Director Matthew Vaughn off Thor

Lightning strikes Vaughn twice?

Tucked away in a Hollywood Reporter article about the current rising value of Marvel's shares of stock is this nugget:

 Thor will be released about six weeks after Iron Man 2, and Marvel is waiting for a script polish from scribe Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend). Matthew Vaughn no longer is attached to direct the project because his holding deal expired December.

"It's very much a Marvel superhero story but against the backdrop of nothing you've seen before," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in describing Thor as a period fantasy in the vein of The Lord of the Rings.

This is the second movie based on a Marvel property Vaughn's been attached to direct that didn't happen.  The first was X-Men 3, which doubtlessly would've been a better film with Vaughn at the helm.  Not that that's saying much.

Once again, I hope this means that Vaughn will be free to direct his Kick-Ass screenplay.