Hammer Hulla-Balloo

The Los Angeles Times spoke with director Kenneth Branagh about the comic book pic Thor

He was specifically asked about how the scenes in the mythical realm of Asgard would flow into the narrative with the modern day Earth stuff

"Inspired by the comic book world both pictorially and compositionally at once, we've tried to find a way to make a virtue and a celebration of the distinction between the worlds that exist in the film but absolutely make them live in the same world. It's about finding the framing style, the color palette, finding the texture and the amount of camera movement that helps celebrate and express the differences and the distinctions in those worlds. If it succeeds, it will mark this film as different.... The combination of the primitive and the sophisticated, the ancient and the modern, I think that potentially is the exciting fusion, the exciting tension in the film"

Say what?

Branagh also dismissed recent , the reports of a troubled shoot, and states the filming is "going very, very well. We're in New Mexico now where we have a contemporary Earth part of our story. I guess we're two-thirds of the way through the story and at this stage of the game what's surprising and delighting me is the way the cast, the ensemble, has fused together. It's kind of an interesting combination of very young and very experienced people and the double-up of that, it seems to me, is there is a lot of fire in the movie. It doesn't take itself too seriously, it doesn't try to be too solemn"

Co-star Anthony Hopkins has also denied that there's any problems

The film will hit theaters on May 6th 2011

Meanwhile Thor himself Chris Hemsworth (pictured) dropped hints to MTV earlier this week that the long-awaited comic book pic "The Avengers" could start filming as early as January/February of next year.

And finally IESB says that Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Firefly") is on the list of contenders to direct the superhero team-up pic--backed up by the LA Times.

Intriguing given his past issues with the Wonder Woman movie...