I guess those rumors of Brian Blessed playing Odin in Marvel Studios’ upcoming Thor movie aren’t coming to fruition. Who needs him when you have a knighted Oscar winner in Sir Anthony Hopkins!

That’s right folks, director Kenneth Branagh as added another huge name and talented actor to his cast of awesomeness.  I am pumped.

This movie was already my most anticipated of Marvel’s upcoming slate of solo films leading up to The Avengers, here’s just on more big reason to be excited.

Over the last several months, we’ve heard many industry folk chime in the Marvel Studio’s plan of bringing together their superstar superheroes into one shared project, the most ambitious project in comic book movie history: The Avengers.

From Matthew Vaughn (the original director attached to Thor) admitting his desire to helm The Avengers, Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier’s idea of a four-part series of Avengers films to writer Zak Penn’s fear that the epic team-up project is so complicated that it may “suck.” There’s been plenty of talk from the folks behind the cameras about Marvel’s on-screen future, but what about the characters?

One question for the filmmakers has been to figure out how Jon Favreau’s tech-based Iron Man can work together with the mystical Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor? It’s easy in the comic books, but how will they adapt it into live-action and have it make sense? Marvel comic writer Brian Michael Bendis knows it can work – check out his thoughts on The Avengers after the jump.

Kyle Buchanan at Movieline interviewed actor Dominic Cooper (The Duchess, Mamma Mia!) not long ago and managed to scoop some interesting information from him about Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Marvel Studios film based on Marvel’s God of Thunder.

Towards the end of the interview, while talking about the possibility of Mamma Mia! 2, Buchanan noticed Thor script sides beside him and directly asked him if he had auditioned for a role in the Thor movie. After a pause, Cooper revealed that he “kind of” did and questioned back if the interviewer knew of any good Thor roles for him.

Having read what was on the top page (upside down), Buchanan wittingly replied “Fandral, maybe?”

Is there anybody that doesn’t know or respect Stan “The Man” Lee, the official godfather of comics? The octogenarian artist is responsible to bringing many of the comic superheroes that readers have come to love and that movie audiences are now becoming familiar with as well. One of the fun points in the each of the Marvel films is a “Where’s Waldo?” style game that is played with Stan Lee standing in for Waldo.

Starting way back in 2000 with X-Men, he’s appeared in majority of the Marvel Comics-based movies. The one he was most notably missing from is this summer’s blockbuster (financially) X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Steve at Collider had a great interview with him at Scream Fest, where Stan explains that he likes doing the cameos but that they weren’t his idea and doesn’t do them if he has to travel far. Since Wolverine was filmed in Australia, that would explain his absence.

In the upcoming Iron Man sequel, Lee says director Jon Favreau called him up and said “put on these thick black glasses and these suspenders; you’re playing Larry King.” Watch the entire interview after the jump.

In last two weeks there have been a few additional announcements made for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Thor film. We learned that Stellan Skarsgård, father of Thor candidate Alexander Skarsgård, was cast into the movie but he had to remain tight-lipped about who he was playing. Following that, a pair of open casting calls surfaced that asked for a college student and a bunch of large “fearless” warriors.

So, if you weren’t excited about the cast so far which also includes Chris Hemsworth as the title character, Tom Hiddleston as his nemesis, Natalie Portman, Jaimie Alexander, Colm Feore and possibly Brian Blessed as Odin, you might be more excited now with the following two names possibly added to the cast.

According to actor Matthias Schweighöfer (Valkyrie) in an interview for the German edition of GQ, he reveals that he’s in the running for a role in Thor but that Jude Law and Robert De Niro have also already been cast. Yes, De Niro and Jude Law in one of the next Marvel Superhero epics…

Of the upcoming slate of solo superhero films in development at Marvel Studios, Thor is the one I’m most excited to see. I believe there’s an opportunity to create something unique and special with this character on screen. Knowing who’s involved and what it will lead to with cross-overs to the other Marvel solo titles and the eventual Avengers team-up film, makes me overjoyed with excitement and anticipation.

