenson can be seen in director Jonathon
Hensleigh’s “Kill the Irishman,” playing the title character in a true crime story
of notorious mobster Danny Greene, with Christopher Walken, Vincent
D’Onofrio and Val Kilmer. Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters wrote the screenplay
based on the nonfiction book To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia
by Rick Porello.
Stevenson plays Volstagg—inspired by the Shakespearean character
Falstaff and described as being over 1,000 pounds of muscle and the life of the
party—in “Thor,” which reunited him with the director, Kenneth Branagh, who
acted opposite him in “Theory of Flight” for director Paul Greengrass.
Following that, he will appear in Paul W.S. Anderson’s “The Three
Musketeers,” opposite Logan Lerman, Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz, and
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Milla Jovovich. The film is based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas and
is set for release on October 14, 2011.
Most recently seen in the post-apocalyptic Warner Bros. feature “The Book
of Eli” opposite Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman for directors Albert and
Allen Hughes, Stevenson was also featured in the fantasy thriller “Cirque de
Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.” In 2008, he was seen as the lead in “Punisher:
War Zone,” about the Marvel comics anti-hero Frank Castle and his quest to rid
the world of evil after the death of his wife and daughter.
Stevenson’s prior film work includes the role of Dragonet in Antoine
Fuqua’s “King Arthur,” for producer Jerry Bruckheimer; the cult favorite
“Outpost,” for director Steven Barker; “The Return of the Native,” opposite
Catherine Zeta Jones; and “Some Kind of Life,” opposite Jane Horrocks.
His stage work includes playing Christ in the York Mystery Plays in 2000
at York Minster. In 2001, he played Roger in “Mouth to Mouth,” by Kevin Ely, at
the Albery Theatre in London, with Lindsay Duncan and Michael Maloney, and,
in 2003, appeared as Cardinal in Royal National Theatre’s “The Duchess of
Malfi,” by John Webster with Janet McTeer.
Born in Northern Ireland, Stevenson grew up in England. He studied
acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Having first entered the public eye as Stringer Bell, the calculating de facto
leader of a Baltimore drug empire in HBO’s critically acclaimed original series
“The Wire,” IDRIS ELBA (Heimdall) has gone on to make his mark as an actor
to watch in Hollywood with a string of well-received performances in highprofile films.
Idris started his career in his native London, where he had become a
mainstay on British television by his mid-twenties. He starred in some of the
UK’s top rated shows, such as “Dangerfield,” “Bramwell” and “Ultraviolet.” In
2000, “Ultraviolet” was purchased by Fox in the United States, offering Idris the
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break into the American marketplace that he was looking for. After moving to
New York, Idris received rave reviews for his portrayal of Achilles in Sir Peter
Hall’s off-Broadway production of “Troilus and Cressida,” considered one of
Shakespeare’s more complicated plays. Shortly thereafter he landed a part on
the acclaimed television series “Law & Order.”
Around the same time, Alexa Fogel, who was responsible for casting
HBO’s award winning series “Oz.” was looking for actors for another HBO series
set in Baltimore. Sensing that he would be perfect for the gritty new series, she
set up a meeting with the show’s creator David Simon. Idris scored, landing the
role of Stringer Bell, the lieutenant of a Baltimore drug empire on “The Wire.”
As the right hand and brains behind the operations of an imprisoned drug lord,
Idris’ portrayal of the complex but deadly Bell quickly became one of the most
compelling on US television. As popularity of the show grew around the world,
so did the appreciation of global audiences and critics for Idris’ landmark
performance.
Idris’ leading role debut was in the HBO Original Film, “Sometimes in
April,” by critically acclaimed director Raoul Peck. Set during the Rwandan
genocide of 1994, Idris’ portrayal of Augustan, a Hutu soldier trying to save his
Tutsi wife and family during the mass killings, received rave reviews. A prolific
run of leading roles followed: in Tyler Perry’s dramatic feature, “Daddy’s Little
Girls,” opposite Hilary Swank in the thriller “The Reaping” and in the horror
thriller “28 Weeks Later.”
Idris next starred in the award-winning film “American Gangster,”
directed by Ridley Scott. Idris, as Tango, a drug boss battling Frank Lucas
(Denzel Washington) to establish himself as the number one importer of heroin
in the Harlem district of Manhattan. Based on a true story, the film was released
in November 2007.
In June 2007 Idris moved to London to start filming Guy Ritchie’s new
film “RocknRolla,” also starring Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton and Tom
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Wilkinson. He played Mumbles, a gang member on the trail of a stolen painting.
The film was released in October 2009 and went straight to #1 in the UK box
office in its first week of release. Following this success, the film was released in
October 2008 in the US.
April 2008 saw the release of the crime thriller “Obsessed,” directed by
Steve Shill. Idris starred opposite Beyonce Knowles, and the movie took $28.5
million on its opening weekend, storming to #1 in the box office and becoming
the highest-grossing opening on record for the ‘stalker thriller’ genre movie. Idris
plays a successful business man with a beautiful wife who finds his idyllic life
threatened by a sinister employee turned stalker.
In March 2009, Idris appeared on American television screens in the hit
show “The Office.” Idris’ character was a no-nonsense addition to the Dunder
Mifflin offices who found himself in competition with Steve Carell’s Michael
Scott over the course of six episodes.
Idris played the leading role in two successful action pictures in 2010.
First came the comic book adaptation “The Losers,” in which he shared the
screen with Zoë Saldana, Chris Evans and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Then, in
August, he led the line in the number one US box office hit, “Takers,” alongside
Matt Dillon, T.I. and Hayden Christensen.
In May 2009, Idris had moved to Glasgow to film “Legacy,” directed by
Thomas Ikimi. He played Malcom Gray, a black-ops agent who returns from a
botched mission in Eastern Europe to New York, where he is torn between
retribution and personal salvation as he mentally unravels.
Idris served as
executive producer on the film, which was chosen to close the Glasgow Film
Festival in February 2010, and received its US premiere to great critical acclaim at
the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2010.
Idris was next seen in the BBC crime drama series “Luther,” playing the
title role of John Luther, a complex detective struggling with his own terrible
demons. The six episodes were shown on BBC 1 in April 2010, and audiences
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and critics alike responded to Idris’ portrayal of the tormented detective. The
series was been picked up by BBC America and was broadcast in October 2010,
earning Idris rave reviews once again.
Idris’s performance earned him a
nomination at the 2011 Golden Globe® Awards.
