Location shooting for Marvel Studio’s upcoming Thor: The Dark World should be a bit of a homecoming as the film will be traveling to Iceland, one of the homes of the Norse myths that helped inspire the comic book superhero.

Icelandic film site Svarthofdi (via filmophilia) is reporting that the country will be a location for the movie scheduled to go into production in just a few weeks in London.

The country is familiar to director Alan Taylor who shot portions of his contributions to the second season of HBO’s Game Of Thrones there. Additionally, the country has recent seen productions like Prometheus and the upcoming Tom Cruise actioner Oblivion, Darren Aronofsky‘s Noah and Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty remake all film there.

We know that the film will explore more of the mystical “Nine Realms” first mentioned in Thor. Christopher Eccelston has recently been cast as Thor comics villain Malekith the Accursed, so it is possible that the country may be standing in for the character’s home world of Svartalfheim.

Between this and the news that Iron Man 3 will do some location filming in China, I am really exciting that Marvel seems to be looking to spend a little of that Avengers money they earned this summer and are expanding the scope of their films. While they did do a decent job of making a Cleavland street look like midtown Manhattan for a portion of The Avengers, there is nothing like journeying to the actual location for shooting and the results should be readily apparent when Thor: The Dark World hits theaters on November 8, 2013.

The Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con would be a highly anticipated panel even if The Avengers didn’t set box office records.  But the expectations are even higher now as people are wondering how the studio is going to be able to top 2012. Some of that speculation ends here, and new speculations will begin.

• Thor 2 now officially titled Thor: The Dark World.
• Captain America 2 now officially titled, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As fans of the comics will know, the Winter Soldier was Cap’s partner Bucky, who instead of dying, was captured by the Russians, brainwashed and turned into an assassin. So, did Sebastian Stan have a deal for two films?
• It’s official! Coming to us from Marvel on August 1, 2014, the Guardians of the Galaxy! We’ll be having posts in the next few days concerning what to expect from the film, including a history of the concept and characters as they appeared in the comic book.
• For those of you crestfallen that Ant-Man was not the next in line for the Marvel film treatment, don’t despair too much. Edgar Wright was there and presented the rumored test footage he did to show the shrinking special effects, This is what Brendon Connolly at Bleeding Cool had to say about it:
  

  As he walked on stage to take a seat, Edgar Wright held up a copy of the Ant Man comics. This one.Wright said that he wanted to adapt that story, To Steal an Ant Man, and that’s still his plan before teasing us and then, to swooning, unveiled his test footage for the film.

  The sequence was largely unfinished but showed ant man looking out of an air vent into a corridor towards an elevator door protected by two CIA-looking suited up goons. He grows to full size, leaps through the air and shrinks as he does so, delivering his kick at ant size, but will full-scale weight.

  During the scene he lands on the barrel of one of the agents guns and runs along it mini sized.

  The character has not been cast, and the performer in the suit was only a stand in, but Wright did speak a little about the costume. While it won’t be final, it did indicate what they are going for – a mixture of the contemporary look and the silver age design.

  Wright says that “Ant Man will kick your ass… one inch at a time.” I don’t know about one inch at a time. My ass is already kicked up and down.

• The Iron Man 3 footage showed us that, yes, Ben Kingsley is The Mandarin, and that he will have ten rings and ceremonial garb.

No mention of The Black Panther, or any of the other rumored films Marvel has in the pipeline. I’m sure that will come in time. But now, what do you think?

Another good weekend at the box office for Marvel Studios’ The Avengers as the superhero mashup has crossed the $500 million in domestic ticket sales mark. But Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige would like you to know that this is not the end of their plans for their superhero films, but only the beginning. In a new interview with Empire magazine (via Collider), Feige pointed out -

The Avengers was not the finale for us. It was a giant, giant marker, but it was never the finale. We are already well into the plan for the next phase of our little cinematic universe.

And those plans include the currently in pre-production Thor 2. Although the film is set to start shooting this fall, there is lots of speculation as to who the Asgardian god of thunder may be squaring off against this time around. Variety has the answer, stating that Casino Royale bad guy Mads Mikkelsen is in talks to join the film in an unspecified, but villainous, role. Of course, this has led to fan speculation that Mikkelsen could be playing Thanos, the death-obsessed bad guy behind Loki’s attempted invasion of Earth in The Avengers. But in that aforementioned Empire interview, Feige was quick to point out that while Thanos would be seen in the future, it would not be in Thor 2. Instead, the sequel will feature “a major new villain. A major, major new antagonist…”

OK, Thor scholars, who do you think he could be referring to? Perhaps the Asgardian known as The Executioner? He seems like a good fit for what the studio is looking to do next. As to what else the Thor sequel might encompass, Feige stated that the film will explore more ofThor’s otherworldly home.

