Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke broke the news yesterday, along with explaining the to-and-fro process that preceded it:

Chris had read for the part of Thor but wasn't given a test because a casting director had nixed him early on. I'm told Chris' younger brother Liam (who's also a ROAR client) then tested for the role of Thor, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige passed. Then, after a conversation with Ward ("You've got to reconsider Chris, he's your guy"), Feige decided to let Chris read again. And once Marvel put him on tape, it was "Oh my god". [Thor director Kenneth] Branagh came to town last week and saw the Chris test and made the final casting decision today.

Hemsworth can currently be seen as George Kirk in JJ Abrams' Star Trek, and is filming Joss Whedon's horror movie Cabin In The Woods potentially as you read these very words, but you've got awhile before you'll see him as the Asgardian Thunder God; Marvel recently moved the release of the movie back to May 20, 2011.

Chris Hemsworth Is 'Thor' [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

Intel, a promotional partner for next year's Star Trek movie, have updated their tie-in Starfleet Shipyard site with new information about the USS Kelvin, which you can see being destroyed in the latest trailer for the movie. Alongside explanations on how various parts of the ship work (For example: "The Kelvin’s phaser turrets can either fire bolts of high concentrated energy, or beams of less power to slice through the shield or hull of an attacking vessel. Plasma is passed to a phaser emitter resulting in a discharge of nadion particles." Stirring stuff, I think you'll agree), we also get to see short bios for four of the Kelvin's crew... including one George Kirk who, as we already know, is killed by a time-traveling Romulan, starting off the entire movie.

(Other crew members include Iron Man villain Faran Tahir, following his guest appearances in Chuck and Lost and continuing his apparent quest to appear in all nerd-friendly possibilities. I look forward to his inevitable Fringe guest spot.)

What's most interesting is this apparently random tech detail which perhaps suggests just how Papa Kirk is going to die:
If this keeps up, we won't need to see the movie at all by the time it's released in May next year.

Starfleet Shipyard [Intel] (Via)