Some more from Branagh here on his experiences directing one of the most highly anticipated CBMs of all time. Many thanks to SpiderMedia's RealIronMan for the transcription, and our own WolvieCBM for forwarding on the info.
"Directing a film on this scale is an utter pleasure from start to finish! It's a tricky tonal issue. We always said early on that I am there, for what it's worth, to try and guide the tone and say, 'Hey, I think we can make a film...' I was passionate that we should have a contemporary Earth sequence to the movie. I believe, as they do in the comics that we can live both in places and people can travel to both places, potentially. We can find a tone. You have to stay very honest & truthful, and we hope we are doing that."
On how best to prepare and research for a movie like this..
"It's just to make sure that you start off saying, 'This isn't going to be the usual thing,' and also to look for information anywhere. Natalie (Portman) read a book about a nuclear physicist; the gal who was sort of outed from the whole discovery of DNA, Rosalind Franklin. She was the one who didn't get the Nobel Prize, a brilliant, mid-century, British physicist. Now you may see none of that in Jane Foster, but she had a couple of great ideas that might be half of a line in the movie but just smack like a peg into the ground of a different kind of reality. You'll find that you can put your arms around the part that way."
Is he feeling the pressure?
"I've enjoyed it enormously, It feels as though you're working on a big film but in a small kind of environment, in terms of the decision-making process. There are fantastic producers, but we end up doing a lot of it together and that's been an extremely pleasant thing. People say to me, 'It must be such a pressure to do something like this,' and I just cannot see it that way."
Finally, although we had a fair idea that there would be some kind of link into future Marvel films(ie Captain America and The Avengers), Branagh confirms that there will be references to Joe Johnston's upcoming take on The Sentinerl Of Liberty himself..
"The fun thing is when you see Iron Man 2 and you get a couple of lines saying that Coulson has to get down to New Mexicoand that ]they have a bit of a problem down there. And, you know, we're the problem! We've got a couple of little nods heading Joe's (Johnston) way with our picture. But I didn't feel as if I had to think about it at all. I was Thor-centric. Kevin [Feige] basically becomes the guy who orchestrates that, keeps me in the loop. I talk to the boys, Jon Favreau & Joss. We're in contact very pleasantly. It's nice, that very pleasant collegiate atmosphere of just being able to go, 'Christ, what did you do when you had a set that size with that many extras?' I've enjoyed that."
What could those nods be? A little after credits sequence as we have come to expect from Marvel movies? Or something more substantial in the actual movie? Guess we will have to wait and see.