It’s all going off for the Norse God of Thunder.
Yesterday, it was announced that Thor – the next Marvel A-lister to get the movie treatment – had at long last attracted a director to replace Matthew Vaughn. That director was Lord Sir Kenneth Branagh, MBE OBE CBE BA (Hons).
And today, it was announced that Thor has bagged a firm release date – July 16, 2010.
The announcement comes along with news that Marvel Studios has renegotiated its distribution deal with Paramount – the latter will now distribute Marvel’s self-produced product over the next few years.
That includes the likes of The First Avenger: Captain America, due on May 6, 2011, the hugely ambitious Avengers movie on July 15, 2011, and Iron Man 2, which has now been moved from April 30, 2010 to May 7 of that year.
That puts Jon Favreau’s sequel up against The Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. Or, at least, it will for a while – our guess is that Disney will move the third Narnia film quick-smart.
The deal with Paramount is beneficial to both them and Marvel. It gives Paramount guaranteed product at a time when their deal with DreamWorks has come to an end, and Marvel gets to pay them less of the grosses (8% as opposed to 10%) generated by their movies.
And by staking out dates in 2010 and 2011 so early, it’s a huge statement of intent for Marvel, especially with Thor, a character which needs to be handled with kid gloves if it’s going to avoid major cheese. But the indications are that Marvel is hoping that this could be its Lord of the Rings – time will tell if the studio is right. But expect other studios to steer clear of that weekend in July…