Branagh & Thor Are Team Players For Marvel
Mar 20, 2009 by Rob KeyesSo far, things are looking good for the Thor movie – find out why.
Kenneth Branagh, the director for the upcoming Marvel film Thor, is proving why he’s the perfect choice for the gig.
MTV News spoke with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada and they spent time discussing Branagh and how well he is playing into the bigger picture of the Marvel universe and their intertwining stories.
“[Branagh] understood that there was this very, very big tapestry of the Marvel movies… There’s continuity within the movies and he really wanted to play within that and wanted it to be part of the other movies.”
Unlike Nolan and his stance on keeping his Batman away from the rest of the DC Universe and their movies, Branagh is a team player and is working towards the Marvel films designed as a connected family of movies leading up to the ultimate team-up movie in The Avengers.
“He was really, really loving the interconnectivity between all of these characters,” said Quesada, “and even thinking ahead as to how does ‘Thor’ interrelate with the ‘Iron Man’ movies. How will he interrelate with the Avengers movies, and how do we set these things up.”
Branagh wrote, directed and acted in several Shakespeare films such as Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Henry V. Needless to say, he’s extremely talented and his background perfectly suits him to helm the Thor movie.
I’m very excited for this Marvel film, maybe even slightly more than some of the other films on Marvel’s release schedule. I believe Branagh will do this film justice and will help set the stage for The Avengers and hopefully more sequels and team-up films down the road.
On another positive note, it sounds like they may be getting close to casting the lead role for this film – Check out our discussion on the six actors reportedly on the short list to play Thor.
What do you think of Mr. Branagh as director and are you excited for this film?
Thor opens in theaters at its new later date of June 17, 2011.
Source: MTV
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So in other words he’s not full of himself? Good to hear, can’t wait for more Thor news.
I’m a long time fan of Brnaugh and the Mighty Thor, so this pairing is perfect for me. I’m excited.
Branagh is an inspired choice. Check out his work in Dead Again–he was way ahead of the pack of directors in the early 1990s, imo. Except Mr. Scorsese, of course.
heath
Sounds freaking AWESOME.
Vic
I’m really like all the stuff that Kenneth has done and although I don’t like the Thor character at all, I will definitely see the movie.
Hell, I didn’t like Iron Man until the movie showed me the potential of the character.
“Unlike Nolan and his stance on keeping his Batman away from the rest of the DC Universe and their movies, Branagh is a team player and is working towards the Marvel films designed as a connected family of movies leading up to the ultimate team-up movie in The Avengers.”
Branagh hasn’t made a billion dollars for the studio, hasn’t written Thor, like Nolan did for BB and TDK and Nolan revived the DC line for WB..Superman Returns failed and WB was talking of moving on with the SPuperman franchise until BB outshone SR in terms of quality and success…and Branagh was informed from the beginning that these films would be intertwined so it’s not like he didn’t have a heads up…Nolan stated from the beginning that his vision was for a Batman that existed outside the rest of the DC universe to provide that aura of realism to make it more like a crime drama where a rich guy with no powers fights crime..More like a soldier than a super-hero…Geez you won’t let it go with Nolan not being a “team” player..WB is letting him finish what he started regardless of what any of us think…that’s enough for me..
Nolan isnt a team player.
Nolan’s vision of Batman is too good for it to intermingle with the rest. Unless they were all written and directed by them of course…
Justify it any way you want, there’s definitely a bit of ego involved there…
I don’t understand your post GK,
I basically said Branagh understands and is working toward the idea of a Marvel Universe and the films coinciding with each other – Nolan is not.
These both are true.
It sounds like you’re making reasons and excuses for Nolan – that’s fine, but it doesn’t affect what I say because I didn’t write what Nolan should or should not be doing – I said what he IS doing (or is not I guess, heh).
That being said, it would be obviously beneficial to the studios, fans and the other movies if he did change his mind and perhaps would do something like that in the future.
greenknight333 I agree with you completely.
Sadly Rob what you said is sort of unfair.Branagh has known from day one that this film is meant to be in with the rest of these films. Nolan was never instructed it had to be this way.
