As a member of the press, you get a whole lot of literature about the latest movies, TV shows, comics, or whatever. You’re constantly getting pages upon pages of information about these upcoming projects with the hopes of that your outlet will cover the news to promote whatever it is the publicist or studio is pushing that day. But one piece of promotional material that can come in handy is the packet of production notes. Often, you find some new details and interesting insights from the people involved. And now, those notes for Marvel’s next movie have made their way online for the world to see.
In the production notes for ‘Thor: The Dark World’, a number of cast and crew such as director Alan Taylor, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and stars Chris Hemsworth, Christopher Eccleston, Kat Dennings, Zachary Levi, and Anthony Hopkins all weigh in on their upcoming film and the parts that they play in it. The packet starts with a brief history of Thor, the mythology surrounding him, and the Marvel version of the character in the comics and movies, but then it gets into some talk about what we can expect in theaters later this fall.
First, Taylor talks about the Asgardian Avenger’s journey in the follow up to Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film:
“In the first film, we saw Thor go from being an impetuous prince to taking his first steps towards maturing and growing up, and in our film that life story continues. He’s moving closer to actually claiming the kind of power that comes with Odin. He’s becoming not just a man, but potentially a king as well. In this story, as Thor matures and deepens, he has to give some things up and suffer.”
Next, while talking about the humans in Thor’s life, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, and Stellan Skarsgard discuss Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, and Erik Selvig, who seems to be fairly traumatized after his encounter with Loki in ‘The Avengers’. We learn that his colleagues find him after he is caught on national television at Stonehenge half naked. The Swedish actor jokes about his scenes in Wiltshire, England by offering a bit of a warning:
“It was cold. I’d recommend clothes at Stonehenge. The English climate is not suitable for streaking!”
Then, after getting some background on the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim and their near extinction/thousand year hibernation, the former 9th Doctor speaks on his role as Malekith the Accursed to round out the casting discussion:
“I wanted Malekith to have a sense of humor, because I think a sense of humor indicates intelligence and if you’ve got an intelligent villain that means that your heroes have to be really accomplished to beat them.”
Finally, no talk of villainy in Asgard would be complete without a little something from Loki. Fan favorite actor Tom Hiddleston went into the many, many layers of the God of Mischief:
“I feel like ‘Thor: The Dark World” is a chance as an actor to find new depth, new dimension, new iterations of Loki’s psychology, of his physicality and his capacity for feeling. On one level he is an off- the-rails psychopathic agent of chaos, but on a human level, his psychology and his emotional landscape is very, very interesting because he’s so intelligent and yet so broken. This film is a chance to find where his capacity for heroism and his Machiavellian menace meet.”
Besides going into the various characters that we’ll be meeting in the upcoming feature film for the God of Thunder, production designer Charles Wood recalls the challenges that he and Taylor had in creating Asgard and the Nine Realms in a way that these fantastical places felt tangible and realistic.
For the entire press release, you can go to one8one to read the whole thing.
Which characters are you most excited to see in ‘Thor: The Dark World’? Let us know in the comment section.
‘Thor: The Dark World’ starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Zachary Levi, and Anthony Hopkins is scheduled to hit theaters on November 8, 2013.