'Thor: The Dark World'

30 Oct 2013

Film

Dir. Alan Taylor

Wr. Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely; story by Don Payne

Role: Malekith The Accursed.

World première 22 Oct, Odeon Leicester Square, London

UK - 30 Oct

USA - 8 Nov

DVD:
Digital HD Feb 4 & on Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack Feb 25. More info at Marvel
Amazon UK Feb 24: DVD - Blu-ray / Amazon US Feb 4: Instant - Feb 25: DVD - Combo

Official site [production notes pdf] ---  Marvel --- ComingSoon --- IMDb

 Source

Video:

Interviews:
Collider - Screen Rant - PopSugar (+ Feige on casting) - Wapa - OntheRedCarpet - HitFix - Nerdist (feature) - Press Association (w/ A. Taylor) - ScreenSlam - MadeinHollywood - TwoTubeTV  (w/ A. Taylor & bananas) - Skype - AMC Theatres - Clevver Movies - ComingSoon -  Friday Download - Digital Spy (w/ A. Taylor) 
London première: Heyuguys - RedCarpetNewsExtra - ScreenSlam - Absolute Radio - Flicks and the City - raw feed

20 10 Press conference: CE answers - complete




Clip - Malekith wakes
     

B-roll part 1 (CE at the start) - part 2 (CE from 5:00) --- More at Trailer Addict      
Previsualization effects exclusive from Wired
Malekith featurette --- TV spots: No. 1 - No. 3 --- Extended trail - Official trail #2 - More at Marvel Entertainment or MarvelUK youtube      

22 4 2013 Official trail #1

Reviews:

10 Nov Detroit Free Press
7 OC Weekly 
6 LA Times - The Boston Globe **ºº - FilmJournal
5 NY Daily News ***ºº - NY Post *'ºº - Seattle Weekly
31 Oct The Guardian **ººº
30 Sidekickcast ****º - RTE ***'º - The Sydney Morning Herald ***'º / **'ºº - The List **ººº - Holy Moly 5/10 - Bleeding Cool
29 Nerdly - That Film Guy ***'º What Culture ***'º - Quickflix ***'º - Eyeforfilm ***ºº - Screen-Space ***ºº - FMovieMag ****º - HuffingtonPost ***'
28 Unleashthefanboy ***'º - ComicBuzz
27 Daily Star **ººº - Urban Cinefile - The Scotsman ***
24 Total Film ****º - The Shiznit ****º
23 Time Out ***ºº - IGN - Entertainmentwise - The Upcoming ****º - The Guardian ***ºº - Little White Lies - Screen Daily
22 Digital Spy ****º - SciFiNow ****º - The Wrap - Boxofficebuz ***ºº - Variety - Red Carpet News TV - The Playlist - Den of Geek - Crave Online - The Hollywood Reporter - Movies - The Telegraph **ººº - /Film 7.5/10 - Empire ****º - SFX ****º - Heyuguys ****º - Flickering Myth ***/****

Articles:

• Nov 11 - interview - Hero Complex LA Times 
• Article - Movies.com - 'Does Marvel Studios Have a Villain Problem?'
• 7 - interview - Movieweb
• Interview - NY Daily News
• 6 - interview - CraveOnline
• 5 - feature - MTV - on Malekith
• Interview - Ain't It Cool
• Interview - Moviefone
• Oct 29 - article - Wired - on Malekith
• Interview - FMovieMag
• 25 - interview - SciFiNow
• 24 - article - HuffingtonPost - on credit scenes (spoilers)
See Articles for regular press interviews.


News:

• 5 Nov Behind the scenes photos at Stitch Kingdom.

• More stills at Emileeid. Spoilers.

• 15 Oct Reactions to Malekith clip

Hypable:
What a way to introduce Eccleston's character. We see that he's clearly the leader of a massive army on that even more massive ship that we see crash into London. Eccleston was the perfect choice for this character and this latest footage proves just that.