To be honest as exciting as what Marvel is doing is. I think the way Nolan does it makes for much better quality films. His films can stand alone. The Marvel films will all be dependent on each other and linked basically making them all one series. It’s cool and interesting, but lets not forget that so far while exciting and fun this plan has lead to a lack of complexity and depth. Nolan’s films are about Batman while Ironman seemed about Ironman and the Avengers. To be honest I don’t want Nolan to change his mind I prefer the way he is doing it. I think changing his mind is more likely to lead to lesser quality films.
Yah Daniel, so true. Iron Man can’t stand on its own and neither can Incredible Hulk. The entire time I was watching Iron Man all I could think of was “man, this would be ok if the other comic book characters were in it.” But it failed to capture my imagination and apparently I’m not the only one that feels this way as is apparent by its box office failure. Hopefully Marvel can get Iron Man back on his feet with this whole Avengers thing, whatever that is…
@Ken—LMFAO!
@Ken:
I can understand what you’re saying about the dangers of these interconnected Marvel flicks being too dependent upon one another but to say that, and I quote, “I’m not the only one that feels this way as is apparent by its box office failure…”
Er, que? Last I checked, Iron Man was one of the highest grossing and succesful movies of last year.
Although, re-reading Ken’s post, it’s always possible he’s being intentionally ironic.
Please say it is so, Ken.
As long as BRIAN BLESSED PLAYS ODIN
AND JAMES CALIUS PLAYS LOKI (come on have there ever been two more No-Brainer examples ever??)
And No Josh Hartnet personally the only film I liked him in was 30 Days.
I always dug the visual vibe of Ken’s Frankenstein film.
Excited for this one
Brian Blessed as Odin! Fantastic!
I’ve always loved Branagh’s Henry V. The battle scene was very well done.
His Frankenstein was interesting. He also did the film Conspiracy about the Germans who decided the fate of the Jews. A very chilling drama.
If he’s keeping Marvel happy, that could be a good thing. Depends if they’re doing the right thing.
I was just hoping for Daniel to agree with me so someone can point out how ridiculous my statement was… that would have been funny, lol.
Pity pity Iron Man, I’m sure Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau are kicking themselves for listening to Marvel and being team players as well…
@ Daniel,
I don’t think the Marvel films are “dependent” on each other at all – they all work perfectly as their own films, they aren’t episodic or reliant on other story lines… And I didn’t see any work towards the Avengers within the actual Iron Man story other than the scene after the credits when Sam L. flat out said that.
What the Marvel films do and plan to do with the upcoming movies, is work together sharing the same universe, like the actual characters in the comics. Unfortunately, as awesome as Nolan’s batman films are, they do not – It’s very different from the batman from the comics and an independent set of movies.
A quote from Christopher Nolan responding to the idea of Justice League in the LA Times:
“I don’t think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization. It goes back to one of the first things we wrangled with when we first started putting the story together: Is this a world in which comic books already exist? Is this a world in which superheroes already exist? If you think of “Batman Begins” and you think of the philosophy of this character trying to reinvent himself as a symbol, we took the position — we didn’t address it directly in the film, but we did take the position philosophically — that superheroes simply don’t exist. If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that’s a completely different decision that he’s making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol. It’s a paradox and a conundrum, but what we did is go back to the very original concept and idea of the character. In his first appearances, he invents himself as a totally original creation.”
Yes, his movies are awesome and his goals were to make his movies, his movies. But, I think it would be an even better thing to see the DC films work together towards a grander scheme and eventually a team-up film. The problem for the fans, is that it’s extremely difficult to lend the realism of his Bat films to the other characters of the Justice League.
I’m sure many would like to see WB’s DC movies work towards a Team-up film to compete with Marvel’s Avengers but I don’t think some their characters lend themselves to film as well – Can you imagine a live-action Wonder Woman?
It can be done, but that doesn’t interest Nolan. Interestingly, Bale’s contract reportedly has an option for an “ensemble” film. Wouldn’t you want to see the Green Lantern film and the lead character cross-over with the next Superman flick and Batman in some way?