It was announced in October 2010 that Idris would play Moreau in “Ghost
Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” the sequel to the successful Sony comic book
adaptation. Idris will star alongside Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze. The film is
written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, from a story by David
S. Goyer and is slated for a February 2012 release.
KAT DENNINGS (Darcy) is one of Hollywood’s hottest rising young
stars. With her highly acclaimed performance in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite
Playlist” and her role as Catherine Keener’s daughter in the smash hit “The 40
Year Old Virgin,” Dennings has quickly become a household name.
In addition to her starring role in “Thor,” Dennings recently wrapped
“Daydream Nation” in Vancouver. She stars opposite Reece Thompson, Josh
Lucas and Andie MacDowell in the provocative yet humorous romance about a
high school senior who finds herself deposited along with her widowed father in
a desolate Canadian hamlet. Her boredom leads her into an affair with a teacher
and also into a more promising romance with a drug-addicted teen.
The film
premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2010.
Dennings last appeared on the big screen opposite Woody Harrelson and
Sandra Oh in the film “Defendor.” The film follows a crooked cop, a mob boss
and the young girl they abuse. Dennings stars as a crack-addicted prostitute.
Dennings also starred in Robert Rodriguez’s “Shorts” with William H.
Macy and Leslie Mann.
The film focuses on a young boy’s discovery of a
colorful, wish-granting rock, which causes chaos in a suburban town when
jealous kids and scheming adults alike set out to get their hands on it.
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Dennings starred in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” opposite Michael
Cera and directed by Peter Sollett. The film, based on the book of the same
name, follows Nick and Norah on a one-night adventure in New York City. Of
her portrayal as Norah, The New York Post called Dennings “…engaging, smart
and completely natural, an instant star in whom the girls in the audience will be
able to picture themselves.” Dennings was nominated by the International Press
Academy for a Satellite Award in the “Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or
Musical” category for her performance in the film.
Dennings was featured in “The Answer Man” with Jeff Daniels and
Lauren Graham. The film follows a reclusive author of spiritual books, who is
pursued for advice by a single mother and a man recently out of rehab.
Dennings appeared in the hit comedy “House Bunny,” co-starring with
Anna Faris, Katharine McPhee, Emma Stone and Rumer Willis. The film centers
around a Playboy bunny who becomes the house mother of Zeta Alpha Zeta, a
sorority of misfits who are about to loose their house. “House Bunny” opened
number one at the box office and has grossed more than $70 million worldwide.
Dennings other film credits include “Charlie Bartlett,” opposite Robert
Downey Jr.; New Line’s “Raise Your Voice,” where her performance was singled
out by The New York Times; “Down in the Valley,” opposite Edward Norton;
“London” with Jessica Biel; and ‘”Big Momma’s House 2” with Martin Lawrence.
She appeared in IFC’s “Wanderlust” for directors Robert Pucini and Shari
Springer Berman and was selected to participate in the prestigious 2005
Sundance Filmmaker’s Lab, where she worked with Robert Redford on director
Dante Harper’s “Dreamland.”
Dennings currently resides in Los Angeles.
Crafting performances rich with passion, caring and emotional truth,
RENE RUSSO (Frigga) continues to show her range and versatility as an actress
with each of her roles. Prior to her performance opposite Anthony Hopkins as
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Queen Frigga in “Thor,” Rene had starred in the hit comedy “Yours, Mine &
Ours” opposite Dennis Quaid.
When Russo starred with Pierce Brosnan in United Artists’ remake of the
classic 1968 film “The Thomas Crown Affair,” critics raved about her sultry and
captivating performance. Russo has also shown her penchant for comedy, costarring with Kevin Costner and Don Johnson in Warner Bros.’ “Tin Cup,” as
well as her range as a dramatic actress, starring opposite Mel Gibson, Gary Sinise
and Delroy Lindo as a mother whose son has been kidnapped in Touchstone’s
successful thriller “Ransom,” directed by Ron Howard.
Russo was last seen opposite Robert DeNiro and Eddie Murphy in Warner
Bros.’ action comedy “Showtime,” as a driven reality-television producer who
creates a hit show for an unlikely pair of cops (DeNiro and Murphy). She was
also seen in Disney’s comedy “Big Trouble.” Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and
based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Dave Barry,
the film features an ensemble cast that also includes Tom Sizemore, Tim Allen,
Stanley Tucci, Zooey Deschanel and Janeane Garofalo.
In “Lethal Weapon 3,” Russo first starred opposite Mel Gibson and Danny
Glover, garnering mass attention from moviegoers. Her portrayal of an Internal
Affairs detective who’s the female counterpart of Gibson’s character received
strong critical acclaim. In 1998, Russo reprised her role as Lorna, the character
that first endeared her with audiences worldwide, in “Lethal Weapon 4,” which
reunited her with Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Joe Pesci.
Her subsequent movies have continued to draw audience and critical
approval. In 1994, Russo starred with Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich in the
box-office success “In the Line of Fire,” portraying the feisty secret service agent
who romances Eastwood. She followed that performance with a starring role
opposite Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman in Warner Bros. thriller,
“Outbreak,” portraying a doctor on the trail of a deadly virus that threatens to
wipe out the entire world. Subsequently, she garnered critical praise in MGM’s
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box-office success “Get Shorty,” portraying a B-movie actress opposite John
Travolta, Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito. She starred as Gertrude Lintz in
“Buddy,” a heart-warming true story set in the 1920’s and 1930’s about a wealthy
socialite (Lintz) who raised exotic animals in her home.
She was also seen
alongside Robert DeNiro and Jason Alexander in Universal Pictures’ liveaction/special effects feature “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” based on Jay Ward’s
classic cartoon.
Since her film debut in 1989 in “Major League,” Russo’s additional film
credits include “Mr. Destiny,” “One Good Cop” with Anthony LaPaglia, and
“Freejack” with Emilio Estevez.
A native Californian, Russo grew up in Burbank. At the age of 18, she was
‘discovered’ at a Rolling Stones’ concert and encouraged to become a fashion
model. Soon afterward, Russo moved to New York and became a top model for
the Ford Agency. She graced the covers of every fashion magazine throughout
her successful modeling career in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s,
She and her husband, screenwriter Danny Gilroy, live in Los Angeles with
their daughter, Rose.
ANTHONY HOPKINS (Odin), one of the industry’s most venerated
actors, has been honored for his work in a wide range of roles. He won an
Academy Award® for Best Actor for his chilling performance as Hannibal Lecter
in Jonathan Demme’s Oscar®-winning Best Picture, “The Silence of the Lambs,”
for which Hopkins also won a BAFTA Award and several critics groups’ awards
in the same category. He has since earned three more Oscar® nominations,
including two for Best Actor, for his work in James Ivory’s “The Remains of the
Day” and Oliver Stone’s biopic “Nixon,” and another, for Best Supporting Actor,
for his role in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad.”
