You read about my experiences visiting the production of Thor: The Dark World earlier this week when I posted my set visit report, but now a new featurette has arrived to help give you a new look behind the scenes of the new film. Posted by IGN, the video above showcases the amazing locations that the movie filmed in, the brilliant, lavish sets and much more, and it's all accented with soundbites from the stars and filmmakers who brought the comic book superhero story to life.
Even just watching this featurette it's easy to see that this new film is going to be much different aesthetically from Kenneth Branagh's Thor in 2011 (a movie that I actually enjoyed quite a bit). Director Alan Taylor - who is best known for directing episodes of HBO series like Game of Thrones and Rome - has taken away a good amount of the shine in the alien worlds, and has crafted a much darker, real look. As the filmmaker explained in a recent interview, the look of Asgard in the first movie was Marvel's attempt to create a fantasy world that distanced itself from Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings movies, but with this sequel they felt more free to make Thor's home world look as it should. Said Taylor about developing the look of the realm,
“In my mind this is an ancient, ancient culture that highly reveres the horse and the culture of the horse. We still use fountain pens because we think they’re really cool – it’s not like we all use laser pens. So I think there’s a living culture that keeps these things. To me the defining thing was that Thor is a superhero amongst many superheroes, but the thing that makes him different is the thing that should be featured in the movie. And that is that he’s also a warrior prince from ancient culture."
In the new film, which is based on a script by Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has returned to Asgard, thrown his villainous brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in prison, and found a way to reunite with his love, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), but trouble finds trouble arrive when the Dark Elves, a race who were thought to be dead for centuries, suddenly make their return. The God of Thunder is forced to up against the Dark Elf leader, Malekith The Accursed (Chirstopher Eccleston), a villain unlike any he's ever faced, and try to stop the universe from being torn apart. Sir Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander and Rene Russo all reprise their roles from the first Thor and other newcomers include Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Algrim The Strong and Zachary Levi as Fandral (stepping in for Josh Dallas).
Thor: The Dark World will be in theaters on November 8th.
