Swank’s love-of-his-life, Natalie Portman has been cast as Jane Foster in the upcoming Thor movie. Jane was Thor’s first love in early Thor comics. Once Swank is able to settle down from the excitement over this news he will be back with his thoughts on this. Until then, here’s the news:

Even the Mighty Thor can be thunderstruck by affairs of the heart!

Marvel Studios announced today that Academy Award® nominated actress Natalie Portman has been cast to star as Jane Foster in the studio’s highly anticipated movie “Thor.”

In the early “Thor” comics, Jane Foster was a nurse who became Thor’s first love. The character will be updated for the feature adaptation.

Portman will star opposite Chris Hemsworth who will play Thor and Tom Hiddleston who will play the villain Loki. Kenneth Branagh will direct the film.

Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige will produce “Thor.” Principal photography for the film is set for early 2010. The film will be released in the US on May 20, 2011 and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Source: Marvel.com

Variety is reporting this news:

Ryan Reynolds has landed the coveted role of “Green Lantern,” getting the starring role in Warner Bros.’ live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.

Martin Campbell will direct. The studio is still working on the picture’s budget, but production is expected to begin in January.

The news caps off a memorable summer for Reynolds, who played Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a performance that prompted Fox to begin development on a spinoff film. Reynolds followed that by starring opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy “The Proposal,” which crossed the $100 million mark this week.

Warners and Campbell chose Reynolds, who vied for the superhero role along with “The Hangover” star Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. The momentum built for Reynolds in the last week, as he was the only actor whose option was extended.

You can read the rest of the article here.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have guessed that Reynolds would have picked up the part.  I think both Fox and Warner Brothers would find it confusing to audiences to see Ryan Reynolds as both Deadpool and Green Lantern.  It would have been like casting Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and then turning around and casting him as Batman.  Sure, he could do it, but it might be weird.

I’m excited, though.  I really like Reynolds and, to be honest, I like Green Lantern more than Deadpool anyway.

Are you one of those luck robots or humans out there that are going to be going to Comic-Con in San Diego later this month? Well, if you are, and you are a fan of the Joss Whedon series, Dollhouse, you’ll be delighted to know that Fox Home Entertainment has released 5,000 Dollhouse: Season 1 Special Collector’s Edition DVD and Blu-ray copies for pre-order just for the ‘Con! The only catch is is that you have to be at ‘Con to pick up your copy. Season 1 of Dollhouse isn’t hitting shelves until July 28 so this is a great oppotunity to get the jump and pick it up before it’s on sale! You can check out all the details you need by checking out he Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Press Release, or you can just shoot on over to FoxStore.com to place your pre-order now!

Harry Knowles is reporting that Justin Timberlake has tested for the role of Green Lantern.

You can read his report here.

Got an unconfirmed rumor that at Leavesden Studios – there’s been some Warner Bros. screen testing on GREEN LANTERN and that Justin Timberlake was suiting up for the test.

Personally, I think Justin Timberlake needs to join the cast of SNL on a permanent basis. And you all know who I think should play Hal Jordan.

UPDATE: Reuters and Hollywood Reporter are reporting now that Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake are the three names left standing, each vying for the role of the Emerald Knight.

Personally, with Reynolds so close to Deadpool, I can’t see him taking a major DC character as well, but that’s just me.

Warner Bros. has won their case against the heirs of Superman co-creater, Jerome Siegel.

In a decision announced Wednesday, U.S. Judge District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson found that the license fees the studio paid to corporate sibling DC Comics didn’t represent “sweetheart” deals as they weren’t below fair market value. That means the heirs will be able seek profits only from DC Comics — which earned $13.6 million from Warner Bros. for the 2006 release of “Superman Returns” — rather than from Warner Bros. as well.

…

The heirs had accused Warners of making “sweetheart” deals with DC in 1999 for feature rights and in 2000 for TV rights for “Smallville.” The feature rights included $1.5 million upfront, $18.5 million for option extensions over 31 years and 5% of first-dollar worldwide distributor gross or 7.5% of domestic gross — whichever was larger — while the TV rights included $45,000 per episode, 3% of first-dollar gross for the first $1.5 million and 5% thereafter.

…

The judge, who conducted a 10-day bench trial, also noted that Warner Bros. chairman Alan Horn had testified that he hopes to make another “Superman” movie but added that the property wasn’t under development at the studio, that no script had been written and that the earliest another “Superman” pic could be released would be in 2012.

…

[“The Court pointedly ruled that if Warner Bros. does not start production on another Superman film by 2011, the Siegels will be able to sue to recover their damages,” Toberoff added. “The Siegels look forward to the remainder of the case, which will determine how much defendants owe them for their exploitations of Superman.”]