His many other film acting awards include Golden Globe® Award
nominations for all of the aforementioned films; another BAFTA Award for his
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role in the Richard Attenborough-directed drama “Shadowlands”; and Screen
Actors Guild Award nominations for “Nixon,” “Amistad” and “Bobby.” In 2006,
he received the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association for his body of work.
Born in Wales, Hopkins made his feature film debut as Richard in 1968’s
“A Lion in Winter,” for which he received his first BAFTA Award nomination.
He went on to earn praise for his work in such films as Tony Richardson’s screen
version of “Hamlet”; the Richard Attenborough-directed films “Young
Winston,” “A Bridge Too Far” and “Magic”; Robert Wise’s “Audrey Rose”;
Roger Donaldson’s “The Bounty”; Mike Newell’s “The Good Father”; and David
Jones’ “84 Charing Cross Road.”
In the decade following his Oscar®-winning performance in 1991’s “The
Silence of the Lambs,” his films included “Howard’s End,” marking his first
collaboration with James Ivory; Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”;
“Chaplin,” which reunited him with Attenborough; “Legends of the Fall”;
“Surviving Picasso”; “The Edge,” written by David Mamet; “The Mask of
Zorro”; “Meet Joe Black”; “Instinct”; and Julie Taymor’s first feature, “Titus.”
Additionally, he directed, starred in, and composed the score for the indie film
“August.”
Hopkins reprised what is perhaps his most indelible role, Hannibal Lecter,
in both “Hannibal” and “Red Dragon.” His more recent film credits include
Scott Hicks’ “Hearts in Atlantis”; Joel Schumacher’s “Bad Company”; Robert
Benton’s “The Human Stain”; “Alexander,” for director Oliver Stone; John
Madden’s “Proof”; Steven Zaillian’s “All the King’s Men”; “Slipstream,” which
he also wrote, directed and scored; Robert Zemeckis’ “Beowulf”; and Joe
Johnston’s “The Wolfman.”
Hopkins has also been recognized for his work on the small screen,
including two Emmy® Awards, for his work in the telefilms “The Lindbergh
Kidnapping Case” and “The Bunker”; two more Emmy® nominations, for the
49
“Thor” – Production Information
Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and the
miniseries “Great Expectations”; and a BAFTA TV Award for the BBC miniseries
“War & Peace.”
Born in Wales, Hopkins trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of
Dramatic Art and began his career on the stage. His most notable early work
was with the National Theatre, where he starred in such plays as “Pravda,” for
which he won an Olivier Award; “King Lear,” in the title role; and “Antony and
Cleopatra.”
He made his Broadway debut in the 1976 production of Peter
Shaffer’s “Equus,” for which he won a Drama Desk Award.
In addition to his busy filming schedule, Anthony Hopkins is also an
accomplished composer, whose work has been performed by the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, he participated as a composer in the “Festival Del
Sole” in Cortona Italy. In 2004 Hopkins started painting, quickly gaining
recognition as a prolific contemporary artist. His work is currently being
exhibited in fine art galleries, and has been acquired by prominent art collectors
around the world.
In 1993, Hopkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1993. He became a
US citizen in 2000.
Anthony Hopkins was most recently seen in “The Rite,” directed by
Mikael Håfström.
CLARK GREGG (Agent Coulson) began his acting career as a founding
member and former artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company in New
York. He has acted in numerous productions with the company, including
“Boys’ Life” at Lincoln Center, “Mojo,” “The Night Heron,” “Sexual Perversity in
Chicago” and many others. His other New Yorl stage credits include Aaron
Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men” on Broadway, “Unidentified Human Remains” and
A. R. Gurney’s “The Old Boy.”
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Gregg moved to Los Angeles in the mid-‘90s to pursue film and television
work, landing recurring roles on “The West Wing,” “Sports Night, “Will and
Grace,” “Sex and the City” and “The Shield,” among others. He also appeared in
the television movies “My Sister’s Keeper” for Hallmark, and “Tyson” and “Live
From Baghdad” for HBO. He also co-starred with Julia Louis Dreyfus on the hit
CBS comedy “The New Adventures of Old Christine.”
His film acting work includes “Thor,” “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” “Iron
Man 2,” “500 Days of Summer,” “Choke,” ”Iron Man,” “In the Land of Women,”
“In Good Company,” “Spartan,” “State and Main,” “Lovely and Amazing,“ “The
Human Stain,” “11:14,””Hoot,””We Were Soldiers,” “One Hour Photo” and
“Magnolia.” He played the role of Hank/Henrietta in Tod Williams’ debut
feature “The Adventures of Sebastian Cole,” for which he received an
Independent Spirit Award nomination.
A dedicated hyphenate, Gregg’s screenwriting debut, “What Lies
Beneath” (DreamWorks) starred Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer and was
directed by Robert Zemeckis. His feature film directing debut, “Choke,” which
he adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, premiered at the 2008 Sundance
Film Festival and was awarded a Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble; starring
Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston, the film was released by Fox Searchlight in
2008. Clark has written or re-written scripts for Universal, Disney, Paramount,
Warner Bros. and Fox 2000.
In addition, he has directed a number of plays, including Kevin Heelan’s
“Distant Fires,” which was nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle
awards in New York and moved to the Circle-in-the-Square downtown for an
extended run. The Los Angeles production, starring Samuel L. Jackson, won
three L.A. Weekly Awards, including Best Direction, Best Ensemble and Best Play,
and was nominated for four Ovation Awards, including Best Director. He also
directed the acclaimed 1998 Atlantic Theater revival of
David Mamet’s
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“Edmond,” and created, co-wrote and directed the Los Angeles serialized play,
“The Big Empty.”
Actress JAIMIE ALEXANDER’s (Sif) natural beauty is enough to make
anyone do a double-take, but after the release of her upcoming high-profile film
projects, people will acknowledge her talent as well as her beauty. This past
Thanksgiving, she appeared with Jake Gyllenhaal in Ed Zwick’s drama “Love
and Other Drugs.” In addition to “Thor,” She also recently wrapped production
on the indie dramedy “Loosies,” with Peter Facinelli and Joe Pantoliano, and will
next film the historical drama “Savannah,” with Jim Caviezel, Chiwetel Ejiofer
and Hal Holbrook.
Alexander transitions into such coveted film roles after her series regular
status on the popular ABC Family Channel series “Kyle XY.” Her enigmatic
character, Jessi XX, proved to be a critical part of Kyle’s past and future. She
returns to series television in a juicy arc as Edie Falco’s wild and immature sisterin-law on Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie.”
