Great Odin's Beard! Thor is Expensive!

THOR is shaping up to be an intriguing prospect. Story details that have leaked online paint it as a sweeping, epic mythological adventure film. Count me in. Director Matthew Vaughn, the man guiding this film, is an extremely talented director. His gangster movie LAYER CAKE was an assured debut and STARDUST, though it hasn't made it over here yet, looks like a great family film. He's been working pretty intensively on THOR trying to get it ready for a pre-strike shoot. However if his recent article in The Guardian is anything to go by the script might need a rewrite to get the budget down to something manageable. Vaughn, writing for the Brit newspaper that got Paddy Considine killed this summer, explains what a week is like in his shoes - which includes seeing Ricky Gervais' Fame show and being largely ignored by the red carpet press thanks to Mrs Vaughn. Interestingly he mentions working on the THOR script with Mark Protosevich and getting a call from Marvel:

"My phone has just rung. Marvel loves the script. The only problem is that it has been costed at $300m and they ask how I am going to reduce it by $150m. I think I prefer being asked what it's like working with De Niro."

$300 million is the next budget milestone looming. Not so long ago people were fretting over $200 million, but since BATMAN & ROBIN (I've heard from many people that the numbers were fudged on that one) and TITANIC smashed that number we've seen it frequently exceeded. It'll be fascinating to see if the 300 number is passed in the next few years. I like Vaughn - if it wasn't for him Daniel Craig would never have been Bond and for that I'm grateful - so I hope they get the budget down without damaging the scope of the movie too much. $300 million may sound like panic stations but would he really write about having that problem in a national newspaper if he didn't think it could be fixed? source - the guardian