Before Chris Hemsworth took Thor to new and unexpected directions, he showed off his comedic chops as a clueless receptionist in the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot, starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.
In this week’s issue of Variety, Hemsworth reveals that he almost quit the movie directed by Paul Feig. “The night before I was shooting, I almost pulled out,” Hemsworth says. “Three or four weeks prior, Paul said to me, ‘I’m going to write up the character. Don’t worry.’ And then I got the script and nothing had changed.”
His agent, Bryan Lourd, set up a last-minute meeting with Feig, who assured Hemsworth there would be a lot to do — through improvisation. “I was really scared walking onto that set,” Hemsworth says. “I had no real plan, so I was just feeding off of them, and I just felt ridiculous. So I used that.”
Hemsworth credits “Ghostbusters” with priming audiences to accept Thor’s turn to screwball comedy in “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Endgame.” He would have liked to have done a “Ghostbusters” sequel, and he hasn’t forgiven the online fanboys who viciously attacked the reboot partly because the new stars were played by women. “That whole period I was like, ‘What ownership do you guys have over those characters?’” Hemsworth says. “‘Oh, you watched the film, therefore you should have a say over where it goes?’ I thought it was very unfortunate and kind of disappointing.”
For more from Hemsworth, including what he thinks about Thor’s future and his upcoming role in “Men in Black: International,” read our cover story here.
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Anonymous Content has joined forces with “The Imitation Game” (pictured) director Morten Tyldum and Norwegian producer Guri Neby to launch Anonymous Content Nordic. The new venture will be spearheaded by Neby, a producer at Oslo-based Einar Films, and will focus on developing and producing premium content for the international and Nordic markets. As managing director […]
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CANNES — The 2019 Cannes Film Festival confirmed the build in world cinema animation: Three movies, all French, played in its main sections: “The Bears’ Invasion of Sicily” and “The Swallows of Kabul,” both Directors’ Fortnight entries, and “I Want My Body,” in Critics’ Week. Animated movies – Studiocanal’s “Around the World,” “I Want My […]
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MADRID — Madrid’s Latido Films, one of the Spanish-speaking world’s top sales companies for arthouse and crossover films, acquired world sales rights to Dominican director José María Cabral’s in progress “Hotel Coppelia.” The news comes as Latido has revealed a slew of sales on top titles. Their number suggests a larger depth to this year’s […]
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Looking at a body of work that includes everything from a classic comedy (“Friday”) to hostage thrillers (“The Negotiator”) to high-octane franchise tentpoles (“The Fate of the Furious”), the subject matter of F. Gary Gray’s movies seems to share little in common from one to the next. But the invisible throughline that connects them all […]
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Studiocanal has boarded Gilles de Maistre’s family adventure film “The Wolf and the Lion,” his follow-up to “Mia and the White Lion,” which has so far been released in 36 territories around the world and has grossed more than $31 million outside of France. “The Wolf and the Lion,” which is produced by Mai Juin […]
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Mobile ticketing app Atom Tickets has partnered with the Cinemark movie theater chain, adding more than 4,500 screens at 340 U.S. locations to its network. The Cinemark locations are expected to go live on the Atom app and website by mid-summer. The network will cover more than 26,000 screens with theaters in Dallas, Houston, San […]
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There are many different paths to success in Hollywood, and many where the truth of those journeys is considerably stranger than fiction. But even for an industry with an indefatigable aptitude for self-mythologizing, it seems hard to believe that one of the biggest directors in the world made his breakthrough with a comedy produced, written […]