IAmRogue:
Eccleston, who played the revitalized Doctor Who for one series, is buried under some striking makeup effects, but he still makes an impression without uttering a word in English. 

• 1 Oct Set reports (with bits on CE and Malekith - and filming barefoot on the set) from SuperHeroHype, IGN, CinemaBlend and Collider (alt /Film).

[IGN] Later, we observe Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Eccleston shooting a scene together. They're on what is best described as a balcony or observation deck of their dark ship, looking out at a blue-screen void. The set is almost horn-like; it starts out very low and cramped, with a camera and dolly tracks jammed inside amid burned-out, semi-organic pillars and weird, diagonal angles. Interestingly, at the start of each take, the theme music from Christopher Nolan's Inception is blared on loudspeakers -- "for atmosphere," we're told.

The pair are speaking Elvish to one another (though presumably in a different dialectic from the Lord of the Rings films). The funny thing is, while Eccleston is an imposing presence -- there's a sort of sense on set that one tread carefully around him -- he's barefoot while shooting. (His feet are not in the shot.) He pulls it off.

 [CinemaBlend] While Malekith's fleet is largely made up with vessels called the Horus, the flagship is called The Ark, and that was the one we had the chance to go inside during shooting.

The scene began with Malekith stumbling as he made his way towards the bridge of the ship, his left hand pressing against the wall to balance himself. The entire place has a very strong, dark H.R. Giger vibe. He walks forward to a railing and the camera rotates around his head, which will give us our first look at the leader of the Dark Elves without his mask on in the film. His white hair is tied into two braids that meet and combine to become a ponytail that hangs halfway down his back. His skin is ghostly white, his eyes are a piercing blue, his ears are long and pointy, and his body is covered in a dark armor. Algrim The Strong (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Malekith's second in command, comes up from behind his superior and hands him a mask. As the two of them stand on the bridge, they begin to converse in Elvish, and while we didn't get a direct translation a dialect coach had actually been hired by the production to create the language.

We even got two bits of trivia out of watching the scene: at the start of each take Alan Taylor would cue up the main theme from Hans Zimmer's Inception score to set the mood, and weirdly enough Eccleston was barefoot during the shot because they frame doesn't show his feet and the character's boots were too time consuming to put on.

• Sep Total Film issue 212, Nov 2013 - cover and feature.

Meet Malekith

Christopher Eccleston talks latex and Loki

Did you audition for Malekith? What did Alan Taylor want for the big bad?

I didn't audition, no. I was offered it after a big meeting with Alan. What did he want? That's a good question. I would imagine he wanted diligence, a bit of intelligence. Probably an indomitable spirit. On a good day, there's six hours in make-up followed by half an hour in costume, and three hours travelling. What you need is someone who can endure a bit of a marathon, because I'd do eight or nine hours before I'd even go on camera.

Did you know it was going to be so tough?

No – they kept that from me throughout the negotiation part! But the most important thing is that the audience pays their money, so you've got to live up to that. That was my whole business: that all that was worth the effort. It was for Alan Taylor that I particularly wanted to do the job. That and getting paid, of course.

So what is Malekith's motivation? Just bringing darkness to the world?

Well, it's precisely that, actually. What I thought about a great deal was revenge – there's huge amounts of revenge. One quote is: 'When you seek revenge, be sure to dig two graves.' I did a film called Revengers Tragedy where I played a guy called Vindici – from the word 'vindictive' – and he is the distillation of revenge. So, in a way, that was what I had to think of: how revenge can make you absolutely monomaniacal – though you're still trying to make it recognisably motive-led. It's just the personification of movie evil.

So do Malekith and Loki team up?

I've got to tell you, there really isn't that big a connection actually, when it finally plays out. A movie comes along with a baddie, and then [for the follow up] you add another baddie to that mix. But in terms of Malekith and his manoeuverings, there's not a huge amount of screen time with those two guys together. There's an implied connection – which Loki plays with – but it's not a hugely developed strand in the film.

What was it like joining a cast and crew who've already worked together?

