He might have about a dozen films under his belt as a director, but Variety’s announcement that Kenneth Branagh is directing one of the upcoming Marvel comic book properties comes across as a completely out of left field hiring decision. I’m sure that the director behind recent films like Sleuth and the direct-to-video As You Like It doesn’t have a stash of Thor comics in his attic, so I’m extremely curious to know why Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige’s picked the actor/director for what may be a huge bug-0budget undertaking.
Adapted by Mark Protosevich (The Cell, Poseidon and I Am Legend), this is based on the comicbook franchise that launched in 1962. This follows a disabled medical student Donald Blake, who has an alter ego as the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor a blonde-tressed, hammer-wielding hero who’s sent to Earth to protect mankind.
