When it was announced last summer that Marvel would be handing script duties to Don Payne for Thor 2, I was seriously confused. In addition to the fact that the first movie had Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (who wrote the awesome X-Men: First Class), Payne's previous work includes dreck like Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. With so many talented writers in Hollywood, it didn't make sense that the studio would go to someone who has such a poor track record. Lucky for us, they have realized what they did and have made a move to fix it.
Deadline reports that Robert Rodat has been brought in to do rewrites on the script for Thor 2. While the project will be the first time that Rodat has ventured into the superhero world, his name carries clout because he was the Oscar nominated screenwriter on Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. His other work includes The Patriot, the film starring Heath Ledger and Mel Gibson, as well as the television series Falling Skies, which premiered last year. As confirmed by Tom Hiddleston earlier this week, the film is scheduled to go into production this summer in London with Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor at the helm. According to the site, the planned story for Thor 2 changed when Taylor was brought on board to replace Patty Jenkins in the director's chair.
This is great news. Robert Rodat is a legitimate screenwriter who will hopefully take the sequel to the next level. In a way this reminds me of when Joss Whedon was brought on to direct The Avengers and ended up completely rewriting the draft that was by Zak Penn (who was also responsible for some superhero disasters, including the first Fantastic Four movie, Elektra, and X-Men: The Last Stand). I look forward to seeing the result of Rodat's work.
