Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment have finally released an official synopsis of the plot for their upcoming big screen adaptation of Thor, starring Star Trek’s Chris Hemsworth and Star Wars‘ Natalie Portman. Along with the sysnposis, they’ve also included preliminary credits which carry the favored disclaimer “Credits Not Final.”

This is amusing considering the film is already in production and you would have to expect that those pesky contracts had already been finalized before any actors stepped in front of a camera. Anyway, no big surprises in the synopsis but we do get a few good confirmations.

Check it out after the jump, courtesy of the fine folks at Paramount and Marvel Entertainment:

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While Tim Burton is getting ready to unleash his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland onto the world this Friday, he’s already planning on sinking his producing teeth into another piece of historical fiction. Seth Grahame-Smith, the author behind the cult classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, got his newest historical/horror hybrid released yesterday, in the form of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

The premise is about as black and white as it sounds. In the time during Lincoln’s presidential term, he is forced to wage war against blood-sucking demons before they’re able to bring down the free world. According to Heat Vision, some gentlemen known in the genre have already taken interest.

Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, the producers behind last fall’s 9, will be producing the novel for a big screen adaptation. This fits right into the directors’ current resume, as Bekmambetov got his US popularity from his work on the Russain Night Watch films, and Burton is no stranger to the world of gothic vampire-like scenarios.

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I don’t know what it says about Stuart Townsend or Marvel’s upcoming Thor movie, but he has walked off of the project citing “creative differences”. Townsend (who also walked away from the role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films) was signed to play Fandral, one of the “Warriors Three”, an Errol Flynn-esque Asgardian.

The question now becomes: with Townsend’s absence, will Thor become a new classic, much like the Rings trilogy, or will it fall by the wayside much like films that he originally signed up for such as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Queen of the Damned.

Thor, which started filming this week, didn’t lose a second over the loss as newcomer Joshua Dallas has stepped into the role. Dallas recently had a role in the still-unreleased stateside horror sequel The Descent 2 and in the George Lucas-produced story about the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails.

Thor is being directed by Kenneth Branagh, also stars Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek), Natalie Portman, and Anthony Hopkins, and is slated for May 6th, 2011.

When I first saw The Punisher: War Zone I pretty much hated it.  Yet another Punisher reboot that simply didn’t work.  However, upon further reflection over subsequent months I realized War Zone wasn’t bad. Actually, it was Ray Stevenson’s performance as Frank Castle that single-handedly saved the film.

Stevenson continued to flesh out his bad ass resume as Titus Pullo in the mini-series Rome. While Titus was a more benign individual at times it didn’t take much to bring out the Punisher-esque tendencies when he reverted to his soldier role.  In fact, Rome had some of the best action sequences ever and Stevenson again was brilliant in this capacity.

So, what happens when you combine The Punisher and Titus Pullo? How about one of  Thor’s Warriors Three: Volstagg? Of course, the most obvious question was how Stevenson would fill out Volstagg’s large, um…physique:

“…a solution is at hand, in the shape of a fat suit. “It’s fantastic,” said a beaming Stevenson. “I’ve tried the suit on, and what they’ve done is kind of sex him up: he’s sort of slimmer but rounder.”

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Now in its 25th year, The Independent Spirit Awards honor excellence in independent film. Films must cost less than $20 Million to be eligible for nominations. Nominees were announced on Tuesday. The Last Station (5), Precious (5), and The Messenger (4) received the most nominations.

Of note:  Anvil! The Story of Anvil and Food, Inc. are both up for best documentary. 500 Days of Summer got nods for Best Movie, Best Screenplay and Best Male Lead (Joseph Gordon-Levitt.) Precious received nominations for Best Female Lead (Gabourey Sidibe), Best Supporting Female (Mo’nique), Best Movie, and Best Director. Adventureland was nominated in the Best Screenplay category.

Ethan and Joel Coen’s A Serious Man will receive The Robert Altman Award for directing, casting and ensemble acting. Paramount’s Paranormal Activity received a nomination for Best First Feature.

The awards ceremony will take place in Santa Monica on March 5th, 2010. A complete list of nominees and other notable news may be found on the official Independent Spirit Awards website.

Meanwhile, The Gotham Awards, which is a New York based award ceremony, gave out their awards yesterday. Notably absent was Precious, which didn’t even garner a nomination.

