Alan Taylor may be out as 'Thor: The Dark World' director; composer Carter Burwell definitely gone

What's going on with Marvel's Thor: The Dark World? A trailer for the film hit barely a month ago, and while it looked exciting enough, it didn't exactly generate a lot of buzz. At least not in the same way something like Iron Man 3 has managed to do. There doesn't seem to be a lot in the way of hype for the film coming out of the Marvel camp, either, and with the most recent news it suggests that maybe something isn't quite going to plan.

A rumor emerged a couple of days ago from a rumor cropped up over at Comicbookmovie that award-winning composer Carter Burwell was no longer working on the film's score. Burwell had been removing Thor imagery from his site in recent days, leading to speculation of his departure. Deadline has now confirmed the news, with the old "creative differences" chestnut given as the reason. Given his past association with the Coen Brothers, Burwell was a major get for Marvel, who had his name printed on the recently-released poster.  While no names were mentioned as a replacement, Christopher Willis, who helped provide the score for X-men: First Class, tweeted a week ago that he had begun work on the Thor sequel's score. Perhaps he'll take over the job in full now, or Marvel could find someone new to take over. Perhaps they'll reach out to Patrick Doyle, who composed the first film.

In what could be an even bigger indicator of trouble in Asgard, the same source who broke the Burwell info also says that director Alan Taylor may be off the project. The Game of Thrones filmmaker was reportedly asked to "take a long vacation until after the film opens". This sounds a little more sketchy, but given the accuracy of the Burwell story, it can't totally be written off.  If there's any truth to it, we'll hear about it soon.

Thor: The Dark World stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, and opens on November 8th.