…

In making his decision, Larson looked at other licensing deals for properties such as Iron Man, X-Men and Spider-Man. Attorney Marc Toberoff, who represents heirs Joanne Siegel and Laura Siegel Larson, told Daily Variety that the judge had erred in not considering comparable licensing deals for bestselling novels penned by Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton and popular musicals such as “My Fair Lady.”

However, it sounds like the Siegels are not done with this, and their lawyer has stated that he believes that the heirs of Siegel and Shuster will own the Superman copyright in its entirety by 2013:

“This trial was only an interim step in the multifaceted accounting case which remains, in that it only concerned the secondary issue of whether DC Comics, or DC Comics and Warner Bros., would have to account to the Siegels,” he said. “To put this in further perspective, the entire accounting action pales in comparison to the fact that in 2013, the Siegels, along with the estate of Joe Shuster, will own the entire original copyright to Superman, and neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros. will be able to exploit any new Superman works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters.”

You can check out the full in-depth article over at Variety.

Sounds like the powers-that-be still aren’t satisfied with the Spidey 4 script and are handing it off to Gary Ross for another rewrite, according to variety. Gary Ross directed Tobey Macguire in Seabiscuit and Pleasantville.

The script, as it stands right now, was written by James Vanderbilt and then has already been rewritten by David Lindsay-Abair. Raimi has already committed to again return to direct the fourth installment under the pretense that he has more creative contol over this one.

These rewrites could be a good thing or a bad thing. It could be a good thing if they are trying to pursue the best possible script for the movie and are doing their due-diligence. It could be a bad thing if no one is able to come up with good ideas for the film yet so they are again passing it off. There are no reports on to what extent these rewrites are being done.

Either way, they better get moving. Spider-Man 4 is scheduled for a May, 2011 release.

Empire was able to talk to Ryan Reynolds while he was in London for the premier of his latest film, The Proposal. As what seems to be the norm lately, the conversation turned to Deadpool and Reynolds confirmed is own fanboydom and that he is insisting that Deadpool stick to the source material and break the fourth wall:

…Reynolds says Deadpool will breach the fourth wall: “Break the fourth wall? Oh yeah, he’s got to. I want to see him break the Great Wall.”

Confirming what he recently told HitFix, Reynolds emphasised that he and 20th Century Fox were working to ensure that Deadpool close sticks as closely as possible to the Marvel comic-book: “The studio’s working on a script and trying to find a director. The main goal is to make sure it stays close to the source material.”

You can check out the rest of the brief blurb over at Empire!

Making Of interviewed Ramis this week. Like many interviews recently… the conversation turned to Ghostbusters 3:

Crave Online did a lengthy, but very interesting interview with writer Zak Penn. In the interview he talks about the hits and misses with comic book movies in recent years and gives a few updates about Captain America, Thor, Iron Man 2 and how they play into the Avengers movie, along with some other good topics. You can check out the excerpt below and then read the full interview over at Crave.

CraveOnline: Should Wolverine have been R?

Zak Penn: That was our frustration. He’s got razor sharp claws and you can’t show blood. So what does he do? In every scene, he’s running around blocking, hitting you with the claws and not cutting you. Where do you go with that? There’s no way to do it.

CraveOnline: Do you think you need to be deeply familiar with the comic book to write the script.

Zak Penn: I wish that that was the only requirement because I know a lot about comic books and video games. That’s what I spend my time doing. I wish that were the rule but it is crazy when it’s not like it’s that hard to catch up on the mythology of some of these characters. It’s no harder than adapting anything else. By the way, you know who wasn’t? Bryan Singer was not a fan of any of those comic books. He admits it I think. Sometimes the people who are the biggest fans of it are the people who screw it up the most and vice versa. I had somebody start screaming, “You killed Cyclops” at me. First of all, it’s just an actor and he’s wearing a costume and he’s fine. Second of all, I didn’t kill him. It’s crazy but you know what? I more often find myself on the other side of that which is sitting with some people who don’t actually give a sh*t. For the most part, there’s a lot of people who are making these movies who are fairly cynical, who don’t actually care about characters. My big argument is if there’s something that’s actually good, why are we arbitrarily changing it? There’s a lot of that in Hollywood. That, to me, is the real argument, when you’re trying to say, “Okay, look, there’s a reason why all these fans are apesh*t for certain elements of it. They like the core idea of X-men tremendously. Let’s not mess with that.” When you get into the crazy “Cyclops’ visor has to be 4 inches” or whatever, I kind of say that’s part for the course. That’s what they pay you for. It’s not worth complaining. It is sad sometimes that people get so worked up about it but they are the people who are going to go to the movie so many times so you try to make them happy as best you can. What else can you do?

CraveOnline: Have you fought with directors of your other comic book movies?…

I’m going to keep putting these up as long as they keep putting them out.  Learn to love it people. We’ve got 2 new ones. And they show alot more of the characters look. Especially Ramona and Knives. We also get to see some of the sets etc. Check em out and keep checking out www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com and www.edgarwrighthere.com