We’re going to see the other side of Asgard. It’s not all polished and golden in this film. And the events of Avengers will have affected Thor for sure. His relationship with Loki will continue to evolve, and the biggest part is Natalie [Portman] and Thor returning with Jane Foster.

Thor 2 is scheduled to fly into theaters on November 15, 2013.

When you put out a product that makes over a billion dollars in about two week, the folks at Bloomberg would like to talk to you. And although he doesn’t really hint at anything new, this clip from the financial news outlet with Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige has been making the online rounds today.

In it, he once again talks about the studio’s post-Avengers plans which in the past he has referred to as “Phase Two.” (And I am now wondering if that was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a subplot point in The Avengers before anyone outside of the production knew about it.)

We want to do two films a year. Avengers is our only film this year, but in a week and a half we begin filming Iron Man 3. By the end of the summer we’ll be working on the next Thor film, early next year the next Captain America film. Those are the three we’ve announced so far; we’ve got two beyond that that we haven’t announced yet, but we’re working on.

We know that one of those mystery films will be Marvel’s second film for 2014. Presumably the second mystery definite film is scheduled for 2015. (You can see the complete video of the interview below.)

But what could they be? We know that that they have been developing a number of properties including an Ant-Man film with Edgar Wright that is reportedly close to being ready to go. The studio has also been developing projects around characters such as Dr. Strange, Black Panther, Iron Man, the Runaways and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Additionally, there has been talk of a possible SHIELD film or even a new attempt at a Hulk movie given the positive notices that Mark Ruffalo has received for his performance in The Avengers. And of course there is the inevitable Avengers sequel.

So when will we hear about these two mystery films? Since they weren’t mentioned in the recently released Walt Disney Company quarterly earnings report, I would suspect that the next logical time and place for the announcement will be this July at the San Diego Comic-Con.

In the mean time, Iron Man 3 premier on May 3, 2013, Thor 2 on November 15, 2013, Captain America 2 on April 4, 2014 and the first of Marvel’s two mystery projects will hit theaters on May 16, 2014.

So, did you see The Avengers yet? Please tell me you stayed to see both bonus scenes inserted into the end credits. If you did, you are probably asking two things: what is shawarma and who was that guy in the first bonus scene. Well, shawarma is a type of food popular in Arabic countries that is very similar to gyros. And that guy? That guy was Thanos.

Who is Thanos? Well, let me tell you.

Thanos first appeared in Iron Man #55, created by writer/artist Jim Starlin. In comics, he resides on Titan, one of the moon’s of Saturn. He is portrayed as a power-hungry despot who has an unhealthy attraction to death. Unhealthy in the sense that he wants to mate with the physical embodiement of death, and his way of pitching woo with the cosmic being is to kill as many living beings as he can (his name is a bastardization of the Thanatos, the personification of death in Greek Mythology).

While Thanos did have some run ins with the Avengers in the comic books, his main opponents were primarily Marvel’s space-faring heroes, Adam Warlock, Silver Surfer and Captain Marvel.

Thanos’ pursuit in the film of the powerful Tesseract mirrors his first appearance in the comic books, as he comes to earth to try and acquire the comic book version of the Tessaract, which is called the Cosmic Cube, in order to make himself all-powerful.

The unaltered Thanos typically has superhuman strength, invulnerability, and the ability to manipulate energy. Add to this his desire to become omnipotent in order to kill all living things, it makes him more than a match for the Avengers.

So, Thanos is going to appear in The Avengers 2 next, right? Well, that’s what it looks like, but I’d put my money on him making an appearance in Thor 2 first. I say this for a number of reasons. First, there is one scene in The Avengers where the Chituari leader tells Loki that if the Asgardian does not deliver the Tesseract to his master (Thanos), Thanos will hunt down the Tesseract and Loki wherever they are. Since both are taken to Asgard at the end of The Avengers, it seems logical Thanos will make good in his promise the the Thor sequel.