Director Kathryn Bigelow took home Best Movie for The Hurt Locker, which also won Best Ensemble Cast. Food, Inc. won Best Documentary.  Kathryn Bigelow and Natalie Portman also received special tributes.  A complete list of the winners can be found on the IFP website.

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, Gone with the Wind, Thirst, Rome: The Complete Series and the Blu-ray debut of David Fincher’s awesome Fight Club (shown above with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton). We are Jack’s excitement at this release finally coming out.

Check them out:

Movies

Bruno ~ Sacha Baron Cohen, Paula Abdul (DVD and Blu-ray)

Clerks ~ Brian O’Halloran, Kevin Smith (Blu-ray)

Downhill Racer (The Criterion Collection) ~ Robert Redford, Gene Hackman (DVD)

Fight Club ~ Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter (Blu-ray)

Galaxy Quest ~ Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman (Blu-ray)

Gone with the Wind (Ultimate Collector’s Edition) ~ Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh (Blu-ray)

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are joined by special guest Elisabeth Rappe and they waste no time diving into a whole ne batch of topics for the show. Some of these topics include Jim Cameron’s Avatar, Francis Lawrence’s Sgt. Rock movie for Warner Bros., Will Smith’s career and his remake of Oldboy, upcoming holiday movies, Cuba Gooding, Jr.’s career, clones, clones, clones and much more.

The three also made some cool picks this week, as they always do, including Elisabeth’s pick of the Netflix movie streaming service which features tons of great content, Matt’s pick of the sci-fi classic The Last Starfighter and Chris’ pick of the new V series on ABC which features, among others, Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell, Party of Five’s Scott Wolf and Firefly’s Morena Bacarrin and Alan Tudyuk

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

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It shouldn’t be completely surprising that an actor of Anthony Hopkins stature has decided to take the role of Odin, the father of Thor and Loki, in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming big screen adaptation of the comic Thor. After all, famous actors playing parts such as this in big budget fantasy or genre movies is not completely unheard of.

As an example, take a look at the original Clash of the Titans, which featured the great Laurence Olivier as Zeus. Or, how about a little movie called Star Wars, which cast the great Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi. Plus, Hopkins himself has been in a few genre movies previously, including Dracula and The Silence of the Lambs.

In case you’re not familiar with Thor, the film, which is scripted by Mark Protosevich and Zack Stentz, centers on partly disabled med student Dr. Donald Blake’s discovery of his Norse god alter ego, the hammer-wielding Thor. Once he discovers his secret identity, watch out for all hel to break loose.

Thor, featuring Hopkins as well as Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Natalie Portman, hits theaters on May 11, 2011.

Since the announcement that Marvel would be making a Thor movie, people have wondered where the film would take place: Thor’s home dimension of Asgard or Earth. Early speculation gave the impression the film would be immersed completely in fantasy and as such take place in Asgard primarily. However, a recent casting call may indicate otherwise:

Thor – Official Casting Call

[MARCY LEWIS]

(20) Is a college student. Aloof, jaded beyond her years, she thought her internship with scientist Kate Spelling would be an easy 6 college credits. However, she’s been stuck for months in this small New Mexico town and relegated to a wide range of unglamorous activities.

Kate has been particularly hard on Marcy, making it her personal project to see that Marcy lives up to her potential. Marcy deals with her situation both by using subtle irony and by being an overt wiseass.

Considering Marvel’s plan to incorporate Thor into the upcoming Avengers movie, we expected the character to show up on Earth at some point. Marvel wasn’t going to send Iron Man to Asgard after all…but now that I think of it that would be great!

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Okay, let me get this out of the way first, with a name like Skarsgard how could you not be in Marvel’s upcoming Thor movie? Apparently the answer is, you can’t. To that end, Stellan Skarsgard is joining the cast of Thor.

While Skarsgard could not comment on what role he would be playing he did speak of the hurdles committing to the project, “They wanted me to sign without reading the script. That I refused to do. Then they sent one to me that was so coded that I could only print one copy.” Considering the nature of Marvel properties it’s not surprising they would want to keep things hush hush.

If you don’t recognize Skarsgard’s name you would remember him in such films as Angels & Demons, Mamma Mia!, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. Interestingly enough Skarsgard’s son, Alexander (True Blood), was rumored to be up for the leading role of Thor himself, but that ultimately went to Star Trek’s Chris Hemsworth.

Alongside Skarsgard, Thor stars Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Jaimie Alexander, Colm Feore and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Kenneth Branagh Thor is set to hit theaters May 20, 2011.