Chris Hemsworth Scheduled to Play Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, in Upcoming Movie

Chris Hemsworth

Steven Bryan – Associated Content

Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, is scheduled to leave his home in Asgard and make the long trip down the Rainbow Bridge to the multiplex in 2011. According to IMDB, renowned actor Kenneth Branagh will step behind the camera in January 2010 to film a big screen adventure based on the popular Marvel Comics character.
In the early 1960′s, comic book legends Stan Lee and Jack “King” Kirby created a new superhero based on Thor, the Norse God of Thunder. First appearing in “Journey into Mystery #83,” Thor started out as the alter ego of Dr. Donald Blake, a surgeon who takes a fateful vacation to Scandinavia.

Blake, who walks with the help of a cane, discovers a group of alien invaders and, when he tries to flee, he fell into a subterranean cave. Frustrated and angry because of his limp, Blake picks up a wooden staff he finds in the cave and strikes a nearby boulder. The doctor’s angry actions generate a flash of lightning which transforms him into Thor and the wooden staff into a mighty hammer.

Now a living, breathing Norse God, Blake frees himself from the cave and promptly beats the alien invaders into

Natalie Portman

submission. Returning to his human form by tapping his hammer upon the ground, Dr. Donald Blake begins a series of adventures as Thor, which have continued, in one form or another, for nearly 40 years.

For the 2011 movie, actor Chris Hemsworth will be flexing his muscles as the Mighty Thor. Hemsworth recently popped up on the radar for his supporting role in “A Perfect Getaway,” a thriller set against a beautiful Hawaiian backdrop. Hemsworth played a very stoic hitchhiker named Kale, who, along with his girlfriend (Marley Shelton), may or may not have been responsible for a brutal double-murder.

In the comic book adaptation, Hemsworth stars opposite Natalie Portman, who played Senator Padme Amidala in the last “Star Wars” trilogy. For “Thor,” Portman plays Jane Foster, Dr. Donald Blake’s devoted nurse who also is madly in love with him.

Vin Diesel To Return In R-Rated ‘Riddick’ Sequel?

Ross Miller – ScreenRant.com

Both ShockTillYouDrop and Bloody-Disgusting got a chance to sit down with Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick writer, David Twohy, who gave an update on the status of the third Riddick movie. The writer/director of the upcoming A Perfect Getaway confirmed that he and star Vin Diesel are currently in the midst of discussions of how to bring the character back for a third movie, including a very welcome detail that they are aiming for an R-Rated movie again.

Twohy co-wrote and directed Pitch Black back in 2000, before going on four years later to solely write and direct its step-down sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick. Pitch Black was rated R and delivered a pretty hardcore sci-fi action/horror movie that still holds up today. Its sequel was brought down to a PG-13 rating, and even Twohy himself agrees that was a mistake for the series. Check out some of what Twohy said about what direction he and Diesel are aiming to take the franchise for the third installment:

“I’ve sketched out two ideas for the next installment… Vin [Diesel] and I have decided on one approach of those two, and there’s some interest at the studio level but it would be as a PG-13 film, and we don’t want to do that anymore. That’s one of the concessions we thought we made with ‘Riddick’ that we shouldn’t have made.”

“We also spent too much money and we were too ambitions, so yes, if we do go back to a third one, it will be focused again, hopefully again the same way that ‘Pitch Black’ was, and we’ll spend less money doing it. We’re just trying to figure out how much less we can do it for, because I don’t think Vin is going to work for scale again.”

Twohy has said that they’re specifically aiming for the third Riddick to be R-Rated, even wanting to make sure they have some control over it to make that rating possible:

“We want an R, so we are looking at the possibility of setting it up as an independent movie and selling it territory by territory and thereby keeping an ownership stake in the movie. But we’re trying to see what that would yield in this unsafe market…”

Twohy also explained that the third Riddick would be a lot more scaled down in size compared to The Chronicles of Riddick, being much more akin to Pitch Black in that sense. He says that the story will always be Riddick-centric, and gives his opinion that even if you took the creatures out of Pitch Black, you still have some very interesting character dynamics.

On top of working hard on ideas for Riddick 3 (hey, we’re calling Batman 3 as such…), Twohy also has a supernatural thriller on his plate which he has written himself called Crying Havoc. That is set to be produced by none other than Ridley Scott. Here’s what Twohy had to say about the project:

“[My next movie] could be a supernatural thriller called CRYING HAVOC that Ridley Scott would produce and I would direct. It’s about an FBI agent who uses technology to track a spy across the world only to learn that the spy is more of a demon than a man. That chase leads our FBI agent into the lower circles of hell, at least psychologically speaking. I think it’s a very cool supernatural thriller with a lot of great visuals to it. That’s already written and that could pop next. Ridley has been shepherding that project along.”

Although no filming or release date has been set as of yet for Riddick 3, Twohy hinted at a possible production date of early 2010.

Source(s): ShockTillYouDrop, Bloody-Disgusting,  ScreenRant.com