I’ve never been a fan of the Marvel comic Thor. I never understood why it was such a favorite. The first time I had ever heard of him was way back when when I first saw ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ (great movie). Interesting choice for a director. Not a bad one, but an odd one.

from darkhorizons.com:

Branagh Helms “Thor” Adaptation
By Garth Franklin
Monday, September 29th 2008 12:05am

Actor/Director Kenneth Branagh is negotiating to direct the film adaptation of Marvel Studios live-action “Thor” reports Variety.

Penned by Mark Protosevich, the story follows disabled medical student Donald Blake who has an alter ego as the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor.

The choice is a strange one. Branagh’s sole action-heavy credit was 1989’s “Henry V”. His other works include the reincarnation thriller “Dead Again”, the gothic horror adaptation of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, last year’s remake of “Sleuth” and other Shakespeare adaptations like 1996’s “Hamlet”, 1993’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, 2000’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and 2006’s “As You Like It”.

A 2010 release for “Thor” is planned. Marvel will set a distributor shortly.

Branagh was considered for a time to direct a number of the Harry Potter movies. He ended up simply acting in the second one. So, I guess he does have a knack for wanting to direct higher profile movies. I think it’ll work out. But kind of like what we’ve seen with the ‘Hulk’ movies, perhaps Thor is an idea that sounds better on paper and just doesn’t translate well on film.

–Cos