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, and raised in Grapevine, Texas,
Alexander moved west to Los Angeles upon graduating high school. She hasn’t
looked back since.
Described as a cross between Johnny Depp and Toshirô Mifune,
TADANOBU ASANO (Hogun) is certainly the hippest, if not the single most
important, Japanese film actor working today. His father, an actors’ agent,
suggested he take on what became his first role, in the TV drama “Kinpachisensei,” at the age of 14. His film debut was in the 1990 “Swimming Upstream”
(“Bataashi Kingyo”), though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai’s
television project “Fried Dragon Fish” (1993). His first critical success in the West
was in Hirokazu Koreeda’s 1995 “Illusion”(“Maboroshi no Hikari”), in which he
played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing his
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“Thor” – Production Information
wife and orphaning his infant son. His best known works internationally are
“Last Life in the Universe” (2003), which he won the Upstream Prize for Best
Actor at the 2003 Venice Film Festival for his role, and “Mongol” (2007),
nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. While best
known for characters who are psychologically offbeat, if not downright psychotic
(e.g. Kakihara in 2001’s “Ichi the Killer”/”Koroshiya Ichi”), Asano is described
by those who know him as a down-to-earth family man. He’s also an artist,
musician and designer.
Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, actor JOSHUA DALLAS (Fandral)
honed his acting craft across the Atlantic, studying and performing at the iconic
Royal Shakespeare Company, and also adding impressive live theatrical credits
to his acting resume. While in Great Britain, he was seen in the Young Vic’s “The
Enchanted Pig”; the Royal National’s “Once in a Lifetime”; and a series of new
works at the Royal National Theatre Studio. Dallas also starred in the English
National Opera’s revival of the American musical theater classic “On the Town,”
later traveling with the production for an extended run at the Paris Opera.
Dallas’ British acting credits also extend beyond the live theater and
include roles in the British television series “Ultimate Force,” “Doctor Who” and
“Money,” as well as made-for-UK-TV-film, “The Last Days of Lehman Brothers.”
American television audiences have caught Dallas in guest-starring roles on the
hit series “Hawaii Five-O” and “C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation.”
Dallas’ motion picture credits include two films for German director
Thomas Jahn: “80 Minutes”; and “The Boxer.” The actor was also seen in Jon
Harris’ “The Descent: Part II” and heard (as the voice of Bragg) in Chris
Hartwill’s “Ghost Machine.”
Upcoming for Josh is a leading role in George Lucas’ motion picture retelling of the valor of the all African-American WWII combat squadron, the
Tuskegee Airmen, entitled “Red Tails”; and the role of Prince Charming in the
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ABC telefilm “Once Upon a Time,” which tells the story of a small town in Maine
where reality and fairy tale mix.
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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
KENNETH BRANAGH (Director) is one of the world’s most consistently
acclaimed filmmakers. As an actor and director, his work is trademarked by
quality, truth and passion.
Branagh recently completed directing the anticipated Marvel action
adventure, “Thor,” starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Sir Anthony
Hopkins. At the center of the story is the Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant
warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war and, as punishment, is
cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans. Once there, Thor learns
what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world
sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.
Recently,
Branagh
wrapped production on “My Week with Marilyn,” in which he stars opposite
Michelle Williams, Emma Watson, Dame Judi Dench and Julia Ormond. The
film is based on the tense interaction between Sir Laurence Olivier (Branagh) and
Marilyn Monroe (Williams) during production of “The Prince and the Showgirl,”
as documented by Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier’s. It is
directed by Simon Curtis.
Branagh’s first venture into filmmaking met instant success. His 1989
production of “Henry V,” which he adapted from the Shakespeare and both
starred in and directed, won a score of international awards, including Academy
Award® nominations for Best Actor and Best Director. He was subsequently
invited to Hollywood to direct and star in “Dead Again,” which was a huge
international hit, and next directed himself in the ensemble film “Peter’s
Friends,” which won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award for Comedy.
Branagh’s second Shakespearean film success as actor, director, writer and
producer was “Much Ado About Nothing,” which was invited to screen at the
Cannes Film Festival; in the same year his short film of the Chekhov play “Swan
Song” received an Academy Award® nomination. He went on to direct Robert
De Niro in the commercial hit “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” and his black and
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“Thor” – Production Information
white film “A Midwinter’s Tale” opened the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and
won the prestigious Osello d’Oro at the Venice Film Festival. Branagh’s critically
acclaimed full-length version of “Hamlet,” in 70mm, received four Academy
Award® nominations.
His fourth Shakespeare film adaptation was a 1930’s
musical version of “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” More recently, Branagh directed
HBO Films’ “As You Like It,” a film version of Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flue”
and “Sleuth,” written by Harold Pinter and starring Jude Law and Michael
Caine.
His other film work includes acting roles in Pat O’Connor’s “A Month in
the Country”; Oliver Parker’s “Othello”; Robert Altman’s “The Gingerbread
Man”; Woody Allen’s “Celebrity”; Danny Boyle’s “Alien Love Triangle”; Paul
Greengrass’ “The Theory of Flight”; Barry Sonnenfeld’s “Wild Wild West”;
Philip Noyce’s “Rabbit Proof Fence”; “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”;
the Richard Curtis comedy “PIRATE RADIO”; and Bryan Singer’s “Valkyrie.”
Branagh has appeared in several outstanding television dramas, including
a recent turn as Detective Kurt Wallander in the BAFTA-winning series
“Wallander,” which earned him Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominations. He
has also starred in the title role of “Shackleton” for Channel 4; A&E’s
“Conspiracy,” for which he won an Emmy® for Best Actor and earned a Golden
Globe® nomination; “Warm Springs,” in which he played Franklin Roosevelt and
for which he received Emmy®, Golden Globe® and SAG Award nominations.
Branagh’s stage work began when he made his West End acting debut in
“Another Country,” which earned him the Society of West End Theater’s Award
for Most Promising Newcomer. He founded the Renaissance Theatre Company,
for whom he either starred in or directed the following works: “Twelfth Night,”
“Much Ado About Nothing,” “As You Like It,” “Hamlet,” “Look Back in Anger,”
“Uncle Vanya,” “King Lear,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Coriolanus” and
“The Life of Napoleon.” He also wrote the plays “Public Enemy” and “Tell Me
Honestly.”
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Numerous stage appearances include the RSC’s “Henry V,” “Love’s
Labour’s Lost” and “Hamlet.” His more recent theatrical endeavors include
directing the hit stage comedy “The What I Wrote,” which transferred from
London’s West End to Broadway, where it received a Tony nomination, and fivestar performances on the British stage in “Richard III,” Mamet’s “Edmond” and
“Ivanov.” He will be returning to the stage for the reopening season at the Lyric
Theatre, Belfast in the new comedy “Painkiller.”
