For Thor, Marvel made the somewhat inspired choice of Kenneth Branagh for director, a guy known mostly for making Shakespeare movies. I thought it mostly paid off, and Branagh ended up making a movie that didn’t blow anyone’s mind, but was well acted and mostly entertaining. It was… cute. Considering the Fantastic Four movies and Schumacher’s Batmen, a movie as watchable as Thor about a second-tier character like Thor is an achievement. With that in mind, Marvel’s choice for the director of Thor 2 is Patty Jenkins. …Wait, who? Is that Leroy’s daughter?
Jenkins is an interesting choice. The director’s 2003 drama “Monster,” which she also wrote, yielded the Academy Award for Best Actress for star Charlize Theron.
Of course, the movie, about serial killer Aileen Wournos, had a budget of $8 million. The first “Thor” picture had a budget about 19 times larger — $150 million.
Jenkins was nominated for an Emmy for directing the pilot of AMC’s “The Killing,” and has directed “Entourage” and “Arrested Development.”
More recently, she directed “Pearl,” one of five vignettes that make up Lifetime’s original film “Five.”
Jenkins’s take on [Thor] is scheduled for a November 13, 2013 release. [Yahoo]
Monster was about a prostitute-turned-serial killer, The Killing was about detectives investigating the murder of a teenage girl, and “Five” was a TV movie about the impact of breast cancer on a series of women (Jennifer Aniston directed one of the vignettes). If I was Natalie Portman’s character, I’d be investing in a rape whistle right about now.
Said Marvel chief Kevin Feige, “We wanted someone that the fans would be completely indifferent to.”
Probably.