Hopkins is Odin

[Chewy]

A pic of Hopkins sporting his Odin beard from the video posted in the news thread:

And there's also this

"I hope I look like God."

Those are the words of Anthony Hopkins, speaking a couple of weeks ago about Thor, the big-budget comic book-based movie in which he'll play Odin, the Norse god-like ruler of Asgard, as well as the father of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and stepfather of Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

Production is underway now on the superhero adventure, which also stars Natalie Portman, Jaimie Alexander, Ray Stevenson and Rene Russo and is being directed by Kenneth Branagh (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein).

"That's a really big one, a really big movie," Oscar winner Hopkins said a couple of weeks ago while promoting The Wolfman. "I'm a big Ken Branagh [fan]. I think he's an extraordinary guy, a wonderful actor and a terrific director. He's one of the easiest guys to be with. He doesn't shout or scream. He just is very gentle with everyone. He believes in his actors. He needs them to act, and he'll direct in a strong way, but he leaves it to you. Whatever you want, he gives it to you."

Hopkins didn't know Branagh well before signing on for Thor. But the two men had met previously as Hopkins had worked, twice, with Branagh's ex-wife, Emma Thompson, and they'd all gone out to dinner years ago. Hopkins got a better feeling for Branagh a few months back, over conversation and coffee in Santa Monica, Calif.

"He said, 'Would you take the [Thor] script and read it and see what you think? And if you'd like to play Odin,'" Hopkins recalled, adding: "I felt he was a very, very smart man, very bright and compassionate and well rounded."

Thor is in production now, with an eye toward a May 6, 2011, release.

SOURCE

 

[Brian Braddock]

Good post, Chewy.

Thanks.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Damn - double post.

 

[Webhead2006]

find find and hopkins had some nice things to say, also he looks pretty good.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

That's a handsome beard.

 

[Brian Braddock]

As long as he doesnt keep food in it.

Ever had to talk to someone with a beard who still has half his lunch in there?

Not nice.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I have not. And I encounter bums with big, bushy beards all the time at my weekend library job.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Anthony Hopkins always seemed like a classy guy.

 

[Wolfman]

My only problem with Hopkins is that he has smoked his voice almost down to a whisper. But I'm sure he'll be terrific Odin.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Isn't that what audio engineers are for?

 

[Wolfman]

I'm sure they are.

 

[hugekent]

I'm getting greedy here but I wanted BIGGER. It'll be fine though. It's nice to here his enthusiasm on working with Branagh.

 

[Hobgoblin]

They may use some kind of prosthetic hair to make the beard bigger, but need him to grow a little of his own to blend in with it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'd be fine with that beard. I mean, the kind of ZZ Top-style beard that Odin sports in the comics would take forever to grow, and extensions always look weird to me.

 

[Webhead2006]

yea his look right now looks good plus we know filming has already started so they can really have more to it and all that.

 

[Wolfman]

Another great interview:

During at a press junket for The Wolfman, Steve Weintraub of Collider.com craftily pulled some information out of Sir Anthony regarding Marvel's Thor. Here are a few excepts from the interview:


"I’m enjoying working with Ken Branagh very much. Terrific young director. Well, he’s not that young. He’s younger than me-anyone’s younger than me. But he’s terrific and I’m really enjoying it."

Has he had the chance to read any Thor comic books?

"No. I’m not a great researcher. Although I’ve got the whole Marvel comics book, but I haven’t read it yet. It’s very dense. I’m not into that culture. Like Wolfman, this is a big cultural thing isn’t it, these monster movies. I’ve never been caught up in that.

What about Norse mythology?

"Yeah, I know a little bit about it. Not much though, I’m not well read in Norse mythology. More in Greek mythology and Roman mythology, but not in-but I’m learning a bit through comic strips now, about Odin. And I know that Thursday’s named after Thor and Wednesday’s named after Odin. And uh, yeah, interesting stuff. History of the Vikings is very interesting, the Viking invasions of Europe."

