#there are two artists on this planet I stan wholeheartedly

[disast3rtransp0rt]

They got famous for portraying a suburban white woman named GAYLE?! Gayle Waters Waters was a fundamental part of my queer awakening. I owe my "weird talent for describing things" entirely to Chris Fleming's comedy/sense of humor.

The number of times my friends and I have made fun of rich people by saying "Persephone!" in his voice is in the hundreds of thousands by now. My bf does the "I know it's for babies, but I neeeeeed ittttttt." bit all the time. Hell, Chris liked my comment on Instagram the other day and I screamed out loud.

@chrisflemingfleming is a queer icon on so many layers that they deserve his own dimension in time and space.

[9worldstales]

INTERESTING POINTS TO PONDER FROM INTERVIEWS 3

Interviews might not remain forever available or not be easy to find so I’ve decided to link them and transcribe the points I find of some interest so as to preserve them should the interview had to end up removed.

It’s not complete transcriptions, just the bits I think can be relevant but I wholeheartedly recommend reading the whole thing.

And of course I also comment all this because God forbid I’ll keep silent... :P

Title: Kevin Feige (President of Production at Marvel Studios) On Set Interview THOR; Read a Massive Interview Done on the Soundstages of THOR!

Author: Steve Weintraub

Published: Dec 10, 2010

BEST BITS FROM THE INTERVIEW

ABOUT THE ULTIMATES INFLUENCING THE SCRIPT

So you guys aren’t taking from The Ultimates standpoint where there is supposed to be a recreated Asgard on Earth.

Feige: There’s some… No, is your answer. But there is certainly influences of the [J. Michael] Straczynski run over the course of the film. It is, as I said, Kirby/Lee, for some aesthetic and characters, Simonson for aesthetic and characters, and Straczynski for our inspiration of the Earth-bound stuff, but not Asgard floating above.

Question about the comic art we saw earlier. It’s a lot of the classic Thor panels up there, but he definitely has more of an Ultimate comics look. Were any of the Ultimate comics consulted or were those books consulted for this look?

Feige: I don’t know about consulted, but we certainly pulled and looked at all of the renditions. Frankly, the Thor costume you see is closer to the JMS comics than the Ultimate comics.

So none of the actual artists or writers are active consultants on this?

Feige: We wanted to talk with [Olivier] Coipel but he was just too busy. Walt [Simonson] and Joe [Michael Straczynski] were, and Stan [Lee]. The way we usually do.

ABOUT THE WORLD OF “THOR”

What’sthe difference between the comic book look and the historically Nordic…

Feige: The comic book wins, in most cases. We’re going with the theory in the comics which is there, in your face, and sometimes it isn’t, that these are being who live in another realm, who live on another planet, who had a way to travel to here and has travelled here in the past. Specifically, a thousand some odd years ago, in which the locals interpreted them as gods and started mimicking some of their clothing and some of their helmet and weapon designs. But they didn’t have access to the building materials that Asgardians did so they made it out of wood and horns and fur. That’s not a whole lot of this movie, but that’s a lot of the backstory that we’re coming from. Which is why Odin’s bed, there, for the Odin sleep, yes there’s sort of a Viking-esque [feel]. The head of the bed there, the Viking-esque longboat ends. But they weren’t inspired by the Vikings, the Vikings were inspired by them.

This has a lot of elements that are probably a little more difficult to get onto the screen to combine with Spider-Man and the other Marvel things. How much of a consideration is that with managing and combining all these universes?

Feige: Well we’re not combining Spider-Man but we are… it led us to the movie we are making. That consideration you brought up led us to the film we’re making. The theory behind it and the science behind it. Was it Arthur C. Clarke or Asimov who said, “Technology significantly advanced would be indistinguishable from magic.” That quote is what we used a lot and continue to use with all of this. Something that looks like magic to us, but it’s not magic to them. That is where we are coming from and when these worlds eventually collide, it will be in a pretty scientific manner. Not a boring scientific manner, I hope, but in a cool one.