Branagh is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he
won the Bancroft Gold Medal.
He received the prestigious Michael Balcon
Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), for
outstanding contribution to cinema.
The writing team of ASHLEY EDWARD MILLER (Screenplay by) &
ZACK STENTZ (Screenplay by) has a slate of projects in various stages of
production at multiple motion picture studios. Miller & Stentz came to the fore
of rising writer/producers with their work on J.J. Abrams’ hit show “The Fringe”
and “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” for Fox. Together, in addition
to “Thor,” they have written the draft of “X-Men: First Class” for Fox and Bryan
Singer (that got the film greenlit with Matthew Vaughn committed to direct), and
“Damn Nation” for Paramount (with Dark Horse producing). They are currently
writing “The Limited” for Disney (based on the pilot by Sean Bailey) and an
“Untitled Action Film” for DreamWorks (with Walter Parkes and Laurie
MacDonald producing).
A native of the Northern Virginia/DC Metro area, Ashley Edward Miller
was a graduate of the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and
Technology. He went on to study English and government at the College of
William & Mary, becoming first a middle school English and creative writing
teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia, and then an analyst working for the Chief of
Naval Operations through Science Applications International Corporation. He
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“Thor” – Production Information
met his writing partner Zack Stentz over the Internet, a consequence of their
mutual love of all things “Star Trek.” Since then, Ashley and Zack have written
and/or produced well over a hundred hours of television, from their start on
“Gene Roddenberry’s ‘Andromeda,’” “The Twilight Zone” revival on UPN and,
most recently, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Fringe.” Their
first feature credit was 2003’s “Agent Cody Banks,” and most recently
contributed to “Thor,” the upcoming “X-Men: First Class” and several other
projects in active development or production. Ashley is currently a resident of
Los Angeles, California, where he lives with his comic books and action figures,
at the mercy of his wife and young son.
A onetime native of the redwood forests of Mendocino County, Zack
Stentz studied anthropology and journalism at the University of California, Santa
Cruz.
As a journalist, Stentz edited several alternative weeklies in the San
Francisco Bay Area and wrote articles for The Economist, Esquire, Entertainment
Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Details and other publications.
A longtime science
fiction and fantasy fan, Zack met his future writing partner, Ashley Edward
Miller, during an Internet flame war about “Star Trek.” With his partner, Zack
went on to write and produce for the television shows “Gene Roddenberry’s
‘Andromeda,’” UPN’s “The Twilight Zone,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor
Chronicles” and “Fringe.” In addition to “Thor,” he and his partner have written
on “X-Men: First Class,” “Agent Cody Banks” and several other films in
development or production. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife,
daughter and two sons.
A rabid fan of Marvel comics since childhood, DON PAYNE (Screenplay
by) is a screenwriter and a writer/consulting producer on the hit animated
television series “The Simpsons.”
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“Thor” – Production Information
He has won four Emmy® Awards for his work on “The Simpsons” and
received the Writers Guild of America’s prestigious Paul Selvin Award for his
acclaimed episode, “Fraudcast News.”
His produced feature credits include “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” and
“Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”
He is a graduate of UCLA’s film school, where he earned a BA in film and
television and an MFA in screenwriting. He was also honored in 2006-2007 with
UCLA’s Hunter/Zakin Chair in Screenwriting.
He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife Julie and his children:
Nathaniel (12); Joshua (9); and Lila (3).
In
addition to
co-writing
the story
for
“Thor,”
J.
MICHAEL
STRACZYNSKI’s (Story by) produced screenplays include “Changeling” for
director Clint Eastwood, “Ninja Assassin” for the Wachowki Brothers, and
“Underworld 4,” currently filming in Vancouver. He is also writing “Voices of
the Dead” for DreamWorks (on which he is also serving as executive producer),
as
well
as
“Shattered
Union”
and
“Vanishing
Point,”
both
for
Bruckheimer/Disney. For television, Straczynski created and produced the
series “Babylon 5,” “Crusade” and “Jeremiah,” and in the comics field he has
written for both Marvel and DC, writing The Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Wonder
Woman, Superman and others. His Superman: Earth One graphic novel has been
on The New York Times Bestseller List for 20 straight weeks.
Born in New Jersey, Straczynski’s family moved 20 times in his first 18
years, which is how he developed a love of words and writing: the
neighborhoods were always changing, but the books in the library were always
the same. He received degrees in clinical psychology and sociology from San
Diego State University, and was a reporter for many years, publishing over 500
articles for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald
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“Thor” – Production Information
Examiner, Writer’s Digest, and TIME, Inc. He has also written a number of
published novels and short stories.
In addition to being nominated for a British Academy Award® for his
screenplay for “Changeling,” Straczynski’s writing has received the Eisner
Award, the Inkpot Lifetime Achievement Award, the Saturn Award, the Hugo
Award (twice), the Ray Bradbury Award, the Christopher Foundation Award,
the Space Frontier Foundation Award and the E Pluribus Unum Award from the
American Cinema Foundation, in addition to a dozen other awards.
He writes ten hours a day, every day, except his birthday, New Year’s Day
and Christmas Day. He is single and in the market.
MARK PROTOSEVICH (Story by) was born and raised in Chicago,
Illinois. He grew up on a steady diet of movies, rock and roll, and comic books,
of which “Thor” was his favorite. For him, working on the film version was a
childhood dream come true.
Protosevich studied at Columbia College Chicago and upon graduation
was asked by the Chairman of the Film Department to teach beginning
production courses at the school. He did so for four years and greatly enjoyed
the experience and his role as an educator. During this time he also worked as a
freelance writer and in 1987 wrote and directed the short film “Past Voices,”
which won the Gold Hugo and Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film
Festival.
Relocating to Los Angeles, Protosevich worked as a story analyst for
producer Scott Rudin and Columbia Pictures, and later as a development
executive for Orion Pictures, producer Dawn Steel, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In 1996 he sold his original screenplay “The Cell” and has since become a
much sought-after screenwriter. New
Line
Cinema
released
“The
Cell,”
directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughan, and
Vincent D’Onofrio, in 2000. Roger Ebert named it one of the ten best films of the
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“Thor” – Production Information
year and the Horror Writers Association nominated Protosevich’s screenplay for
a Bram Stoker Award.
In 2006, Protosevich wrote the screenplay for “Poseidon,” the remake of
1972’s “The Poseidon Adventure.” Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wolfgang
Petersen, “Poseidon” starred Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Josh Lucas.
