tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

I'm a bit confused by the casting news for Kenneth Branagh's new film, Thor. It was reported recently that Robert deNiro and Jude Law are part of the movie's cast. I'm not going to bother with this except that it involved a German actor I've been following for quite sometime - Matthias Schweighöfer. I saw him in The Red Baron (Der rote baron) and Eight Miles High! (Das wilde leben) and he was awesome! He was said to be the source of the casting news.

SlashFilm has this to say: Apparently originating in a German GQ interview with Matthias Schweighöfer is some of the more surprising casting news in recent weeks. Not only did Schweighöfer allegedly reveal that he's in the running for a role in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, he also reportedly announced that Robert De Niro and Jude Law have roles in the movie. Of course, I've trawled every last square inch of the German GQ website and found nothing of this sort in any of its nooks and crannies...

Though, to be fair, very little material from the print magazine seems to be on the site anyway. But you'd think somebody would scan the page at least, and post it to a forum someplace? If they have, I've failed to find that either. Maybe I just don't know enough Matthias Schweighöfer fan forums.

The rumour was sent to Aint it Cool, who ran with it, presumably without seeing the magazine. Fair enough. I'll go with it too. [ read more ]

The Chicago Tribune also reacted with a post and called it, "Dubious Internet rumor":

The far-fetched movie rumor of the day on Monday: That Robert De Niro is signed on to co-star in the blockbuster adaptation of the comic book "Thor." For starters, many of the lead roles for "Thor" have already been cast, including Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-swinging hero Thor and Natalie Portman as his love interest. The rumor must be taken with a hefty grain of salt. According to Zap2it.com, it has been traced to an interview "Valkyrie" actor Matthias Schweighofer reportedly gave to GQ magazine's German edition, that bastion of credible Hollywood news. [ read more ]

What's confirmed is that Chris Hemsworth will be playing Thor and Natalie Portman is cast as Jane Foster, his love interest.

So aside from telling you about the young German actor, what's the point of this post? I guess it just made me realize just how incredibly competitive the movie news niche on the net really is! Post a scoop and get traffic, but then again, if the news is false, bury the article or just expand on the post and continue to speculate?