Every news item we’ve heard about the project from casting updates, meeting reports and first-hand accounts of the behind-the-scenes happenings have been greatly positive. Many of the key roles have been filled in recent months, including this week’s announcement of Stellan Skarsgård joining the cast. Now, official open casting calls are being announced for small parts in the Thor movie.

Swedish-born Stellan Skarsgård (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3, Angels & Demons) has been added to the cast of Marvel Studios’ Thor film.

Skarsgård joins Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Jaimie Alexander (Sif), Colm Feore and Brian Blessed (Odin).

The actor says he cannot reveal who he’s playing in the film, as with Colm Feore whom we only know will be playing some sort of villain.

Happy Friday everyone! For our first Friday of October 2009, we’ve again gathered the latest posters to come out for this week’s poster round-up.

Screen Rant’s wall this week now includes new one-sheets for The Princess and the Frog, Caprica, The Crazies, The Mechanic, Stone, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Saw VI, The Twilight Saga’s New Moon and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.

In addition to that we have two bonus posters from two major upcoming films that you need to check out! Also, there’s some very creative road sign parody posters of classic films, as well as some older and strange looking posters from Ghana.

Let’s get to it.

Two years ago, Sega signed a deal with Marvel to develop games based on their superhero movies. Since then, we have seen the release of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Out of the three games that accompanied the film releases, two were horrible (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk) and one was average (X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Not surprisingly, Sega published two of the three games. I’ll let you figure out which ones they were. (cough – the crappy ones – cough).

With Iron Man 2, Captain America and Thor on the books for both Marvel and Sega, does that mean we, the audience, can look forward to more mediocre games from the fallen Sonic creator or is there a silver lining? Perhaps!

The Hollywood Reporter has released the names of two actors who have been added to the cast of Disney/Marvel’s upcoming film adaptation of Thor, which is being directed by the acclaimed Kenneth Branagh and stars Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek) as the titular hero and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Thor’s nefarious half-brother.

The latest casting news is that actress Jaimie Alexander (Kyle XY) will be playing the role of Sif, a female warrior from the mystical realm of Asgard (land of the Norse gods), who is also one of Thor’s love interests. The other name released was that of Colm Feore (24), who will be playing a yet-unnamed villain in the film.

In a move the reeks of opportunism and greed, Jack Kirby’s Estate (a.k.a. his family) have hired Intellectual Property Lawyer Marc Toberoff to sue Disney/Marvel, Sony, Universal, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures in an attempt to reclaim copyright ownership of the characters their late father Jacob Kurtzberg created. You may know his name better as Jack Kirby and you are most familiar with his iconic and highly popular comic book creations, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and The Silver Surfer.

Thanks to the guys over /Film for sharing this with us and to Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool and Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywod who seem to have gotten the drop on this breaking news. This is not the first lawsuit we’ve seen involving a comic book creator’s estate vs. the current owner and publisher; Just recently we reported and discussed WB/DC’s fight with the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Jerry Schuster over the rights to Superman.

To quote the late Queen of Blues, Dinah Washington, “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Just recently all anyone was talking about in the movie industry was whether The Final Destination was in indeed final and if Rob Zombie was done butchering horror films (to answer that last question, NO, he’s trying to tackle The Blob next – and I’m not referring to my first girlfriend from high school). But here we are, just a scant twenty-four hours later and the biggest fish in the marketing sea has just eaten the biggest fish in the comic book sea.

Of course, I’m talking about the news that Walt Disney Co. acquired Marvel Comics, Inc. for the meager sum of $4 billion dollars. It’s a great deal of money, and I don’t care what the nay-sayers out there gripe about, if I owned a prospering business and a mega-company offered to buy me out for an exuberant amount of money, I’d sell too. Heck, I’d go buy a special pen just to sign the papers! Anyone who says otherwise just isn’t being honest with themselves.

