One of the biggest casting surprises of this year has to be the announcement back in April that Edward Norton would be starring in the lead role of the summer blockbuster movie The Incredible Hulk. Here was a guy who has purposefully tried to keep away from the big mainstream blockbuster movies and has gone for smaller roles either in independent movies, or in movies were he can show off his dramatic acting ability for his whole career… then suddenly he does ‘the paycheck role’.
Well, it’s the ‘paycheck’ role if the movie sucks… it’s a smart ‘mainstream’ role if it goes down well.
I didn’t mind the casting, although I could have come up with a ton of other people who would have been more suited for the role. Eric Bana for one, I thought was a good Bruce Banner, just in the wrong movie under the wrong direction of ideas at the wrong time. Seen as though they are going for a restart, it made sense not to bring him back.
At the Con, Marvel have just completed their highly anticipated panel where it was shockingly announced that Edward Norton has wrote the screenplay for The Incredible Hulk. By the sounds of it too, this isn’t just a polish job but is pretty much a full on script change which he did in collaboration with director Louis Leterrier.
The original draft was written by Zak Penn, the co-writer of X-Men 3: The Last Stand and Elektra.
Norton, who has no other writing credit on his CV (apart from Motherless Brooklyn which has been stalled because of this flick) was famously criticised (and praised in some quarters) for re-cutting Tony Kaye’s controversial 1998 movie American History X after Kaye refused to to chop and change what the studio wanted. Many people believe Norton generously gave himself more screen time and turned the film into his own vanity project but what can’t be denied by anyone, is how good the final product turned out to be.
Has Norton done a similar thing here? Has he gone through the script to construct the type of character he wants to be playing on screen? As long as he knows what he’s doing and the end result is a good film, then it’s fine with me.
Some more tidbits from the Con (a full description of which can be found here)…
Filming officially began two weeks ago in Toronto so no filmed footage was ready to be shown.
This will be Part 1 of the Hulk re-start, with no ties to Ang Lee’s 2003 film.
As far as the story goes, the movie will follow Banner’s search for a cure to his condition.
3 Comments
Zak Penn’s not a good screenwriter. David Hayter was the real talent behind the X-Men films. He’s the one who pulled the Watchmen together. Zak Penn’s young, but that’s about it.
Ed Norton’s a smart guy. Hopefully he made the script better. Personally I can’t wait to see what it comes out like.
It’s funny how deep and prominent the peaks and valleys are for directors. Ron Howard, for example, went from Beautiful Mind to Da Vinci Code in less than 10 years, Brian De palma did the same thing over a longer time span. Ang Lee did this as well, with Hulk and then Brokeback Mountain. Now, having all this prestige as the award-winning director I wonder how Lee feels about Marvel basically bitch slapping him in the face with a “re-make” in less than 7 years apart.
In terms of De Palma… he’s gone completely gone crazy and I don’t know what the hell he has been smoking lately.
In terms of Howard… if his heart is in it, the movie turns out good. If it’s not and he does a studio flick for a paycheck… it doesn’t turn out so good.
In terms of Ang Lee, he was simply the wrong guy to direct the movie. It never suited his sensibilities and his creative drive forced him to try and do something different with the style of the film and it just didn’t work out.
The studio should take some of the blame also. I’m not sure Ang Lee will care all that much, it hasn’t effected his career. Eric Bana on the other hand might be a little pissed.