Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada recently visited the production offices of the upcoming comic book adaptation Thor and appears to be suitably impressed with what he saw. Enough so to say that it will wipe away any preconceived notions that audiences have about comic book films. As he told Comic Book Resources–
[P]eople are going to go into this movie with a preconceived idea about what it will be. If you’re a comics fan, you’ll have a preconceived notion of what you’re going to get. If you’re a non-comics fan, you’ll have another notion of what the movie is all about. And what’s really amazing is that both groups will walk away going, “I’ve never seen anything like this before within the super hero genre.” It’s so cool, and I don’t want to use the word unusual, but it is unusual in the sense that it redefines what a super hero movie can be. It’s not the expected story or settings. That part of it is incredibly exciting to me.
We walked through sets and saw different designs for locations and designs for costumes, and I just thought to myself, “Oh my God.” It’s absolutely breathtaking, and the casting is terrific on the movie. And Branagh is a joy to listen to talk story. There was a point during the discussion of the most recent draft of the screenplay where a particular plot point was put up to the group for discussion, “How should we play this one moment within the context of the story?” and Branagh and some in the group had a particular idea of how it should play, while some others felt differently. I was in the opposite camp, but as we discussed the differences, I’m sitting there listening to Branagh act out his version of the scene with gusto and passion and I had to stop him and say, “If you said to me right now, ‘Then Thor kills 100 puppies in an animal shelter’ I’d say it was fantastic.” [Laughter] It’s just magnificent hearing him talking about the story with the great love he has for the material. You don’t see it quite often, but when you see it you’ve got to go with it.
Traditionally, the Editor-In-Chief post at Marvel has always doubled as the face of the comics publisher’s head cheerleader all the way back to the days when Stan Lee held the post, so I think it is fair to say that we should take what Quesada has to say with at least a grain of salt. Still, I have to hope that Branagh knocks it out of the park. The last several films he has directed have not lived up to the promise of his earlier work. Did Marvel hire him simply because he was on a string of bad luck so he would work cheap? Marvel Studios fell under some accusations of being, shall we say “frugal,” during their contract negotiations for Iron Man director Jon Favreau’s return for next summer’s sequel. I would like to think that Branagh managed to impress the studio brass with the interesting and