Protosevich (with Akiva Goldsman) wrote the screenplay for 2007’s “I Am
Legend,” which starred Will Smith and was directed by Francis Lawrence. The
film was a passion project for the writer, one with which he was associated for
over ten years. “I Am Legend”’s worldwide box office earnings are $585,349,010.
Protosevich contributed his work on the script for “Thor” from 2006 to
2008 and greatly enjoyed working with Kevin Feige and the entire Marvel team.
He recently completed the screenplay for the American remake of the
Korean film “Oldboy” (for Mandate Pictures) and is currently at work on a script
based on the popular and critically acclaimed BioWare video game “Mass Effect”
for producers Avi and Ari Arad and Legendary Pictures.
He lives on Cape Cod with his wife, the painter Robena Malicoat, and still
has his entire collection of Thor comic books.
Over the past decade, KEVIN FEIGE (Producer) has played an
instrumental role in a string of blockbuster feature films adapted from the pages
of Marvel comic books, including the hugely successful “Spider-Man” and “XMen” trilogies. In his current role as producer and President of Marvel Studios,
Feige oversees all creative aspects of the company’s feature film and home
entertainment activities.
Previous to “Thor,” Feige most recently produced “Iron Man 2,” which
was released in theatres on May 7, 2010. The sequel to “Iron Man,” directed by
Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as
new cast members Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson and Don Cheadle, took the
number one spot its first weekend with a domestic box office gross of $128.1
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“Thor” – Production Information
million. To date the film has earned over $620 million in worldwide box office
receipts.
In the summer of 2008, Feige produced the summer blockbuster movies,
“Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk,” which were the first fully-financed and
developed films by the new Marvel Studios.
“Iron Man,” in which Robert
Downey Jr. originally dons the super hero’s powerful armor for director Jon
Favreau alongside co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges, was released May
2, 2008, and was an immediate box office success. Garnering the number one
position for two weeks in a row, the film brought in over $100 million its opening
weekend and grossed over $571 million worldwide.
On June 13, 2008, Marvel released “The Incredible Hulk,” marking its
second number one opener of that summer. The film stars Edward Norton,
along with William Hurt, Tim Roth and Liv Tyler. Director Louis Leterrier’s
spectacular revival of the iconic green goliath grossed over $250 million in
worldwide box office receipts.
Feige is currently producing the next three projects from Marvel Studios,
including “Captain America: The First Avenger” starring Chris Evans, Tommy
Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke and
Stanley Tucci, which will be released on July 22, 2011; “Marvel Studios’ The
Avengers,” due in theatres on May 4, 2012; and “Iron Man 3,” which is slated for
release on May 3, 2013.
Feige previously served as executive producer on the second and third
“Spider-Man” films, which took in combined worldwide box office receipts of
well over a billion-and-a-half dollars. The “Spider-Man” series, starring Tobey
Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco, are the three highest grossing super
hero films of all time.
Feige also co-produced “X2: X-Men United,” the second installment in the
popular “X-Men” franchise, and executive-produced “X-Men 3: The Last Stand.”
Together, the two films, starring Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Ian McKellen,
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“Thor” – Production Information
totaled $866 million in ticket sales worldwide. Feige was also executive producer
of Marvel Studios’ comic book adaptation of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
Since joining Marvel in 2000, Feige has been involved in key capacities for
all of the company’s theatrical film productions. His credits include executiveproducing “Fantastic Four” and its sequel “4: The Rise of the Silver Surfer,”
which together grossed over $600 million worldwide. He also was the executive
producer of Ang Lee’s “Hulk,” starring Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly;
“Elektra,” starring Jennifer Garner; and “The Punisher,” starring Thomas Jane.
Additionally, Feige co-produced the 2003 hit “Daredevil,” starring Ben Affleck.
After graduating from the University of Southern California’s School of
Cinema-Television, Feige worked for Lauren Shuler Donner and Richard Donner
at their Warner Bros.-based production company. During his tenure there, Feige
worked on the action-adventure “Volcano” and the hit romantic comedy
“You’ve Got Mail.” Transitioning into a development position, Feige earned his
first producer credit on “X-Men,” a film that is credited with revitalizing the
comic book genre. In 2003, Feige appeared on the Hollywood Reporter’s annual
Next Gen list of 35 top young executives poised to become leaders in the
entertainment industry.
ALAN FINE (Executive Producer) serves as the Executive Vice-President,
Office of the President, Marvel Worldwide, Inc. and Chief Marketing Officer,
Marvel Characters, Inc. He also serves as Chairman of Marvel’s Theatrical and
Animation Creative Committees.
In addition, he also served as the President & CEO of Marvel’s Toy and
Publishing Divisions, as well the President of Kay Bee Toy Stores.
Fine grew up in Rhode Island, where he attended the University of Rhode
Island and graduated with a BA in psychology. He currently splits his time
between West Palm Beach, Florida, and Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. Fine is
happily married with two children.
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“Thor” – Production Information
STAN LEE (Executive Producer) is the Founder of POW! Entertainment
and has served as its Chairman and Chief Creative Officer since inception.
Known to millions as the man whose super heroes propelled Marvel to its
preeminent position in the comic book industry, Stan Lee’s co-creations include
Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man,
Daredevil, Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange.
Now the Chairman Emeritus of Marvel Media, Lee first became publisher
of Marvel Comics in 1972. He is recognized as the creative force that brought
Marvel to the forefront of the comic publishing industry. In 1977, he introduced
Spider-Man as a syndicated newspaper strip that became the most successful of
all syndicated adventure strips and now appears in more than 500 newspapers
worldwide -- making it the longest-running of all super hero strips.
From June 2001 until the formal creation of POW! in November 2001, Stan
Lee worked to form POW! and to create intellectual property for POW! and start
the development of various POW! projects.
DAVID MAISEL (Executive Producer) served as the Executive VicePresident, Office of the Chief Executive and Chairman of Marvel Studios
from 2005 to 2009.
He also served in senior positions for Endeavor, Creative Artists Agency
and The Walt Disney Company. He graduated from Duke University and the
Harvard Business School.
PATRICIA WHITCHER (Executive Producer) is currently at work in
Albuquerque,
New
Mexico,
executive-producing
Avengers,” her second film for Marvel Studios.
“Marvel
Studios’
The
Directed by Joss Whedon,
“Marvel Studios’ The Avengers” brings Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and
The Incredible Hulk together in one epic tale. The cast includes Robert Downey,
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“Thor” – Production Information
Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L.
Jackson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston.
Before entering the Marvel universe, Whitcher was an executive producer
on “The Soloist,” the real-life drama filmed on L.A.’s skid row and onstage at
Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2008. Adapted from newspaper articles written by
Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, the film starred Downey and Jamie
Foxx.
