Marvel’s ‘Thor 2’ features Valley photographer’s footage

What started out as a normal day for Mike Olbinski, a Phoenix-based photographer, quickly turned into a dream come true after he got an email from Marvel Studios.

It took a while to sink in, but Olbinski soon realized the studio wanted to use some of his footage in an upcoming movie.

Olbinski owns a photography company in Phoenix and captures many different types of stunning imagery, including weddings, portraits and families, to name a few.

But Marvel wasn’t looking for the perfect bride and groom to feature in their epic superhero movie. Marvel wanted something dark, and Olbinski seemingly had the perfect match. It was his Brooker supercell footage, an eery time-lapse of a storm he shot in Brooker, Texas.

Comic book movies are some of his favorites, so he couldn’t believe what was happening. It wasn’t until a few emails later that Marvel revealed which movie his footage would be in — “Thor 2″ The Dark World” — and he recently expressed his excitement in a blog post.

I nearly fell over. I mean…from the first moment I got an email from someone at Marvel I was freaking out. But once they confirmed it was for a major motion picture and that it happened to be Thor 2…I was flabbergasted.

Olbinski explained that he could only reveal the news to close friends and family. But keeping quiet was OK with him, because there was still a chance the footage wouldn’t make the final cut.

It wasn’t until early November, about a week before the film released in theaters, when he got final word from the studio that he made it.

I gathered some buddies together, shared the news with them beforehand and we arrived at Tempe Marketplace to watch it on the big Cine Capri screen. Joining me was Andy Hoeland, the guy who chased this storm with me and got us in position to actually film the thing.

Olbinski said he’s humbled to have his name in the closing credits of a blockbuster film. But being able to one day share the story with his kids and future grandkids is what he really looks forward to.

Check out the original footage below. Look out for Olbinski’s big scene in “Thor: The Dark World,” which is open in theaters nationwide.