Basically what GK is saying is that because its DC, its ok to be a loner and not want your movies to be connected. He is clearly a DC fan protecting his favorite things. Thats fine, but dont try to pretend it is anything other than that.
Nolan’s idea to keep it seperate came before the concept of interconnecting movies was even on the horizon with Iron Man. I bet if he could go back and change his mind, he would. I mean this is one of the greatest things to happen to movies in a long time. How many times in the past have movies (other than sequels) even hinted that other movies existed? Never, not that I can remember.
Marvel is smarter (and better) than DC in the movie world, thats all there is to it. Compare what has been made, and what is in the works….
TDK was a very good movie, I will not question that, but without Heath it was just a good movie, not much more than that. Watchmen was a great translation from the comic book, but unfortunatley the translation doesnt work for a movie as well as it did in comic form, Green Lantern has promise for it since they are using Hal and not Jon or Kyle, Superman’s new movie could be good too, but without knowledge of story yet, you can never know.
Marvel has Spider-Man 1&2, X-Men 1&2, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and a few other movies that were better than any of the DC movies (other than TDK, although I liked Iron Man more overall) and on the horizon is Thor, Cap, IM2, Avengers and Wolverine.
Marvel is just plain better in the movie market, which is sad for DC since Marvel is better in the comic book market as well.
Now that I have completely gone all over the place with this ranting and raving about Marvel vs. DC (not sure how I got there), I really hope Branagh will do Thor justice and make an epic movie for the God of Thunder.
Daniel, other than the ending with Fury, how in the world was Iron Man about him and the Avengers? There is no reference anywhere in the entire movie to them other than the recruitment after the credits.
Over all Marvel is better because they produce more watchable movies however the absolute best movies still belong to DC. TDK and BB are superior to pretty much all the marvel films and sadly when it comes to comics I’m a marvel fan. I have always preferred marvel.
As nolan has said he made these films before people were talking about doing this crap. Now it reaches where everyone is talking about it, but his films are made and are meant to stand alone. Nolan’s world wouldn’t mesh well with the rest of the league.
Also Ken I never said Ironman failed at the box office I simply said it wasn’t a great film it was just pretty entertaining. it lacked any depth what so ever. You can use box office numbers all you want, but they are meaningless when it comes to quality. I’ll remind you that X3, Spiderman3 and Transformers all made great cash while being horrible films.
@ doom
“Basically what GK is saying is that because its DC, its ok to be a loner and not want your movies to be connected. He is clearly a DC fan protecting his favorite things. Thats fine, but dont try to pretend it is anything other than that.”
you presume too much and that is not what I was saying, implying or stating..I am a fan of both Marvel and DC…My point is that Nolan is going to finish his trilogy with no other tie-ins to other DC characters and that that’s great..Batman will eventually make an appearance in some other DC property on film, then everybody can stop getting their panties in a knot over no DC crossovers with Nolan’s Batman films..By-the-way..I do love what Marvel is doing with the films it is producing themselves with their studio..I just have NO PROBLEM with no DC cameos in Nolan’s trilogy..they will be seen as great from a stand alone perspective in 10, 20, 30 even 50 years from now..
Oh, so Iron Man was “just” entertaining? Damn, if only the entertainment industry was about entertaining their fans. Oh well, maybe if one day that pipe dream comes true…
Anyway, the problem with TDK was that it took itself WAY too seriously, and that hurt its entertainment value. Now I know we don’t watch movies for entertainment, duh, but still I liked Iron Man better because it leaves me in a much better mood than TDK did. Now it wasn’t depressing, it actually left me annoyed because of that horribly cut ending. It seemed to me like the movie was cut and edited very well through the entire film, then it just fell apart all of a sudden toward the end as if they had hired another company to put the ending together. The pacing was terrible, the dialogue all of a sudden became cheesy, heck, beyond the editing and cutting even the plotline toward the end became pretty cheesy.
