Hi guys... I just joined up, and part of the reason I did was 'cause I saw all this superhero movie talk, and got excited! I work in entertainment and media, and every so often I get a leg up (leaks, spoilers, advanced screenings, etc.) so hopefully I can hook you up with that stuff when I find it. So I wanted to introduce myself, but mostly jump right in.
To the rumors of McConaughey and Pitt as Cap and Thor, Marvel hasn't given any official word on that yet, but my opinion is that McConaughey might be able to do it -- Captain America's got that well-known all-American thing going for him, and having a known actor in the role could actually sort of work, where it wouldn't have with Spidey or Batman as well. Brad Pitt as Thor, in my opinion, is just ridiculous. I really doubt Marvel would go with that.
Fallen Seraph said:
You know all this villain talk has got me wondering. How well would a traditional superhero (thus excluding The Watchmen) film do without a "main villain"?
I think a superhero movie does have to have a main villain. Particularly in the first of a series -- the hero must go through several lesser villains, building up to the final villain, in order to prove himself (and also not be immediately badass at the end of the movie with the big villain). But just as the lesser villains are necessary, the main villain is necessary for a sense of closure and satisfaction. Even if the movie's open-ended, some sort of showdown with a main antagonist leaves movie-goers (or comic readers) with a sense of fulfillment. That's what we pay to see, after all.
Extending that opinion a little, I would guess Loki will show up at the end of the Thor movie, or sporadically through it as an "unknown." I would guess we get shown Thor as some guy with wiped memories who starts discovering his powers, and delves deeper and deeper and meets the "lesser" villains along the way, leading up to Loki as being behind it all toward the end. I wouldn't be surprised if Loki becomes a figure much like Magneto in the X-Men films -- always there, not always the main villain, but certainly with a finger in all the pies going around.