Now this is something I never would have seen coming from 10 miles away nor from the tops of Asgard itself. Kenneth Branagh as the director of Thor?!?! That’s the word floating around right now.
Apparently the Shakespearian specialist is in negotiations to helm the Thor movie. Yes, that Kenneth Branagh. The same Kenneth Branagh who directed Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. The same Kenneth Branagh who gave one of the all time great performances in Henry V (the man seriously knocked the crap out of that role!). This same Kenneth Branagh to direct Thor? Wow.
The good folks over at MTV give us the following:
If the pairing does become official, it would put one of the primary ambassadors of Shakespeare’s work to mainstream culture behind the camera for the live-action debut of Marvel’s favorite Norse superhero — a character who, like many of Branagh’s roles, doesn’t shy away from using “thee” and “thou” in conversation. “Thor” is currently scheduled for release on June 4, 2010
Now here’s the thing… there is the question on if this is a good FIT. On that level I’m not sure. No, Branagh has never done anything like this before in his life, but at the same time if they want to bring that sort of old world shakespearian feel to Thor then I can’t think of many people who would be better for the task.
Also, outside of the issue of “fit”, I always say that “it’s never a mistake to add talent”, and there are very few people out there who would deny the pure talent that Branagh brings to the table… he oozes it. As a matter of fact it would be pretty cool to see him take one of the roles in the film as well considering how solid of an actor he is too. Perhaps one of the other gods.
This is still in the negotiating stage, but I’ll say that IF this works out and Kenneth Branagh ends up being the director for Thor, then you can count me in as a supporter of the decision.