Another reason why I think that he will appear in Thor 2 first is that lovely glove you see on the left. That festive handware appears in Thor in the Asgardian armory  and resembles an immensely powerful comic book weapon called the Infinity Gauntlet. Who wore the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics? Thanos. He made it to hold six powerful jewels called “Soul Gems” or “Infinity Gems”(those ovals on the gauntlet’s knuckles? That’s where the gems were held). With all the gems together, Thanos gained almost limitless power. How much power? He could kill half the universe instantaneously by just thinking about it. Yep. While the weapon probably will not be used that way in the films,  I doubt the powers that be would introduce the Infinity Gauntlet AND Thanos into film continuity and not put them together. Again, since the Gauntlet is in Asgard, Thanos would have to go there and get it. Most likely in Thor 2.

While Thanos might not be the Avengers villain comic fans would want the film team face off against next (my pick would have been Ultron), he is more than a match for the current line up.

This weekend saw the release of The Avengers, the culmination of Marvel Studios’s long plan to launch several individual superhero franchises and them have them interconnect into one team-up film. It was obviously a risky plan, but one that paid ff as box office estimates are putting the film’s ticketsales at somewhere around $205 million this morning, a new record. Last night FilmBuffOnline editors Rich Drees and William Gatevackes sat down and discussed that achievement, what we know of Marvel’s future plans and what the studio might be planning to set up the villain revealed at the end of The Avengers for the inevitable sequel.

Rich Drees – So how many times have you seen The Avengers already?

William Gatevackes – Three. You?

RD – Same here… So we’re on an even footing. So did you ever think it was going to do $200 million on opening weekend?

WG – I thought it had a chance, especially after hearing how well it did overseas. I don’t know if I’d say $200 mil exactly, but I thought it had a chance to do better than Harry Potter.

RD – As we got closer to the release, I knew it was going to be big, but I have to admit to some surprise that it went this big. It’s been kind of interesting watching The Avengers‘ detractors sputter and make excuses all weekend as the film’s estimated box office continues to be adjusted upward. And by interesting, I mean, hilarious. So where does Marvel go from here?

WG – That’s a loaded question. Have a few hours? Okay, knee jerk instinctive response: get a Hulk and Black Widow film up and running. Pronto. Hold Whedon captive and make him write and direct both.

RD – Well, we know that next year is Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and 2014 is Captain America 2 and a mystery movie they have yet to announce. I would think that the 2nd film in 2014 would be the one needed to start setting up Avengers 2 for 2015.

WG – That’s weird because the Kevin Feige interview I reported on made it sound like two films out of Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Runaways, and Inhumans were pretty far along in development. Why develop them if there is only one spot available?

Either way, if there is one, they should develop Hulk. He is the character that has the best chance of starting a lasting franchise, and the concept got a BIG shot in the arm after this film. All the talk I’ve heard on Facebook and outside theaters is that people never thought the Hulk could be as good as he was in The Avengers. How can you let that slide?

RD – Well, there’s a couple of possibilities they have so many films in development. First I would suspect that they want to keep their options open. Second, they might have been waiting to see how Avengers did before announcing more than two films a year.

WG – Yeah, that was going to be my next question – Who says they can only have two films a year?

RD – I think the only limit to the number of films is going to be determined by the audience. Is three Marvel films a year one too many? Personally, I think not, but only if one of them is something that isn’t necessarily straightforward superheroics. Something like Runaways.

WG – I don’t think so. Don’t forget, there technically was three Marvel films in 2011–Thor, Captain America and X-Men First Class. And I agree with you on Runaways. But if Marvel is going to do 3 or more, per year do them as fast a making a quality film will allow. I suspect, barring a MAJOR second weekend drop, that the Avengers grosses will give them a lot of momentum.

RD – True, but in terms for what Marvel Studios is able to do on their own, will three films be too much for them?

WG – If they were an indie film unit, maybe. For all intents and purposes, they are a Disney arm that has experience in having a number of films in the works at the same time–and have them all tie in together. If they can do that on a two-film slate per year, I’m pretty sure they can handle three.

RD – Fair enough. Plus, they will need to start expanding their franchises. Which one of the things we know are in development are best suited to getting them to Avengers 2. I know that I really want to see what Edgar Wright has in store for Ant-Man, but I don’t see how that would feed into who it appears will be the villain.

WG – Well Guardians of the Galaxy and The Inhumans have the best chance of featuring on building up the big bad guy in time for Avengers 2, since both have featured comic book storylines set in space. However, I believe the bad guy in question–or at least his minions, will appear in Thor 2 first.