When asked how Joe Johnston held up to the pressures on set while filming The Wolfman, Hopkins made it clear that his is not 'wimp':

"He’s great. Joe Johnson just gets on with it. But he’s very calm. I mean, he had a lot of pressure on the film because he didn’t have much preparation. He came in to replace another director, I don’t know what that was about, but anyway, that’s the situation-and he’s very um, very focused, very amenable. He’s got the double-edged thing where he’s concentrated, he’s, uh, knows what he wants. But you can go to him and say can I try this? Yeah, do it. That’s the best director you can work with and he’s sure of himself. And there was a lot of pressure on him. He kept his patience. I saw him blow up once on set, and he just said can we have more quiet. That was all. All that patience, I said god, I don’t know how you have such patience, control is-because he had a lot of pressure on him. So he’s one of the best I’ve worked with."

Hopkins fathers really tall sons in movies. First Benicio del Toro in Wolfman and now Chris Hemsworth. t:

 

[Chewy]

Over the weekend, affable veteran actor Anthony Hopkins was haunting the hallways at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, shaking the hands of various journalists as he showed off a new grey beard. When a couple of journalists asked him who he was playing in his next movie, he responded “I’m God!” and then burst out laughing.

Moments earlier, the Oscar-winner sat down with MTV to explore a few of the finer points of his character in Marvel’s now-filming blockbuster.

“It’s for ‘Thor’,” he said of the beard. “It has a great director in Kenneth Branagh. So, I’m lucky. In the past year I’ve worked with [‘Wolfman’] filmmaker Joe Johnston, Woody Allen and Ken Branagh.”

A veteran star who has played all kinds of complex characters, one thing Hopkins has never portrayed is a god — so, as he works on telling the tale of Marvel’s hammer-wielding hero, the 73-year-old actor is getting a kick out of it.

“I knew nothing of it,” he said of the “Thor” character, who has been appearing in comics since 1962. “It’s a surprise to be in these sort of movies.”

As Marvel fans know, Thor has often appeared a bit stiff due to his Asgardian multi-millennial life and tendency to rely heavily on old-timey talk. But according to Hopkins — who played Claudius in a 1969 version of “Hamlet” — this is a superhero interpretation, not a Shakespeare one.

“It’s a superhero movie, but with a bit of Shakespeare thrown in,” revealed Hopkins, who plays Thor’s irascible daddy Odin in the flick. “It’s a big, big broad thing. This is a bit of a Shakespeare movie as well, on a big scope.” As for the key question of whether Thor will contain “Thee,” “Thou” and other such words, Hopkins said absolutely not.

“No, not in this,” he said of the blockbuster. “It’s all modern language.”
Although they’re still early into shooting, Hopkins — who can be seen in “Wolfman” this weekend — told us that he’s enjoyed working with some of the film’s lesser-known stars, such as Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, who play his dueling sons.

“Oh, I love working with young actors,” he said of the duo, flashing a grin “I don’t have to do much work. I let them do all the work. I let them act, and then I just stand back.”

SOURCE

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm sure Hopkins'll do a good job in the end, but he doesn't really seem interested in Thor at all. Still, he's Anthony f***ing Hopkins, so it's all cool.

 

[marcvader]

He's a professional so I don't really mind if he's interested in the material or not.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, but it's just not as fun from our spectators' perspective as when you see interviews with Robert Downey, Jr. saying he pretty much read every Iron Man comic ever and stuff like that.

 

[Webhead2006]

cool interviews and well yea anthony is like what 70s comics are really his thing.

 

[DocHoliday]

I have no problem with him not being interested in the source material. He's done enough of these type of films that I am sure he'll bring his game no matter what. Sure it's cool when the actors know a lot about the characters but not everyone needs to do that research to grasp the character.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I cant say I'm surprised that he knows nothing of Thor, nor is particularly interested. He's an older man and Thor is a comic book, a fairly obscure one at that. I respect him more for admitting he knows nothing about the character than if he were saying "Oh, yeah! I read Thor way back when it was written by Bob Kane in the 50's."

And as Corpy said. Its Anthony Hopkins. A great performance is in the bag.

 

[mrsparkle]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...ppears-taking-Wolfman-role-bit-seriously.html

As usual the daily mail misses the point, more pics after link.

 

[Webhead2006]

looks good.