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THOR Hollywood Premiere, Press Conferences With Actors, Filmmakers And Toys, Video Game, 7-11 Big Gulp Preview – We Are Movie Geeks

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THOR Hollywood Premiere, Press Conferences With Actors, Filmmakers And Toys, Video Game, 7-11 Big Gulp Preview

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Tom Hiddleston, Director Kenneth Branagh and Chris Hemsworth pose at the premier of “Thor” at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, Monday, May 2, 2011 (Alex J. Berliner/abimages)

Asgard came to Hollywood Boulevard Monday night and shut down traffic with the premiere of THOR. It was a beautiful evening on the red carpet.

Anthony Hopkins arrives at the premier of “Thor” at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, Monday, May 2, 2011 (Alex J. Berliner/abimages)

Exec. Producer Stan Lee strikes a pose the premier of “Thor” at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, Monday, May 2, 2011 (Alex J. Berliner/abimages)

Renee Russo arrives at the premier of “Thor” at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, Monday, May 2, 2011 (Alex J. Berliner/abimages)

Jaimie Alexander arrives at the premier of “Thor” at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, Monday, May 2, 2011 (Alex J. Berliner/abimages)

Kat Dennings arrives at the premier of “Thor” at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, Monday, May 2, 2011 (Alex J. Berliner/abimages)

Sunday’s press junket began for me with a ride in the elevator of the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel with THOR himself, Chris Hemsworth. Boy is he handsome up close. On Friday evening (April 29) I saw THOR at the Paramount Theater, and the studio, alongside Marvel Studios and director Kenneth Branagh, have wielded the first superhero hit of the summer. It was a fun to see the film ahead of Sunday’s press conference. Actually there were two!

Press Conference #1 had cast members Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and Jaimie Alexander. Oscar winner Natalie Portman was unable to make it due to the obvious impending birth of her first child. Below is a section of the transcript.

INTERVIEWER:  For Chris and Tom, could you talk a little bit about the dynamic between yourselves as actors, vying for the attention of Sir Anthony Hopkins, as well as the brotherly dynamic that went from brotherhood to rivalry, and so much as to the bloody nose one of you received on set from said rivalry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER:  Sure.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  I nearly caught Tom talking about having breakfast with Tony at one point.  And I said, “What?  He’s having breakfast and I’m not?” 

[LAUGHTER]

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  And it was [INDISCERNIBLE].  And – but no, but – we – you know, Tony, actually you said it, that it’s much easier to, I think, [SOUNDS LIKE] height someone on screen if you actually like them off screen.  It’s just –

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Yeah.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  – a more enjoyable ride.  And this is nothing sort of personal about it.  And you know, we just – we got along and came into this at the same point in our careers, with the same sort of enthusiasm, you know, and love for these types of films.  And just had a great time doing it.  Yeah, and you either have chemistry with someone, or you don’t.  And thankfully, I think it was there, and so to play brothers was, it was easy and fun.

TOM HIDDLESTON:  It’s quite literally a [SOUNDS LIKE] bromax.

[LAUGHTER]

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Right, it’s the bro – the bro aspect of the word is for real.  But it, Chris is absolutely right.  It’s much, I mean, I can’t imagine having to go to sort of the emotional extremity that we both have to go to if I – if we actually didn’t like each other.  It’d be just horrendous to go to work.  And I think, you know, the fact that we get along makes it kind of like – we just egg each other on – and you know – between takes, we would just say, you know – I don’t know, maybe we’d like raise each other’s game or something.  And we just had a really, really good time.  And also, there are so many things that went wrong, that were just accidents that make you laugh.  And it’s such a huge journey.  We both spent two years of our lives working on this film, and it’s so nice that there’s somebody else who’s kind of alongside.  Like Chris had a few drinks at the wrap party, and was like hanging out the window on the way back to the hotel, saying –

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  That’s not true.

[LAUGHTER]

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  You’re ruining my career right there.

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Sorry.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  [INDISCERNIBLE] saying it.

TOM HIDDLESTON:  And he said to me before we went up to our rooms, he was like, “You’re the only one who understands me.”

I really appreciated Anthony Hopkins sense of humor throughout…

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Then we did the scene in the vault, where Loki finds the sort of, the big, dark secret of his, of his personal history.  And I think after the first couple of takes, [CHUCKLING] Tony leaned across and said, “Have you got a good agent?”  And I said, I said, “Yes, I – I think – I think so.”  And he said, “You’re going to need it.” 

[LAUGHTER]

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  Obviously, I love to have a laugh. 

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Yeah.

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  I like to tease people.