If the movie would have ended 20 minutes earlier without that whole ending sequence, basically end it after they capture The Joker, the movie would have been a 10/10 for me. But if forced to give it a number rating, after that ending, the most I’m willing to give it is a 9, but I’m feeling more of an 8. I was actually quite agitated coming out of the theater, but I guess it might not be completely fair to take off 20% of the score just for the ending 20 minutes or so.
I can definitely say that I liked Iron Man more than BB and TDK, but I won’t go as far as to say that it is a better film, based on the arbitrary good film scale not relative to the entertainment value of the movie. I guess one can argue that it’s not as “good” because it’s a simpler film. But if you look at how things happen in the REAL world, one thing leads to the other, most of the times events can be answered with a pretty simple answer. Sometimes simpler is better (KISS?). And in this case, I think that is completely true. With Iron Man we got to see a cool origin story, then see the development of his kick ass armor, then watch as he kicked peoples’ asses. Come on, I seriously don’t want anything much more complicated than that from an origin story, maybe in its sequel.
TDK bogged itself down in its “fun” factor with how they TRIED to depress their viewers. Argue with me all you want, they tried it, with their overly dramatic “He’s the hero he needs to be” BS speech Alfred kept spewing through the movie and in its end. Seriously, Alfred has ALWAYS been one of my favorite Batman characters from the animated series to BB to TDK, but I seriously wanted a car to crash through the window and strike his old ass down when he started talking that retarded overly wannabe dramatic crap.
And that whole fake detective crap with the shattered bullet thing. That was just dumb, no excuse, it was thrown in there after the fact and you know this is true because it had no impact on the story or plot of the film. The ONLY thing it did was lead Bruce Wayne to a vantage point to see what happens next. Whether they found that fingerprint or not the plot wouldn’t have been affected. Also, very nice that Bruce walks into that apartment not knowing what he’ll find, yet he goes without his costume, and LUCKILY the guys in there happen to be blindfolded… Oh yah, typical movie coincidence saves the day again.
Also, if The Joker is such a ruthless killer, why did he leave those guards alive at all? Shouldn’t Wayne have walked into the room to find a pile of bodies? That would have made The Joker seem that much more menacing. Because to me he seemed more words than action. He threatened to do a lot, but in the end, didn’t really. Not more than any other movie villain at least.
The Incredible Hulk was a giant leap ahead of the last Hulk movie, known as Brokeback Hulk, but it wasn’t as good as TDK or IM, but fun to watch nonetheless.I can’t wait to see more of Iron Man and Hulk though, and together on one screen, that will be epic. Add to that Thor, which looks to be shaping up nicely with a very talented director and the possibility of a very talented actor. A movie mashup of these characters will be HUGE. Even if Bale were to be in a Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman movie, it wouldn’t be as good as Avengers in my opinion. Out of everyone in the Justice League the only one that I like is Batman, so at least for me it wouldn’t really be a big deal. But I’m really looking forward to more Hulk and Iron Man, and we’ll see if Thor is any good, but from the looks of it, it probably will not disappoint…
Your right a movie that’s basically an excuse to make a joke or two and blow things up is so much better to watch. God forbid a film be about something and have meaning behind it. They can’t all be Transformers. Some movies have a purpose other then “Things go boom.” Iron Man was an amazing film if you really hate to think at all. Oh and talk about the last 20 mins of a film being bad. Iron man ended with the most anit climatic battle I’ve ever seen. It was far more entertaining to watch Tony Stark tell jokes than to see that worth less fight. By the end of the film you didn’t give a crap about Iron Monger or Obidiah. I have never felt so un invested in a villain as I did with this film.
LOL, oh yes, TDK had such deep meaning…
I know some people like to think so, but it was “just a movie” like the rest of them, sorry. It was a good one, but come on, just because it TRIED to be overly dramatic and theatrical doesn’t mean that it actually was and deserves a whole freakin revision of the bible dedicated to it, geez… 
Iron Man was a good movie, TDK was a great movie but they were both just movies..hey it’s not like they were as good as the Matrix films..
Oh no GK, please don’t start, lol.
Okay..I’ll stop..
I think you are into the Matrix movies like I am T1 and T2, lol, or worse even, but that’ll be hard to imagine…