Los Angeles Times, 15 April 2011
By Geoff Boucher

DAYS OF THUNDER: We’re counting down to the May 6 release of “Thor” with a month of on-the-set reports, exclusive photos and interviews with the cast and crew of the first truly cosmic Marvel Studios film. Today: An exclusive report on the music of the movie.

Where do you go to celebrate your first No. 1 album on the Billboard Top 200? For the Foo Fighters , the answer appears to be Asgard.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed Friday that the music of Dave Grohl’s band was a late addition to “Thor,” the May 6 adventure that stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins. The song “Walk” will play during a scene in which the titular hero, stripped of his powers and marooned on Earth, retreats to a New Mexico roadhouse to drink away the night with boilermakers and carouse with a skeptical new friend, a scientist played by Stellan Skarsgard. The track will play again over the closing credits.

Feige said the placement of the song was more than just a marketing move or a bid for summer synergy with the hot band, which just released the new album, “Wasting Light,” on Tuesday and looks like a lock for the top spot on the big Billboard chart next week. Instead, it was the way “Thor” director Kenneth Branagh and Feige reacted to the song’s forlorn lyrics.

“It was literally one of those things that came together in a matter of weeks, and if you asked two months ago if we would have a Foo Fighters song in this movie, I would have said I don’t think so,” Feige said. “But we heard the song and it just has these eerie appropriate lyrics and themes. The song wasn’t written for the movie, obviously, it’s on their new album, but we almost couldn’t believe it when we heard it. Ken in particular just loved it with these lyrics about learning to walk again and the way that fit the themes of the movie about redemption, learning to be a hero. The song starts off talking about being a million miles away from home and yearning and being separated by vast distances, and it’s no secret that Thor and Natalie’s character are from different worlds.”

It’s been a big year already for Grohl and his band, who performed an April 5 concert that was beamed to U.S. theaters and are the subjects of the new documentary “Foo Fighters: Back and Forth,” directed by Oscar winner James Moll (“The Last Days“). Feige hinted that the crossover between “Thor” and the Foo Fighters may go beyond those closing credits on movie screens. ”There’s the possibility of some joint appearances between the band and some of the cast on certain shows, but there’s nothing etched in stone.”