In 2006, Whitcher was executive producer of the film adaptation of the
Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie
Murphy and Jennifer Hudson. Directed by Bill Condon, “Dreamgirls” won two
Academy Awards® (for Hudson and for sound mixing) and earned eight
nominations.
“Memoirs of a Geisha,” which Whitcher executive-produced in 2005 for
director Rob Marshall, was another big Oscar® contender with six nominations
and three wins (art direction, cinematography and costume).
Whitcher previously executive-produced Steven Spielberg’s dramatic
comedy “The Terminal,” starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Her
producing credits also include Brad Silberling’s “Moonlight Mile,” starring
Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon; “Where the Heart Is,” starring Natalie
Portman and Ashley Judd; and P.J. Hogan’s smash hit “My Best Friend’s
Wedding,” starring Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz.
Additional producing
credits include “How to Make an American Quilt,” “High School High” and “A
Dangerous Woman.”
Before producing, Whitcher served as a unit production manager on
“True Lies,” “The Meteor Man,” “The Lawnmower Man,” “Iron Maze” and
“Darkman.” A life-long Los Angeles resident, she is the mother of two children
and a graduate of Loyola Marymount University.
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“Thor” – Production Information
LOUIS D’ESPOSITO (Executive Producer) is Co-President of Marvel
Studios. He served as executive producer on the blockbuster hits “Iron Man”
and “Iron Man 2,” and is currently working on the highly anticipated “Thor,”
“Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Marvel Studios’ The Avengers.”
As Co-President of the studio and executive producer on all Marvel films,
D’Esposito balances running the studio to overseeing each film from their
development stage to distribution.
D’Esposito began his tenure at Marvel Studios in 2006. Prior to Marvel,
D’Esposito’s executive producing credits include the 2006 hit film “The Pursuit
of Happyness,” starring Will Smith, “Zathura: A Space Adventure” and the 2003
hit “S.W.A.T.,” starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell.
HARIS ZAMBARLOUKOS, BSC (Director of Photography) shot the
worldwide mega-hit “Mamma Mia!”, starring Meryl Streep and Amanda
Seyfried. His recent credits also include Richard Eyre’s latest film, “The Other
Man,” starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Antonio Banderas.
Zambarloukos previously collaborated with director Kenneth Branagh on
“Sleuth,” starring Michael Caine and Jude Law.
Additional credits include
Gillian Armstrong’s “Death Defying Acts,” starring Guy Pearce and Catherine
Zeta-Jones, and Roger Michell’s “Venus,” starring Peter O’Toole, which earned
him a place on Variety’s list of 10 to Watch: Cinematographers in 2006. He also
shot “Enduring Love,” starring Daniel Craig and Samantha Morton, which
brought him a nomination for Best Technical Achievement at the British
Independent Film Awards.
“Enduring Love” was LA Weekly’s film editor’s
choice for Best Cinematography in 2004.
Other feature film credits as director of photography include “Opa!”, “The
Best Man,” “Spivs,” “Oh Marbella!”, “Mr. In-Between” and “Camera Obscura.”
He also served as second unit director of photography on Christopher Nolan’s
“Batman Begins.”
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Born in Nicosia, Cyprus, Zambarloukos now lives in London.
BO WELCH (Production Designer) is one of the most gifted and versatile
production designers in contemporary cinema.
He has forged significant
collaborations with top directors, earning four Oscar® nominations along the
way and also earning his own turns behind the camera.
A graduate of the University of Arizona College of Architecture, Welch
began a promising career as an architect in Los Angeles.
Excited to try
something new, he then found work at Universal Studios as a set designer.
Welch gained his first screen credits for his efforts on Robert Zemeckis’ “Used
Cars” and Walter Hill’s period western “The Long Riders.”
After further work as a set designer on films such as “Mommie Dearest”
and Mel Brooks’ “History of the World: Part I,” Welch graduated to art director
on Jonathan Demme’s “Swing Shift.”
Welch received an Oscar® nomination in 1986 for his work as an art
director on Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple.” He was production designer
on Joel Schumacher’s slick vampire tale “The Lost Boys,” and soon after began a
fruitful collaboration designing for Tim Burton on “Beetle Juice,” “Edward
Scissorhands” (which brought him a BAFTA) and “Batman Returns.”
Welch’s beautiful design for Alfonso Cuarón’s “A Little Princess”
occasioned his second Oscar® nomination, in 1996.
The Academy nominated
him for Oscars® again in 1997 for Mike Nichols’ “The Birdcage,” and in 1998 for
the sci-fi comedy “Men in Black.” His other film credits include “The Accidental
Tourist,” “Ghostbusters II,” “Grand Canyon,” “Men in Black II,” “Primary
Colors,” “Wild Wild West” and “What Planet Are You From?”, among many
others.
Welch ventured into a second career as a director, making his television
directorial debut in 2000 on an episode of the Barry Josephson/Barry Sonnenfeld
spy-spoof television series “Secret Agent Man,” followed by episodes for another
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Josephson/Sonnenfeld effort, the comic book satire, “The Tick,” in 2001. Welch
also created the pilot’s production design.
His feature directorial debut came with the live-action adaptation of Dr.
Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat” in 2003.
After wrapping “Thor,” Welch began designing “Men in Black III.”
PAUL RUBELL, A.C.E. (Editor) has twice been nominated for Academy
Awards®, both times for films directed by Michael Mann. In 2000, he shared his
nomination for “The Insider” with William Goldenberg and David Rosenbloom.
His 2005 nomination for “Collateral” was shared with Jim Miller.
Rubell also
cut Mann’s period gangster drama, “Public Enemies,” and his film adaptation of
the popular ‘80s TV series, “Miami Vice.”
For director Michael Bay, Rubell cut the mega-hit “Transformers” and its
2009 sequel, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” as well as “The Island” in
2005.
His other film credits include “Hancock” (starring Will Smith), “The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” “S1m0ne,” “xXx,” “The Cell,” “Blade,”
“The Island of Dr. Moreau,” “Ruby Cairo,” “The Stone Boy” and “The Final
Terror.”
Rubell has extensive television movie credits and was nominated for
Emmy® Awards for his work on “Andersonville” and “My Name Is Bill W.”,
which he shared with John Wright.
ALEXANDRA BYRNE (Costume Designer) is an Academy Award® and
BAFTA winner, as well as a Tony Award nominee. She received her first Oscar®
nomination in 1997 for the costumes she designed for Kenneth Branagh’s film
adaptation of “Hamlet.” Byrne received a second Oscar® nomination in 1999 for
her work on Shekar Kapur’s “Elizabeth,” and a third in 2005 for Marc Forester’s
“Finding Neverland.”