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Yeah, so –

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  No, no –

[LAUGHTER]

TOM HIDDLESTON:  I remember, actually –

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  Ken, Ken is part of that, as well.  I said, “Is he gonna play it like that?”  He said, “Yeah.”

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Yeah. 

[LAUGHTER]

TOM HIDDLESTON:  That’s – after [INDISCERNIBLE] [OVERLAPPING]

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  He said, “That’s all the young actors.”  “Is that the way you’re gonna play it?  It’s your career.”

[LAUGHTER]

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  I remember that, being on set with Tom, our first day with, with Tony.  And, and going through the rehearsal, and Tony giving us that reaction.  “Is that how you’re gonna do it?”  And going –

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Yeah.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  “He’s kidding, right?”

[LAUGHTER]

TOM HIDDLESTON:  Yeah.  Yeah.

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  It would be terrible if you had met somebody who didn’t have a sense of humor.  Because if you don’t have humor and you take yourself seriously, you’re dead in the water, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER:  Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER:  Um-hmm.

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  So you have to be jostled.  And I love it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER:  Yeah.

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  You – you’ve got to have a laugh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER:  Yeah.

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  Because it’s better than working for a living.

[LAUGHTER]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER:  It is, yeah. It is. Absolutely.

ANTHONY HOPKINS:  It is, isn’t it.

Press Conference #2 had filmmakers Kenneth Branagh (Director), Don Payne (Writer), Ashley Miller (Writer), Zack Stentz (Writer) and Kevin Feige (Marvel).

I was thrilled to be given the 2nd question. Being a fan of movie scores, I asked Branagh if it was a conscious decision to colloborate once again with composer Patrick Doyle. The two previously had worked on DEAD AGAIN, HENRY V, FRANKENSTEIN, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. It’s another beautiful score from Doyle by the way. “At first, I considered other people, but after I showed him some early footage from the film, Doyle immediately sat down at a piano and started playing the score.” Even writer Kevin Feige agreed that the score to THOR is one of Doyle’s best.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You know, I was just a big Marvel fan since I was a kid and I just was also drawn to mythology and that was the perfect blend of both. I also loved seeing him in the Avengers, ‘cause he was–it was this strange group of eclectic heroes that doesn’t seem like they belong together and ultimately they did.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Somehow it worked.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And so–

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And I think, you know, the issues that were my favorites were always the–you know, the kind of putting Thor and Loki together and that goes all the way back to–all the way back to Norse mythology. And there’s just something very primal and awesome about putting a strong man and a clever man together and at odds with each other.

ASHLEY MILLER: Yeah, and for me, you know, I was a gigantic fan of Thor as a lad. I’ve got a complete run of everything that well Simonson breathed on with that character. And what really excited me was the possibility of doing the story where a frog finds the hammer and becomes Thor, but Kevin and Ken said no, “There that’s not happening.” So we kept it a big guy who looks good in Three-D.

KENNETH BRANAGH: What about you Kevin, what did you feel about Thor?

KEVIN FEIGE: I like Thor. [LAUGHTER]

KENNETH BRANAGH: Right answer.

KEVIN FEIGE: Well, you know, yes I grew up with the character as I did with all the Marvel characters, but frankly I always wanted to do–I was particularly excited about it coming off of being a part of the Spidey films and the X-Men films and the Hulk films and more recently the Iron Man films, but wanting to expand the notion of a Marvel movie. I like the idea of going to outer space, to going to more of a sci-fi sandbox, which is why frankly we didn’t shy away from big giant gleaming cities in outer space and other planets. Things that–you know, the travel, the [SOUNDS LIKE] by frost travel, which was always a part of the mythology in every comic book, but the way Ken envisioned it in this film has really–you know, this the place with Heimdall with Idris Elba standing in the center of it. It’s just much more of a sci-fi edge at which I always wanted to be a part of and very proud that we’ve pulled it off in a way that all audiences, whether they have read comics or haven’t read comics or like science fiction or don’t like science fiction can respond to and relate to.

INTERVIEWER: For the writers and for Mr. Feige–asking for Ken here at a press conference is a fairly hollow exercise, but Mr. Feige you’re thinking of the next eight films Marvel wants to make while you gentlemen are trying to make one very good film. Did you ever butt heads between your desire to make one film and your desire to empire build? [LAUGHTER]

KEVIN FEIGE: Do you guys want to start, just go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, I mean look here’s the thing and we’ve worked for a lot of different people in this town, a lot of studios and a lot of different kinds of projects, and I’ve gotta say here’s the thing that I love most about working with Marvel and Kevin really personifies this. Is that usually when you go into a room and you sit down with somebody and you’re talking to them about their franchise character or the book they want to adapt or their comic book, whatever that is you have to have a conversation about why that character or that franchise is cool. Marvel already knows that it’s cool; you don’t have to justify Thor to Marvel. You know, you don’t have to explain to them why the character works and why people are passionate about it, all you have to do is agree on what’s the best story to tell. And really again, one of the wonderful things is that, you know, I can’t speak to Empire but I can tell you that Marvel, you know, as a whole was very focused on making this the best movie it could possibly be, you know? And that was a great experience to have and a great environment to work in.

