Natalie Portman to play love interest in Thor

Natalie Portman is to play the love interest in Kenneth Branagh's forthcoming epic fantasy film Thor, an adaptation of the Marvel Comics series about the legendary Norse warrior and god of thunder. The Star Wars actress, 28, will star as Jane Foster, a nurse who became Thor's first love in the early 1960s comic books. Branagh's film will flesh out Foster's character by turning her into "a doctor-scientist type", according to the Hollywood Reporter. Jessica Biel had also been linked to the role.
 
"We wanted to avoid that syndrome of just because the hair is up and they're wearing glasses it means they're smart," Marvel producer Kevin Feige said of Portman's casting. "We wanted somebody that can have the chemistry that the best of our Marvel couples have had, [such as Spider-Man stars] Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst."
 
Up-and-coming Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, who had a starring role in Star Trek, has already been confirmed in the lead role while British actor Tom Hiddleston will play Loki, the villainous god of mischief.

The Marvel film is a departure for Branagh, whose previous directing credits include adaptations of Shakespeare's Hamlet and As You Like it and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. ·