RD – Well, we’ve already seen a certain bejeweled piece of wardrobe of his in Odin’s treasure room in the first Thor film.

WG – And, trying not to get to spoilery, there is a scene in The Avengers where Loki is warned that if he does not deliver the Tesseract to the big bad guy revealed in the button scene, they would be coming after him–and it. Or it–and him, him being Loki.

RD – So does that make Thor 2 an ersatz Avengers sequel or should it have its own main story and these plotlines only get briefly touched upon as set up for Avengers 2?

WG – Well, technically, if you look at it, THE AVENGERS was an ersatz sequel to every Marvel movie to date, especially Thor. I think Thor 2 can be both. But that scene was so prominent it had to be setting something up.

RD – True, and it should be interesting to see where they decide to pay that off. So I guess this leads us to the idea of “franchise management.” This has really been an amazing feat that Marvel and studio chief Kevin Feige have pulled off.

WG – He made it look easy. And it was incredibly, incredibly hard. Look how hard it is for DC to get anything up and running. Let alone create a cohesive universe.

RD – I think the corporate dynamics at Warners is partly the reason why DC is having a hard time building a cinematic franchise the way Marvel has. But the reasons there could be a whole other conversation for another day.

WG – Yeah, let’s stay with Marvel. I only wanted to take a cheap pot shot at Warners/DC anyway.

RD – Ha!

WG – But the secret was the fact that the Powers That Be decided to take a hands on approach way back when the first Blade came out. If they didn’t work to make that a great comic book film that was both a good film and true enough to the comics to appease the fans, we wouldn’t be talking about The Avengers today.

RD – So true. OK, prediction time – I know we don’t normally talk about box office all that much, but where do you see Avengers finally topping out at both domestically and internationally/total.

WG – Wow. Okay. It’s almost at $700 million internationally already. So, $1-$1.2 Billion doesn’t seem outlandish. Domestically? $600 million, I think, would be a safe bet–although it could go higher. Your prediction?

RD – I’m thinking that domestically it’ll at least hit $500 million. I doubt that it will have a great drop off next weekend, when Dark Shadows opens. I think its first real competition is Battleship on the 18th. Even then, it will still be in the Top 5 through the end of the month. With international added in, I’m going to guess a bit higher and say 1.3 to 1.4 billion.

WG – Sound fair.

RD – Second prediction – Can Iron Man 3 do this kind of business?

WG – I definitely think there will be some kind of uptick, but a $200 million weekend? Probably not. Granted, a lot would depend on the premise and the reviews it gets, but The Avengers was the culmination of years of Marvel films and had a whole gaggle of heroes to draw people in. IM 3 won’t have that.

RD – Well, I agree that it won’t make Avengers money, but it will definitely do better than most third franchise installments. I think it is hard to apply the usual predictive models to things here because no one has ever done something like this before.

WG – True. It almost feels like Marvel is starting over again. You get the sense that they almost have to prove that they can do it all over bigger and better in terms of both quality and business.

RD – Of course, no matter how good it does, there will be some who declare it a bomb because it doesn’t match The Avengers‘ numbers.

WG – Exactly. Which is an unrealistic expectation.

RD – True, but there are those who get a burr under the saddle about certain types of films. I’ll bet you the same folks who will bag on Iron Man 3‘s box office not being up to The Avengers‘ will be the same ones who are currently trying to downplay the box office records shattered this past weekend.

WG – Yep. I believe the term the kids use is “Haters be hatin.’”

RD – True dat. Finally, what is one thing that you thought might not have worked so well that Marvel can learn from going into this second phase of movies?

WG – Oh, boy. Let me think. Well, with the success they had, it’s hard to criticize what didn’t work, because it worked well enough. If I had to pick something, maybe pay attention to symmetry in casting and choosing a director or director. Mark Ruffalo was up for Bruce Banner for The Incredible Hulk, yet somehow he couldn’t do it and Edward Norton stepped in. Their instincts were right, because Ruffalo was the best Banner since Bill Bixby. The films up to this point needed to have a tight schedule, but they should have followed their instincts the first time around. If that makes any sense.

RD – It does. I would suggest not rushing anything. I think Iron Man 2 is a bit weak because they reportedly went in with a script that wasn’t ready and tried to work out some problems as they were shooting and I think it shows around the edges. Of course, when Marvel first announced their plans to do a bunch of different films that would feed into an Avengers film, it was originally scheduled for last summer, not this one, so I guess they may have already learned that lesson.