INTERVIEWER: This question’s more directed maybe to Zack and Ashley, but the inclusion more–or the more integration of S.H.I.E.L.D. was really apparent in this film more so than, you know, the Iron Man films. Can you talk about maybe folding that in more with this particular script as well as making S.H.I.E.L.D almost look over their heads? Like they’re, “We’re out of our element here, ‘cause we don’t know what to do.”

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I mean you need–I mean, you all have seen the film. What was great about S.H.I.E.L.D is that they’re a great Thor–is that Thor needs a force of opposition through the entire film and obviously when he’s in Asgard or when he’s in Jotunheim there are, you know, frost giants and monsters and his brother and things like that, but once he gets down to Earth he needs obstacles. He needs obstacles in the way of, you know, getting back his hammer and S.H.I.E.L.D was a way–you know, making S.H.I.E.L.D prominent in that way was just a great way to give something that could push back against Thor especially when he didn’t have his powers.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And especially when you’ve got Clark Gregg who is just awesome and just the perfect foil for that.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Now, I love Clark Gregg and I just think he’s so–ever since Iron Man One something about his smirk and you know there’s so much more going on underneath the surface, there’s something menacing about that smirk and S.H.I.E.L.D was this heroic organization in the Iron Man films. And it’s still scary how easily you can transition that to a shadowy government organization for Thor.

Prior to the beginning of the press conference, I had a chance to check out what other goodies were in store for THOR fans. On hand was the new video game, Thor: God of Thunder, action figure toys and 7-11′s Big Gulp movie tie-in.

Thor: God of Thunder scheduled for release this spring, will feature eye-popping stereoscopic 3D graphics on the Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system platforms. Additionally, both games will be coming to the Nintendo 3D™ system later in the year as an immersive new handheld 3D experience.

“Having a titanic Frost Giant charge straight at you in Thor will bring an unprecedented level of adrenaline to the gameplay experience,” commented Gary Knight, Senior Vice President of Marketing at SEGA Europe and SEGA of America. “When you combine the triple threat of epic gameplay, hall of fame franchises from Marvel, and outstanding 3D visuals, it’s clear that Thor: God of Thunder comprises a new class of Super Hero game.”

Available at launch on the Wii™ system and Nintendo DS™ handheld system,Thor: God of Thunder features original third-person adventures written in conjunction with Marvel scribes.

Creating an interactive epic that stands on its own, the game shares lead actors and a visual universe with the film based on the same Marvel franchise.Thor: God of Thunder will support multiple 3D modes, including anaglyph Color mode utilizing red- and blue-lensed glasses for conventional displays. For active shutter glasses and 3D televisions, the game provide Side-by-Side and Top-Bottom modes, and on PlayStation 3, the higher resolution Frame Packing mode for HDMI 1.4 3D displays is supported.

In Thor: God of Thunder, scheduled to street on May 3, 2011, players will play as Thor while battling through several of the Nine Realms to save his homeland of Asgard. Players will wield the iconic Mjölnir,, Thor’s legendary hammer, to fight enemies on an immense scale while controlling the elemental storm powers of lightning, thunder, and wind to vanquish enemies. The sweeping vistas, Thor’s devastating hammer throws, and the explosive elemental effects of Thor’s godlike powers will be especially powerful when viewed in 3D.

Thor: God of Thunder will be available for Nintendo 3DS in conjunction with the movie DVD releases later in the year, with action-packed adventures that provide players a new way to experience it in 3D.

Both big and small, Hasbro was there with the newest toys from the film. The many action figures are fantastic – the one of Thor really looks like actor Chris Hemsworth. I especially got a kick out of the Thor Lightning Hammer toy that shoots lightning!

7-Eleven has created 10 different collectible cups for its Slurpee and Big Gulp® beverages, including two limited-edition molded plastic mugs featuring Thor and the Destroyer, one of the villains in the movie. Among the eight collectible cups are featured Thor’s nemesis and step-brother Loki, and Sif, a goddess who carries a big sword … and a torch for Thor.

Even though Natalie Portman wasn’t amongst today’s panel, here’s a new featurette from Paramount Pictures.

THOR will hit theaters Friday, May 6, 2011!