OK, so just a few minutes ago Twitter literally exploded with news of a major financial announcement: according to The Associated Press, The Walt Disney Co. will acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc., for $4 billion in cash and stock.

Woah! If you ever wondered how much the Marvel Universe is worth, I think you just found out.

Matthew Vaughn, director and producer of the upcoming rated-R comic book adaptation, Kick-Ass, really wants to helm Marvel Studio’s The Avengers movie.

Vaughn, if you remember, was director of X-Men: The Last Stand… for a short while anyway. After he took over for Bryan Singer, he quickly left which opened to door for Brett Ratner to direct the project which in my mind, is the absolute worst of the four X-Men movies.

Looking forward instead of back though, Vaughn now has directed three feature films: Layer Cake, Stardust and now Kick-Ass (which quickly earned itself an American distributor after premiering footage at San Diego Comic-Con.) Now, he wants to do another superhero flick…

Louis Leterrier, the director behind last year’s The Incredible Hulk, made a lot of headlines in and around the time of its release by hinting at a Captain America cameo in the film as an “easter egg” that never really met our expectations. Now he’s at it again, this time talking about the major upcoming Marvel films, what he knows about them, what he’d like to work on, and what he’d like to do with The Avengers, given the chance.

In a Clash of the Titans set interview, LA Times journalist, Geoff Boucher, sat down with Letterier who wasn’t shy about revealing some of his ideas and thoughts on the upcoming slate of films in development at Marvel Studios. We’ve taken the best bits to discuss and share with you, and then we share what we think could be done with the eagerly anticipated Marvel team-up adventure.

Marvel Studios had a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday by providing fans with one of the most entertaining panels of the event. That presentation was of course, for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, which he delivered to the loyal Hall H residents in full force.

Screen Rant master Vic and I attended the Iron Man 2 panel and were treated to something amazing. But we’ve already talked about that and while you wait for the trailer we saw to eventually come online, you may be wondering what updates there have been for the other more distant films in Marvel’s production queue.

Find the latest on the Avengers team-up film and other Marvel films in development after the jump.

Marvel Studios has announced that Star Wars star Natalie Portman will be playing the love interest in Kenneth Branagh’s big screen version of Thor.

Portman will star as nurse Jane Foster, the human woman who became Thor’s love interest in the early Marvel Comics. The film version of the heroic god of thunder comic will star Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-wielding superhero.

Previous reports had Green Lantern runner-up Justin Timberlake’s squeeze Jessica Biel up for a role as Thor’s love interest.

I just had to continue praising Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, didn’t I?

Earlier today, I wrote about some updates of how things were progressing very well with the development of the Thor feature film and that Marvel and its people were very happy with and working positively towards a film with great potential.

Then came the news later today that Jessica Biel is currently in contract negotiations for a role in the film…

Thor is arguably the toughest character and film to sell out of the upcoming slate of movies in development at Marvel Studios, but it is the one I’m most excited for.

Besides my interest in the character, what really grabs my interest is the man in charge: Kenneth Branagh.

Marvel Studios has made one of the biggest splashes into the film industry in recent years with them become a full-fledged independent studio that finances its own films.

You no doubt have seen the results of this in mainstream media in recent times with the two big summer movies last year, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, and the success that ensued.

Now we have an ever-growing list of films on Marvel’s production slate with talk of expansion to a production capacity of four big budget features a year in the not too distant future.

For now, we’ll have to settle with the massive upcoming origin films for Thor and Captain America, the sequel to last summer’s hit Iron Man, and the eagerly anticipated and almighty team-up film that will bring them all together: Avengers.

Oh Chris Hemsworth. From the moment you heroically piloted the USS Kelvin into the heart of the Romulan mining ship Narada in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, we knew you’d be a star.

Within just a few months, you’ve already scored the lead in Thor, one of the most anticipated Marvel films in production, and you’re taking over the reins of the venerable Patrick Swayze in the remake of Red Dawn. Bravo sir. Bravo.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada has been talking a lot lately about upcoming Marvel projects – he recently discussed some of the upcoming comic book developments for The Rebirth of Captain America, and more recently, about Iron Man 2 and Thor.