On that note, you did say that science is basically going to be mistaken for magic, and you are hot to trot for Dr. Strange, so is that how you are going to try to ease audiences into this other kind of realm beyond just the superhero stuff?

Feige: Yea. Absolutely. I mean, most of our characters are rich enough that they can carry their own movie. Instead of just combining them together at first, we do want to introduce them in a movie, and within each of them they will break open other avenues. Iron Man is entirely about tech. Hulk starts the break open the idea of biological enhancement which clearly goes into Cap. This cracks into the cosmic and other worlds. Dr. Strange will eventually get into the supernatural.

Producer Craig Kyle: Once you step inside the observatory, you basically tell Heimdall where you want to go. The sword Heimdall uses is not only used to defend Asgard, but it’s also the key to this device. We looked at Tony Stark and that movie, Iron Man had holograms and was stepping inside virtual worlds. Asgardians have kind of “been there, done that” when it comes to that kind of stuff. So for them to send you across the universe it’s as easy as turning a key. It’s why it’s a system of gears and wheels. It’s a machine. Their technology is only as sophisticated as it needs to be to do extraordinary things. Once you’ve said you’re going to go, the outside of this building begins to spin around, while the inside is stable and the rainbow bridge pumps energy inside this place. Then this major steeple that fills up the top here begins to lower and it points in the direction of the destination of the world you choose to go to. You step out on the edge and BOOM! You’re fired across the universe. You get the rainbow bridge when you arrive or leave Asgard, but when you want to get from this side of the universe to ours, you need to step through this gun that will fly you across the universe.

ABOUT THE FROST GIANTS

Feige walked us into another room filled with artwork and images of the Frost Giants.

Feige: Early versions of the...frost giants play a major role in this movie. What you’ll see today are legacy versions of the frost giants. Some of it will be in the movie, and some of it will be enhanced through Digital Domain. So these are early molds. We wanted there to be practical frost giants for the actors to interact with, we have a wonderful actor named Colm Meaney* who plays one of them. I think a lot of his stuff and his face we wanted to be him. A lot of them will be further enhanced from what you’ll see today.

Does this character have a specific name or is he just referred to as a frost giant?

Feige: He has a name. I’m not going to tell you what it is but he has one.

* (I think Feige actually mean Colm Feore, who played Laufey, as there’s no Colm Meaney in the cast and Laufey is the only Frost Giant who has a name)

ABOUT CHRIS HEMSWORTH AS THOR

Feige: Thor is not here today. Do not judge the Thor double as Thor. When Chris is Thor, well, let me just say there are certain individuals who begin questioning their sexuality. [laughs]

MY TWO CENTS

Well, for start this confirms my feelings that people expected a “Thor” based on “The Ultimates” and I bet they made the trailer in that way to use this expectation and raise viewers’ interest.

It also confirms what said in other interviews by other people, that Feige was interested in giving “Thor” a scientific look... though I’ve to say in the final product there’s very little of it.

And this also confirms my feelings Frost Giants were meant to be more than what we just got. I mean, in “The art of Thor” they mentioned how they wanted them to be characters, not monsters/creatures, but in the movie they seem to be there mostly to be killed and be considered monsters by the Asgardians. So it’s nice to know they originally were meant to be more... although it’s a pity this more disappeared somehow.

I really, really really would love to see the very early plans for “Thor”. I know of course of the old script that had been shared and on which the novel “Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: Thor” is based but, well, call me greedy but I would love to see the previous ones as well, and especially look at how they were planning to handle the Frost Giants. It’s a pity their role had been cut so much.

Last but not least, this is not the sole interview in which I get the feeling Marvel was more interested in Chris Hemsworth/Thor for his look than for anything else.

I mean, okay, he’s very nice to look at to say the least and this is something I surely apprecciate but sometimes I wish they cared more about his character and his interpretation than about his body. He’s not in the story to be just an eye candy after all... but whatever, maybe that’s just me.

On a sidenote it’s not the first time I see Feige mentioning “Doctor Strange” way before the movie was done (we’re in 2010 here, “Doctor Strange” will be released in 2016) so it seems he really wanted to release it.