Even though it's still two years away, Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Marvel's "Thor" should start rolling into production fairly soon and has already casted two of its leads with Chris Hemsworth ("Star Trek") set to play the title role and Thom Hiddleston playing his nemesis, Loki.  Hiddleston recently spoke about the role to The Daily Mail and I kind of love what he has to say:

'Loki's like a comic book version of Edmund in King Lear, but nastier,' Tom observed.

How much nastier? 'Well, Loki's skilled in black magic and scorcery. He's a shape-shifter and has all sorts of super powers from the dark arts. He can turn clouds into dragons, things like that.'

Between now and January, when Thor begins shooting, Tom has to keep himself fit and healthy.

'Ken wants Loki to have a lean and hungry look, like Cassius in Julius Caesar. Physically, he can't be posing as Thor.'

How great is it that he's comparing the character to not one but TWO Shakespeare roles?  Of course, Hiddleston (and Branagh) come from that world and I think that's what could make "Thor" a standout among the recent superhero flicks (provided the studio and audiences are willing to accept something different).  But to go to Shakespeare is definitely the right tack to take because even though it will probably be set in the modern day, to make the characters modern and spout off catchy one-liners and pop-culture references just doesn't work (as opposed to when Tony Stark drops a MySpace-reference at the begining of "Iron Man" and the joke works perfectly).

Also, CineFOOLS spoke with writer Ashley Miller about the feel of the film and while Miller's words seem to fall more under the purview of the director, it's still exciting to hear how he wants to see the film's action:

Grit. Not in the sense that you'd want to see a generic "dark" take on Thor, but in the sense that you want to feel Thor's rage when he rages. You want to see him fight like hell, and take as much he dishes out -- maybe more. You want to have a visceral reaction to the guy, and what happens to him. You don't want his adventures to be clean and antiseptic. You want to see the dirt, and grime and blood. You want to feel every bone crunching moment of every fight. And when he unleashes the storm, you want to feel like you're seeing the power of a GOD at work.

I highly encourage you to read the whole article because it sounds like Miller absolutely gets the character and knows exactly what he wants.

"Thor" is currently slated to hit theatres on May 20, 2011.