According to The Hollywood Reporter, Portman will play Jane Foster, the human nurse from the early Thor comics who becomes Thor's first love. Not surprisingly, the 1960s character will be "updated" for the new movie. But more importantly, this probably means we'll be seeing a lot of Thor's human alter ego, Dr. Donald Blake. Up till now, all reports have suggested that Thor would only be in Asgardian thee-saying mode throughout the entire film.

Instead, it sounds like we'll be getting the early comics storyline where Thor's father decides the Thunder God needs to learn some humility, and sends him to Earth to live as a disabled human. Says the Hollywood Reporter:

The story centers on Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. As punishment, Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans but once here, he learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Portman joins Chris Hemsworth, who played Daddy George Kirk in the recent Star Trek reboot, as Thor, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the god of mischief.

Thor is scheduled to begin filming early next year in time for a May 2011 release date.

As part of his new "Cup O' Joe" mini-site at comic site ComicBookResources.com, Quesada spilled a lot of beans about the upcoming movie based on Marvel's particular take on the Norse God of Thunder. Casually mentioning that Branagh will be drawing from the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run of the series as well as the critically-acclaimed Walter Simonson run from the 1980s (Two runs that focused less on generic superheroing and more on the mythological aspect of the character), Quesada talked about Branagh pitching Marvel execs on his take on the movie:

We sat with Kenneth and discussed the "Thor" movie and the overarching story of what that's going to be, just to give our input before anything was put down to paper by screenwriters. And it was one of the highlights of my time here at Marvel because not only did Branagh sit there and give you the story beat for beat, he and [Marvel Studios head] Kevin Feige formed a great team. It was performance art. Kevin would give us the establishment of the shot and the situation: "Here we are. We're in (take your pick of location). And here's Odin and he's coming up to (pick a character)." And then Kenneth would come in and give you the color commentary. "Odin has an air of majesty to him" and he'd act out the Odin part or the Thor part. So we sat there and literally got a three-hour one-man show from Kenneth Branagh. It was fantastic. People pay a lot of money for that kind of performance by one of the world's greatest living actors... He'd sit there and give us the emotions between the characters as they are in scenes – what the character's motivation is in that particular moment and how it relates to the overarching story of the movie. He's definitely about character, which is the quintessential trait you have to have to understand the Marvel characters. It's not just big hammers and capes and things like that.

(Don't worry, hammer fans; Quesada also promised that Thor would have "reasons and motivations for him to hit people with his hammer… hard!")

Looking at the lack of mainstream awareness of Marvel's characters beyond those already in the movie biz, Quesada also talked about how to overcome Thor's lack of brand recognition:

We had the same conversation in internally about "Iron Man." We knew Iron Man wasn't as recognizable to most people not into comics. He's not Spider-Man... We'll be getting out there. We've got plans already to get Thor's name out within a younger group of kids. I think the upcoming "Super Hero Squad" and "Avengers Animated" shows are going to do wonders to get that across, and then we're working on a couple of ancillary things here and there to boost the desire for kids in particular to know more about Thor and the general public as well.

If this means turning a new generation of kids into mythology geeks, I'm all for it... As long as they don't start talking in Stan Lee's faux-Shakespearean dialogue in the process.

Joe Quesada Talks Thor, Iron Man 2 [Comic Book Resources/Cup O Joe]

The website Bleeding Cool first broke the story that Brian Blessed is set to join Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston in the cast of Marvel's Asgardian epic. This would be his fifth time working with Branagh, for whom he had previously appeared in the Shakespeare adaptations Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, and As You Like It.

Once a respected actor (his work as Augustus in I, Claudius is particularly good), Brian Blessed is now better known for just being Brian Blessed, a wonderfully insane, larger-than-life personality distinguished by his adventures (he's tried to climb Mount Everest three times) and shouting his way through he every role he now plays. He's also no stranger to science fiction, having appeared in Space: 1999, Survivors, Blake's 7, Doctor Who, and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, although his most iconic science fiction role - for better or worse - has to be as Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon. Feast your eyes and ears on this particular brand of Brian Blessed glory:

To me though, Brian Blessed will always be King Richard IV in the original Black Adder. That role actually might be a decent template for Odin, considering Richard was also the all-powerful father of a dashing, heroic son and his dastardly, scheming brother. Also, I'd very much be in favor of the King of Asgard randomly eating horse legs during scenes:

It's hard to know whether Brian Blessed can really turn in what you or I might consider a "good" performance - particularly when directed by Kenneth Branagh, himself known for over-the-top tendencies - but casting him makes one thing abundantly clear: there is absolutely no chance Thor is going to be boring.

[Bleeding Cool]

Talking to Comic Book Resources, Quesada talked about meeting with Branagh and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to map out the movie:

[Branagh] has immersed himself in [the comics]... He was talking about characters and villains that even I was going, like, who was that?, y'know. But if you're a Thor-head, you're going to go, oh right... So it was wonderful to hear this stuff. He wasn't just concerned about Thor, but he also understood going in, from the beginning - because we established very early on... Well, at the end of the Iron Man movie, but very early on [in the process], that there's going to be other movies that become part of this tapestry. This is essentially our Star Wars, our universe is our Star Wars, and he understands that his Thor movie is one of the legs of this table that will interplay with an Iron Man movie down the road, or the Avengers movie down the road.

Of course, does being faithful to the comic mean that Thor will be a God once again? Quesada didn't even hint in that direction, wisely.

Thor is being prepped for a 2010 release.

Joe Quesada, Part 1 [Comic Book Resources]

One of the things I'd forgotten about this movie was its steampunk look, which is actually kind of great if you can ignore shirtless Branagh's emoting. And then there's the lube. Giant tanks full of lube, all over naked De Niro and shirtless Branagh, struggling in a slippery homoerotic pile of WTF. I love the close-ups of Ne Niro's butt and back scars, then the way those chains hang so artfully when he dangles from the roof so that we don't see his monstery nether regions. It's leatherboy camp horror of the 1990s, confusingly made by straight guys. [Mary Shelley's Frankenstein via IMDB]