The news that Kenneth Branagh was going to direct Thor, a comic-book movie, was proof for many that the director and actor had failed to live up to his billing as the new Laurence Olivier. Branagh was feted as such in 1989, just before his 30th birthday, for his excellent movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V.
Just over two decades later, the Northern Irish-born actor can look back on a career that has had more than its fair share of ups and downs.
Of the dozen films he's directed, five have been Shakespeare adaptations: Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Love's Labours Lost and As You Like It. On stage and screen, acting or directing, he has always been acclaimed for his ability to capture the magic of the Bard. Although in recent times, his career highlight has been his excellent turn as the detective Wallander in the eponymous BBC TV series set in Ystad, Sweden.
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On the surface, none of his directing credits or acting turns seem to have indicated that he'd be the man to translate a Marvel superhero on to the big screen. The closest he has come to children's movies is playing Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and a truly daft turn in the dire Wild Wild West.
Nonetheless, those who know the comic book character Thor would see why Marvel saw Branagh as the ideal candidate to make the movie. Thor is based on the Norse myth - the title character is the god of thunder. The tale of gods, sibling rivalry, corruption and the nature of power is, of course, rife with Shakespearean parallels.
So when Branagh picked up the phone to Marvel, he wasn't too surprised by its request. "Marvel were definitely concerned about tone. Marvel were concerned about the characters sounding too pompous, or too solemn, or too old world and taking itself too seriously. They didn't want the performances to be too stiff and they knew that in the Shakespeare adaptations I made, I aimed to do the opposite of that. I always tried to make those films for a popular audience, they don't always come, but that was the aim," he recalls.
It's been an interesting time in the world of comic-book movies. A few years ago, Marvel was so concerned by the poor quality of movie adaptations of its comic titles that it decided to exert a greater influence on the screen adaptations of its product.
Perhaps it had been inspired by the success that its rival, DC Comics, had enjoyed with the Superman and Batman franchises, but in any case, Marvel was soon seeing hits. Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr, was its first blockbuster and the only flop has been The Incredible Hulk adaptation. An interesting facet of all these adaptations is that Marvel did not view these films as separate entities, instead, integrating them into a loose kind of series, building towards an Avengers movie in which all the characters will join forces.
To a certain extent, this can lend the films a feeling of acting as trailers for The Avengers. However, Branagh insists that he was mostly left to his own devices when it came to making Thor.
"It's interesting, I think Marvel probably did have an influence and that I never really saw it. I think they were very subtle and brilliant in the way that they pulled the wool over my eyes, but it never felt like I had to worry about the Marvel brand and franchise," says Branagh, 50.
"Occasionally, something would happen and I'd say that I'd notice that a place name had changed, why has that happened? Then they'll say well it's because of this and then they'll tell me something about how it relates to another film and I think that's fine, indeed, as a viewer, I like that.
"But basically they did give me a lot of creative freedom because of the issue of needing to guide the tone, particularly on this one. They said to me from the word go, this is the most difficult property of ours, of all the Avengers characters it's the one we could get wrong quickest and most easily so please don't get it wrong."
What I'm most surprised by is how much of a fan of comic books Branagh seems to be. Notable is his admiration of Stan Lee, the creative supremo at Marvel. The star asks me: "Have you ever met Stan Lee?" he seems disappointed when I reply in the negative. "Oh you really must, he is like the national grid on legs, so full of energy."
Then of Thor he says: "I'm a big fan of Thor, which I remember seeing as a kid. I was struck by the colour and the artwork. I loved the vividness of it. The very first image of Thor that I remember was Thor yoked, he's got his arms over a big log, the arms seem bigger then the log itself and he's lying over it, and Loki is behind him in his iconic pose. I found that extremely powerful and haunting. It had that real mystery and that ancient quality and yet I knew from the comics that Thor travelled through space and so I loved the kind of mad combination of all of those things. And I especially liked the character at the centre of it, Viking and powerful and primitive."
He has, he says, tried to make this film reflect his view of the blockbuster: "When I see pictures like this, that are about the action and spectacle, I also love it when you have that added value that takes place when the character draws you in as well. It isn't just the case here that Thor is a lumbering brute, he has a brutality but part of its story is him trying to control his brutality, that adds the drama."
While the father versus son, brother versus brother elements were all familiar to Branagh, the special effects proved to be a steep learning curve. The director says he eventually discovered that the key was to trust his staff and not to try to become an instant expert in 3D. It has obviously proved an alluring process, as Branagh suggests that he may even be back making comic-book stories sometime soon.
"I think the audience will be the answer to that. One of the things that has been particularly fascinating about this, and strangely comparable to my Shakespeare experience, is that there are a gazillion purists out there who have a really strong point of view on the work. What is amazing is to make a film where there is such genuine anticipation from a core group of die-hard, hard-core comic-book aficionados, so that's very exciting. They'll be the ones who decide. If they like it, maybe I'll get asked again, who knows?"
