Screenhead

The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment in a stock and cash business deal worth $4 billion.  What a change this will be for the Mouse House company and means Disney now owns more than 5,000 Marvel characters, including Thor, Fantastic-Four, Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men and Captain America. 

The business transaction needs to be sanctioned by the antitrust review and approved by Marvel shareholders, but the deal is as good as gold.

Does that mean in the future we’ll be visiting Disneyland and riding on an  Iron Man/Spider-Man cosmic amusement ride?

Natalie Portman is one lucky lady because she just nabbed the female lead in Thor, Marvel Studios’ adaptation of its comic book.  She will co-star with Chris Hemsworth, who plays the Norse god of thunder, while Kenneth Branagh sets in the director’s chair.

Portman will play Jane Foster, a nurse who becomes Thor’s first love.   

Thor is considered a comic book epic of fantasy adventure.  The premise spans from present-day Earth to the realm of Asgard.  We follow Thor who learns his lesson on Earth. At first he is a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. He is punished and cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans.  On Earth he learns what it means to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

We will have to wait patiently for the film’s release because principal photography is scheduled for early 2010 and the release date for the film in the U.S.is May 20, 2011.

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Lightning has struck the cast of upcoming Marvel Comics project Thor, which has gotten its first cast being shot down: Clifton Collins Jr.

The Star Trek actor, who revealed earlier that he had auditioned for the project, has come out and said that he is no longer part of it.

"That was a long time ago. I wasn’t really getting into it, I was just preparing stuff,” he said. “It’s a fantastic director, a great piece, but I have absolutely nothing to do with it.”

One shot down, the other shoots up: there are rumors circulating that Jessica Biel may play the love interest to the titular hero in the film. The role is likely to be that of Amora the Enchantress.

Chris Hemsworth, the Australian, who plays Captain James T. Kirk’s father, George Kirk in the latest Star Trek, is set to play Thor. Hemsworth will carry the mighty hammer in the upcoming film adaptation of Marvel Studio’s classic comic book series. 

Hemsworth is quite popular in Australia, appearing in the TV series “Home and Away.”

According to Wallander director Kenneth Branagh, progress on Thor is going ahead as planned, as the film is currently in “intense pre-production”. He revealed this at a premiere screening of his aforementioned TV movie series, noting the relationship between the show and the one-year delay of Thor.

"I shoot Thor in January of next year and because the time of release has been moved, it’s allowed me to have a moment in the summer where I can shoot the Wallanders,” he said. “Strangely, there’s a weird, pleasing connection between the Swedish Wallander and the Nordic Thor."

He also disclosed that Wallander co-star Tom Hiddleston is one of the potential candidates for the titular role. However, he noted that it’s still a work in progress and that no decision had been made yet.

These days it’s all about value– am I getting the most for my entertainment dollar? It’s a question we’ve all had to ask ourselves at one time or another, and it’s a question can be answered with a surprising yes in the case of one of Lions Gate’s newest releases–Hulk Versus.

Why is this a surprise, you might ask? Well, in this case, you’ll be getting two movies for the price of one. Granted, these two movies are only about an hour long, but they’ll pack plenty of action into each of those hours.

Both installments of Hulk Versus will feature everyone’s favorite rage-fuelled pounding machine, The Hulk. First, he’ll manage to find himself taking on Thor in Asgard, pounding his way through a whole bunch of pagan deities in an effort to, well, I’m not really sure why he decided to go off the rails in such a fashion. I DO know that certain magic spells separated The Hulk from controlling factor Bruce Banner, but after The Hulk was free to rampage as he saw fit, I’m not sure why he was so desperate to try and go kill Odin. Makes no sense, in retrospect, but it was still fun to watch.

But the real winner of the set has to be Hulk Versus’ second installment, in which The Hulk will start pounding the living daylights out of not only Wolverine, as the title implies (Hulk Vs. Wolverine. Guess that’s not so much an implication as it is an outright promise.), but also a panoply of Weapon X adjuncts and other assorted Marvel figures like Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red, and, in a surprising twist, Deadpool.

Yes, for those of you who were wondering when Marvel was going to finally manage to do something with the merc with the mouth, it’s now. You have no idea how happy I was to see DEADPOOL in a movie. That was most of the draw for me, right there—Deadpool’s been a favorite for a long time now, and it’s great to see him at work.

Small personal quirks aside…these are pretty solid pieces. There’s a lot more blood in the Wolverine chapter, so if it’s your kids these are meant for you may want to keep an eye out. Oh, sure, there’s some in the Thor installment too, but it’s mostly like a split lip, with a bit trailing down Thor’s jaw. Wolverine is soaking with it—for those who were wondering, yes, adamantium claws CAN pierce Hulk skin.

The stories will be a little thin—essentially, The Hulk goes to a few different places and starts clubbing things with his fists repeatedly—but it’s the sheer amount of action and violence that they included in this that’s going to make it an adrenaline-fuelled ride of downright epic proportions for a comic book based movie.

If you’re making yours Marvel on a regular basis, then there’s little doubt you’ll enjoy Hulk Versus. But if you’re not a true believer—or maybe if you just favor DC—then unless you’re an action fan, you’ll likely not get much out of it. So there’s a rather limited appeal here, but for those who’d like to see The Hulk in something, well, this will DEFINITELY fit your bill.

Marvel Studios has revised its plans for the release of its upcoming film properties, pushing two films back by a year. However, this means that 2011 will be an awesome year for superhero fans. Here’s the new schedule:

May 7th 2010: "Iron Man 2" (same date)

May 6th 2011: "Spider-Man 4" (just announced)
June 17th 2011: "Thor" (delayed a full year)
July 22nd 2011: "The First Avenger: Captain America" (delayed two months)

May 4th 2012: "The Avengers" (delayed ten months)

The company appears to have firmly planted its superhero seeds in every summer, as they had Spider-Man 3 in 2007, Iron Man in 2008, Wolverine this year and now three films up to 2012.

2011 also appears to be quite crowded, seeing as how the studio aims to open three films over the space of eleven weeks. And there’s also expectations that the next Batman film will be out sometime that summer as well.

It appears that the Thor movie is going forward, as IESB reports that actor Josh Hartnett has apparently met with director Kenneth Brannagh and is currently on a short list to play the villain in the film.

The villain will be Thor’s brother Loki, who repeatedly tries to get rid of Thor and seize the throne of Asgard for himself.

This news comes in the wake of rumors that Alexander Skarsgard is being billed to play the titular Norse god of thunder.

Samuel L. Jackson is in with Marvel bigtime.  The actor has signed an unprecedented nine-picture deal to play Nick Fury in a series of Marvel movies.  For the last few weeks, it appeared that Jackson was not interested in reprising his role.  Now, he is the agent spy with the outfit S.H.I.E.L.D for nine films that include Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and its sequels.

There is also talk of an S.H.I.E.L.D movie.

Corona Coming Attractions reports that a casting call for the lead role in Thor has been sent out, implying that Rome actor Kevin McKidd, who was previously in talks to play the thunder god, is no longer involved in the project.

The casting call asks for a 6-foot or taller man in his mid to late 20s. The person must be “physically powerful, very handsome, occasionally egotistical, petulant and wild.” Additionally, they must be a “natural warrior with a quick charming wit who must be genuinely and severely humble…” Good luck with finding that person!

The project kicks off this July, with Kenneth Branagh in the director’s chair.