Quesada posted some comments on his web column about both projects, such as what direction the movies are being taken in and a bit about what it’s like working with directors Jon Favreau (Iron Man 2) and Kenneth Branagh (Thor). Check out this hot info poured straight from the Cup ‘O Joe:

The First Avenger: Captain America is one of the four big budget summer blockbusters on Marvel’s official slate of upcoming films. Along with the Iron Man franchise, The Incredible Hulk and Thor, Captain America is getting his own origin film to establish his character in Marvel movie continuity all culminating to the main event: The Avengers.

It’s fantastic timing for Marvel to be doing this with their own fast-growing studio during the era of comic book films, but for Captain America, the timing seemed a little off in terms of lining up with the comics since the character the movie is based on is dead – and has been for over two years.

Well, that’s not going to be the case for long and it’s no coincidence in timing.

If you’re a regular Screen Rant reader, you’ve no doubt seen our extensive coverage of Thor leading up to and including the casting announcements. As we waited eagerly to see director Kenneth Branagh’s choice of who would play the God of Thunder, there was quite a bit of speculation abound as to what candidates were in the running for the role.

Back in March, we reported that the folks behind Thor had narrowed their choices down to six. They included Josh Hartnett, Liam Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Joel Kinnaman and Alexander Skarsgård.

There is a lot of new info about the major Marvel superhero movies floating around the Web right now, and because we at Screen Rant believe in a lifestyle of convenience, we’ve pulled together all the bits and pieces into one cohesive Marvel Movie Update.

If you’ve been wondering what’s the latest with Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America or the much-anticipated grand-slam finale, The Avengers, then be sure to keep on reading. Oh, and not to be left out of the club, we’ve got some quick recaps on what’s going on with  Spider-Man 4.

[UPDATE: Check out the Promo Posters for Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 4!]

It’s an exciting time for film buffs and comic readers alike as we have entered the era of comic book movies with no end in site. Today, we’ve got a little tease to keep that excitement up!

With films based on Marvel’s vast collection of characters and stories being created regularly by a multitude of studios over the years, we saw the genre grow even more with the comic publisher creating its own film production company, Marvel Studios, back in the nineties.

The logos after the jump…

Comic book blog site Bleeding Cool is reporting that actor Brian Blessed (Hamlet, Macbeth) is going to be lending his famously booming voice and imposing stature to the role of Odin, King of Asgard, in Kenneth Branagh’s big-screen adaptation of Marvel Comics’ Thor.

Fans of Thor of course know that Odin is not only All-Father of Asgard, he’s also the father of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Thor’s nefarious half-brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). If Brian Blessed has indeed snagged the role of Odin, it means that Thor is going to get a serious thespian to help anchor the cast of relative newcomers.

In the last month, we’ve seen some major movement on Marvel’s upcoming Thor movie. Major casting decisions were announced with Chris Hemsworth set to play Thor and Tom Hiddleston to play Loki, and we’ve heard director Kenneth Branagh talk about the cast and nailing down the shooting schedule.

With the big announcements made, we’re starting to finally see some more general news on the movie including these two interviews that I’ll discuss in this article.

It’s been a big few days for Kenneth Branagh and his upcoming Marvel epic, Thor. On Saturday, all the rumors and speculation were put to rest as we finally found out Chris Hemsworth (Captain Kirk’s short-lived dad from Star Trek) would be playing Thor. To keep the buzz momentum going, today we found out that Tom Hiddleston has been cast as the villain, Loki.

Courtesy of a Nikki Finke exclusive, it seems Marvel has its Thor. Just days after Kenneth Branagh talked about Thor casting delays, the word is Chris Hemsworth will wield the mighty Mjolnir. That’s right, Captain Kirk’s dad in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot is now Marvel’s God of Thunder.