Patty Jenkins To Direct THOR 2?
Female director whose last film was 2003's Monster with Charlize Theron to helm Thor 2! - Seriously... what is going on?
Deadline and Variety are both reporting that Patty Jenkins, whose last feature film was 2003's morbid Monster which featured Charlize Theron's incredible transformation job as serial killer Aileen Wuornos, has now entered talks to direct Thor 2 at Marvel. If we were taking bets yesterday on potential directors for the fantasy superhero sequel, Jenkins would have been racing in at around 3 million to 1. Six weeks or so ago it looked like cheap skates Marvel were going budget with the then apparently impending appointment of t.v. helmer Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire) but somewhere along the line things seem to have fallen down and it's Patty they have gone for, a director who has been off the radar for years. Seriously, she might as well have been living on the other side of Pluto. I imagine her quotes will have been even lower than Kirk's. Update:Variety say Kirk turned down the Thor 2 job because of creative and financial sticking points that arose during negotiations. Christ, Marvel couldnt even drum up the cash to secure a first time feature filmmaker! Jenkins looks like she was the only candidate they could get for the next to nothing money they were offering. With Thor 2 having made Marvel $449 million worldwide, fans should feel robbed. Kirk meanwhile is likely to direct Paper Wings with Tom Cruise instead. Jenkins' work since Monster has included directing the pilot for the AMC series The Killing, a couple of episodes of Entourage and one individual episode of Arrested Development. Most recently she was hired to direct a segment of the Lifetime omnibus Project Five. She was a director who was out of site, out of mind. Worryingly for comic book fans she has nothing on her CV to suggest she is a good choice for Thor 2. I imagine she's never done an action scene, she certainly has never worked with special effects, or with a big budget or a crew this size. She has never worked on a project with this much expectation. In fact this will only be her second ever film. Marvel have made a bonkers hiring here. I mean I never backed Kenneth Branagh for Thor and I felt vindicated when his film came out the astonishingly mediocre work it did (full of stupid ways to shoot important scenes with ridiculously over the top slanty angles and camp costume designs and a rather limited scope for what is such a grand comic book character) and I'm glad he's not directing the sequel BUT I could at least see WHY he was chosen for the job. Jenkins' appointment? Well it leaves me baffled and I'm completely confused. Can you guys reassure me I'm not the only one who thinks I'm living in The Twilight Zone here? I guess the only good thing I can say is that Marvel is getting a woman's touch, a female directing a superhero property is a rare thing. The only time previously I can remember it happening was on The Punisher 2. Ah yes... maybe it isn't such a good thing after all! Thor 2 is to open July 26th, 2013 and terrifyingly is being written right now by Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer writer Don Payne. How underwhelming the talent behind this one, eh?