Verily, news has been brought forth that shall compel thou to pinch thyself - Kenneth Branagh has been lined up to direct Thor for Marvel Studios.
That's right, according to Variety, the darling of luvvies and one-man Shakespeare machine is about to sign on the dotted line and breathe new life into the Asgardian Thunder god of comic book lore.
Now we never saw that coming but now that we've had time to digest the news, we have to say that it does actually make some kind of make sense.
With a propensity to speak in iambic pentameter and displaying a flair for the overly dramatic, the hammer-wielding one seems to be a perfect fit for Branagh. Although we're pretty sure that the iambic pentameter will be ditched for the movie version.
Having taken the place of previously attached director Matthew Vaughn, Branagh will still be working from Mark Protosevich's script which - last time we checked - takes place almost entirely on Asgard and introduces the God of Thunder as an arrogant young sod who needs to grow into his powers and learn how to be a man. It'll be interesting to see if Branagh will change any of this.
The movie is scheduled for a June 4, 2010 release.