She won the Academy Award® in 2008 for Kapur’s
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“Elizabeth: The Golden Age.”
She also received BAFTA nominations for
“Hamlet,” “Elizabeth,” “Finding Neverland” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.”
Byrne’s film costume credits also include “Phantom of the Opera,”
Branagh’s “Sleuth” and “The Garden of Eden.”
In the late ‘70s, Byrne trained as an architect at Bristol University before
studying theatre design on the Motley Course at the English National Opera
under the legendary Margaret Harris. She has worked extensively in television
and theatre, both as a set and costume designer. Her television credits include
Roger Michell’s “Persuasion,” for which she received the BAFTA Award for Best
Costume Design, and “The Buddha of Suburbia,” for which she received a
BAFTA nomination and RTS award.
Byrne received a Tony nomination in 1990 for Best Scenic Design for
“Some Americans Abroad,” which transferred from the Royal Shakespeare
Company to the Lincoln Center in New York.
Byrne is married to the actor Simon Shepherd. They have four children
and live in England.
CRAIG KYLE (Co-Producer) began his career at Marvel Entertainment as
an animation consultant in 2000, but was soon hired as the sole creative executive
for the company’s animation division. He has developed two live-action projects
for television, as well as nine animated series.
Craig also oversaw the development and production of Marvel’s
animated direct-to-DVD projects, which include the “Ultimate Avengers: The
Movie,” “Ultimate Avengers II,” “Iron Man,” “Hulk VS,” “Doctor Strange,”
“Planet Hulk” and “Thor: Tales of Asgard.” On each Direct-to-DVD film, Craig
acted as supervising producer and co-writer of each story.
Having written numerous animated episodes and comic books for Marvel,
Craig is an experienced storyteller.
Outside of his normal producing
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responsibilities, he co-writes Marvel comic series, which often feature the wildly
popular X-23—a character of his creation.
Three years ago Craig was promoted to SVP of Production and
Development of Marvel Studios live-action division, and is currently the coproducer of “Thor.”
An accomplished producer, VICTORIA ALONSO (Co-Producer) served
as co-producer on both “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2” with director Jon Favreau,
and is now co-producing “Captain America” for director Joe Johnston and
“Marvel Studios’ The Avengers” for writer/director Joss Whedon. Alonso’s
career began at the nascency of the visual effects industry, when she served as a
commercial VFX producer. From there, she VFX-produced numerous feature
films, working with such directors as Ridley Scott (“Kingdom of Heaven”), Tim
Burton (“Big Fish”) and Andrew Adamson (“Shrek”), to name a few. Currently
she serves as Executive Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production for
Marvel Studios.
DAVE JORDAN (Music Supervisor) served as music supervisor for both
“Iron Man” and the hit sequel, “Iron Man 2.” He recently served in the same
capacity on “Big Mommas: Life Father Like Son,” “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Lottery
Ticket,” “Vampires Suck,” “Marmaduke,” “When in Rome,” “Old Dogs,” “The
Incredible Hulk,” “Charlie Bartlett,” “Transformers,” “Reign Over Me,” “Meet
the Spartans,” “Ghost Rider,” “Date Movie,” “Man About Town,” “The Fantastic
Four,” “Kicking & Screaming,” “The Upside of Anger,” “Elektra” and “Harold &
Kumar Go to White Castle.”
His other credits include “Dude, Where’s My Car?,” “The Fast and the
Furious,” “Daredevil,” “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “The Punisher,” as well as
the television series, “Glory Daze.”
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PATRICK DOYLE (Music by), a long-time creative collaborator with
Kenneth Branagh, graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and
Drama in 1974. He was made a fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in
2001.
Doyle’s first theatre score was written in 1978, and since then he’s written
music for many theatre, radio, television and film productions. In 1987, he joined
the Renaissance Theatre Company as composer and musical director. During
this time he completed a British tour of a number of productions for high profile
directors such as Sir Derek Jacobi, Geraldine McEwan and Dame Judi Dench.
In 1989, Branagh commissioned him to write the original score for “Henry
V.” The film’s song ‘Non Nobis Domine’ was awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello
Award for Best Film Theme.
In 1990, HRH The Prince of Wales commissioned Doyle to write “The
Thistle and The Rose, a song cycle for Soprano and Choir,” in honor of the Queen
Mother’s 90th birthday.
He also composed the original score for the film
“Shipwrecked” that year.
In 1991, Doyle composed the Golden Globe®-nominated score for
Branagh’s “Dead Again.”
Subsequent collaborations include “Frankenstein”;
“Much Ado About Nothing”; the musical “Love’s Labour’s Lost”; “As You Like
It”; and the four-hour epic adaptation of “Hamlet”, for which Doyle received an
Oscar® nomination for Best Original Score. He also scored Branagh’s “Sleuth,”
starring Jude Law and Michael Caine.
Doyle has also worked extensively with director Regis Wargnier, and
received two Cesar nominations for both the Oscar®-winning “Indochine” and
the Academy Award®-nominated “East West.”
With Wargnier, Doyle also
scored “Man to Man” (starring Joseph Feinnes) which opened the 2005 Berlin
Film Festival, and “Pars Vite et Reviens Tard,” which topped the box office in
France in 2007.
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Other highlights include working with directors Brian De Palma on
“Carlito’s Way”; Alphonso Cuaron on “A Little Princess” and “Great
Expectations”; and Ang Lee on the Oscar®-winning “Sense and Sensibility”,
which brought Doyle Oscar®, Golden Globe® and BAFTA nominations in the
Best Original Score categories.
In 2001, Doyle completed the score for the hit comedy “Bridget Jones’s
Diary,” and was then commissioned by director Robert Altman to score his
Oscar®-winning “Gosford Park.” In 2003, he composed the score for the comedy
“Calendar Girls,” followed by “Nanny McPhee” (starring Emma Thompson),
“Eragon” (starring John Malkovich) and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,”
directed by Mike Newell.
He and Branagh collaborated again in October 2007, when Branagh
directed “Patrick Doyle’s Music from the Movies” at the Royal Albert Hall. The
sold-out concert on behalf of The Leukaemia Research Fund featured
international stars, including Emma Thompson, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi
Dench, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton and Robbie Coltrane, among many
others.
In 2008, Doyle completed scores for “Nim’s Island,” directed by Mark
Levin and Jennifer Flackett, and the animated feature “Igor,” directed by Tony
Leondis. He is currently working on a series of albums, two for solo piano and
one for string quartet.
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