WG – True.

RD – Final thoughts?

WG – Well, there’s a cliche that goes something like “we’re closing a chapter on this,” but I definitely think it applies here. The Avengers is the end of the first act of Marvel’s success at the box office. There’s a lot of uncertainty ahead and a lot of expectations to live up to. It will be interesting to see how the second chapter plays out.

RD – Definitely. I know that I’ve said it before, but Marvel has very much redefined the rules on how to run a film franchise and while it will be interesting to see what they have in store next, it will also be interesting to see who else picks up on how they have done things and where they run with it.

Marvel Studios has hired Saving Private Ryan scripter Robert Rodat to give their script for Thor 2 a rewrite. Rodat will be working from a draft already handed in by Don Payne, one of the writers who received credit on the first film last summer. Rodat’s hiring follows Alan Taylor replacing Patty Jenkins in the film’s director’s chair.

In addition to his Academy Award nominated screenplay for Saving Private Ryan, Rodat has scripted Fly Away Home and The Patriot and created TNT’s series Falling Skies.

With its key two creative positions for the film filled, I suspect that Marvel will be shifting into overdrive to get the film into production later this year for its already announced November 2013 release.

Marvel is playing whatever story plans they have for the sequel close to their vest. Presumably, the first film’s ending featuring Thor stranded in the otherworldly realm of Asgard, unable to return to Earth, will be dealt with in this summer’s The Avengers, leaving the slate fairly clean for the film to chart its own direction. It should be interesting to see what the result is.

Via Deadline.

Alan Taylor has received a Christmas gift from Marvel Studios in the form of the director’s chair for their upcoming Thor 2.

As reported a couple of weeks ago, Taylor was one of two directors that the studio was looking at to oversee the sequel to the one of their two hit superhero films from this past summer following the departure of their initial pick for the job, Patty Jenkins.

Taylor was in competition with Daniel Minahan for the position. Both have a number of television directorial credits on their resume including the popular HBO fantasy Game Of Thrones. But the fact that Taylor also has some feature film credits, including 1996′s Palookaville, may have given him the edge needed to win the job.

Marvel is still looking for a screenwriter to take another pass at the script already turned in by Don Payne. Among the candidates for the job are John Collee (Master And Commander: Far Side Of The World), Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) and Roger Avary (co-writer with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction). All fine choices, though I have to admit that I am rather curious as to what an Avary-scripted Thor movie will be like.

Currently Marvel has Thor 2 scheduled for a Nov 15, 2013 release, six months after the release their Iron Man 3.

Via Hollywood Reporter.

With Patty Jenkins leaving the directorial post for Thor 2 last week, Marvel Studios has swung into high gear to find a replacement. In just a few days they have reportedly have their picks down to two candidates – Alan Taylor and Daniel Minahan.

Both choices have extensive television credits. Minahan’s resume contains a number of episodes of Game of Thrones, True Blood, Deadwood and Grey’s Anatomy. Tyler also has some Game Of Thrones episodes to his credit, as well as installments of Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos and Mad Men. He does have a few features to his credit, most notably 1996′s Palookaville.

Minahan and Tyler each have experience with genre material and the special effects that will undoubtedly be part of the shoot. They both strike me as good, capable journeymen who might not bring any particularly unique flair to the film, but will deliver something that isn’t completely unwatchable.

Reportedly, Marvel was also in the market for someone to rewrite the screenplay draft already handed in by Don Payne. Among the candidates for the job are John Collee (Master And Commander: Far Side Of The World), Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) and Roger Avary (co-writer with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction). All fine choices, though I have to admit that I am rather curious as to what an Avary-scripted Thor movie will be like.

Currently Marvel has Thor 2 scheduled for a Nov 15, 2013 release, six months after the release their Iron Man 3.

Via Hollywood Reporter.

Well, that was quick.

Deadline New York is reporting that Patty Jenkins has left Thor 2 due that old Hollywood chestnut, “creative differences.” Marvel is searching for a replacement even as we speak.

Known only for directing only one feature, 2003′s Monster, and a number of high profile TV series, Jenkins was considered bit of a surprise when hired. However, when you think about it, that is pretty much Joss Whedon’s resume too, although he has more writing credits to his name and his TV series’ have spawn a number of different loyal fanbases.

Regardless, it would have been interesting to see how a woman’s perspective would look on the God of Thunder.