Re the Thor movie slated for release in 2011. If Thor is scripted anything close to his comic book roots he is a “God” , and his very existence implies the presence of an entire pantheon of non-Christian deities. How are they going to make this movie palatable to fundamentalists?
Why should they cater to a small, small-minded minority? There are sufficient non-Fundamentalist people to make it into a blockbuster if it’s a decent popcorn movie.
They shouldn’t have to. It’s a comic book movie, for crying out loud, just run with it.
If I, as a devout Christian, made a movie about the life of Christ, I wouldn’t be thinking about making it “palatable” to non Christians, I’d just make it the way I thought it should be.
I’d want to see gorgeous costuming, the Rainbow Bridge to Asgard, and a hot guy for Thor!
I don’t think they are going for the “god” bit.
From your link:-
Tagline: Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of…
Plot: Partially disabled medical student Dr. Donald Blake discovers his heretofore unknown alter ego, the Norse warrior, Thor.
There were all kinds of movies about the Greek pantheon back in the 70’s and 80’s, so I don’t see how a Norse god would cause all that much of a stir.
*Edit: Come to think of it, I don’t remember anybody making a big deal out of Disney’s Hercules, and I would think that if anything would rile up fundies, it’d be a movie specifically targeting children.
I did not realize that about Thor. I’m sure he’d appreciate the present. 
Back on topic, I don’t think fundies would be a problem. If they couldn’t make a dent with kids in Harry Potter, I don’t think they’re going to sway comic book fans at all.
Or Clash of the Titans for that matter. I think that when many fundies go off (as opposed to the real fringe who went after HP), what really pisses them off is the handling of their own characters, like in Last Temptation of Christ. I don’t think they really go after the alternate gods universes.
We live in strange times.
I agree they should just make the movie. If the fundies get riled up, hey, free publicity. They’ll probably chicken out and make Thor a mere Warrior and ditch a lot of the Norse stuff.
If they refer to Thor as being “a member of a race of powerful beings known as the Aesir”, they’ll avoid offending anyone.
I don’t know if he ever tried switching teams, but Thor was totally a cross-dresser.
That’s probably what the makers of *The Golden Compass *thought, and look what happened to them.
I was amazed to see that Kenneth Branagh’s involved. Given that he’s very rarely directed a movie that he didn’t also star in, I’m wondering if he’s going to end up playing a major role or not…
Were there protests of Lord of the Rings? There were never protests over the Wonder Woman TV show, as far as I can remember. Nor of the Teen Titans story arc dealing with Raven’s demon father. Nor of one recent movie dealing with a race of god-heroes:
Hancock
He’d make a decent Loki.
Why on earth would they object? The Gods of Olympus have been portrayed in countless movies and TV shows, we;ve also had Hindu gods, Aztec gods, Egyptian gods, the list is endless.
And checking IMDB I see that Thor himself has appeared in at least 10 movies before.
Buh? What happened to them? Did some Christian group sneak up and throw them in a volcano when no one was looking?
I cannot, in any context, imagine anyone getting up in arms about Thor. If someone does, it’ll be a tiny group of outspoken crazies, aka, those usually responsible for such things.
What happened was that the makers of TGC tried to appease the fundies by editing the movie to water down the “Anti religious” message and ended up (Presumably) destroying the movies pacing as well as dropping the real ending.
The real message is: Don’t try to appease the fundies. They won’t care and it’ll just compromise what you’re trying to do.
I’m all for making movies LESS palatable to fundies. If I were writing the script, I would have an exchange in there something like this:
*
Thor unleashes a mighty lighting bolt, destroying the frost giant. The people in Times Square look up at Thor in awe.
Bystander: My God…!
Thor: Yes?*
If you wanna get really confrontational, you can show them this poster.
My mind just did a bad thing. House holds the hammer.
I’ll be away for awhile, while my mind boggles.
Like this: [noparse][URL=“http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp331/lila_roxo/alexsk1.jpg”][/noparse].