They made a real effort, almost like a repertory of theatre actors, to make myself and Adewale [Akinnoye-Agbaje, playing Kurse] feel welcome. And of course you've got to go into these things with an open heart and not with your guard up. Chris and Tom, Mr Hopkins, all of them were fantastic with me. They've got a good sense of humour between them. I think you see that in the screen time they spend together when they're in Asgard and they're boozing and all that. I think that really does exist between them, to a certain extent.

Were you tempted to keep anything from the shoot as a memento?

No. I used to bring home lots of latex in my ears every night. Not sure if that counts. When you've done so much and actually take something, you end up with a house full of it.

The sets on this film are extraordinary. Did that make the job easier than just green-screening everything?

Yeah. I think my first day was in a sequence where the Ark, Malekith's ship, suicide bombs into Asgard's main hall. And the level of detail in that was just breathtaking and extraordinary. But there's plenty of green-screen too, and I actually enjoy it. When I was a kid, before I was an actor, I used to go out into the garden and pretend I was surrounded by spaceships and pretend I was being attacked. It's just an extension of that. It's just play.

I can't let you go without asking about the casting of Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who…

You can, you can.

• 23 Aug New stills from Empire, as well as covers for the coming October edition "with an extensive set report and cast interviews on the Thor sequel," in the shops from the 29th Aug. Unofficial type-up here [tumblr].

• 12 Aug Alan Taylor's video interview for Collider.

• 10 Aug D23 Expo liveblog.

"Greenwich Mean Time": Before... and after.

• Empire's Second Trailer Breakdown with the filmmakers' comments and stills. (Not true that it's the first time we hear Malekith voice though.)

Here is the other key real-world location (playing itself): Greenwich. And it's getting trashed by the Dark Elves' gigantic Ark – the design of which has been noticably tweaked since the last trailer, to make it less organic and more mechanical; compare also the first trailer's shots of a hooded Malekith with those in this one which now show him wearing more of a hi-tech helmet. "Malekith has gone through changes since we shot," confirms Taylor.

"The huge challenge for me on this was the length of the make-up," says Eccleston. "I was in the chair for at least six hours, and then it would take about 45 minutes to get me into my costume and get me kitted up."

• 13 Mar Tom Hiddleston's video interview [youtube].

• 2013 Marvel heads to San Diego ComicCon, issues concept art poster. Presentation to take place Sat 20 Jul, 6:00pm PDT (live blog). Next showcase at D23 Expo, 10 Aug.

 
• Featured in some of the lists for top films coming in 2013. F. ex. screencrave.com ("In November we’ll be seeing Hemsworth duke it out against Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston which some of you may know from Doctor Who. For his appearance alone a number of us, including myself, want to see Thor: The Dark World immediately.") or the Weekend Warrior on ComingSoon ("[...] as a fan of the first Thor movie I'm super-excited to see where they take things, especially since this is going to be a direct sequel to The Avengers.")

• Set video and images - CE and Chris Hemsworth - splashnewsonline.com; alt on metro.co.uk; Dan Mumford's set photos; set report on tumblr (check relevant tags for more); assorted set videos on tpcat101's youtube.   

• Filming in London, UK and Iceland. Will be released in 3D.

Official synopsis (ComingSoon):

Marvel's "Thor: The Dark World" continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel's "Thor" and "Marvel's The Avengers," Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos...but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano and Jaimie Alexander with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, "Thor: The Dark World" is directed by Alan Taylor, produced by Kevin Feige, from a story by Don Payne (credit not final) and screenplay by Christopher Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (credit not final) and is based on Marvel's classic Super Hero Thor, who first appeared in the comic book "Journey into Mystery" #83 in August, 1962.

"Thor: The Dark World" is presented by Marvel Studios. The executive producers are Louis D'Esposito, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Victoria Alonso, Craig Kyle and Nigel Gostelow. The film releases November 8, 2013, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

1 Aug 2012 Christopher Eccleston cast in Marvel's 'Thor' sequel (Deadline).