Hulk at the Comin-Con

[kedrell]

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6100

Real-time blog going on right now!

 

[TheComicbookKid]

Thanks, Kedrell.

Yellow eyes? What does that mean.

 

[Hunter Rider]

One of the most anticipated presentations at the 2007 Comic-Con International if not the most was the Saturday afternoon Marvel Films panel where they'd reshow the footage from Jon Favreau's Iron Man that was shown on Thursday, this time with Favreau joined by some of the cast, and to bring out the cast of Louis Letterier's The Incredible Hulk for the first time anywhere.

Here are some of the hilights, which were updated live at the presentation. Although it's done, Superhero Hype will be doing interviews with Favreau and his cast which will be posted soon.

First up was The Incredible Hulk. Production started two weeks ago in Toronto so they had no footage, but they flew in just for the panel and will fly back immediately afterwards. Present were Gail Anne Hurd, Avi Arad, Marvel Films President Kevin Feige, director Louis Letterier (who was there with a broken foot), Liv Tyler who plays Betty Ross, and the film's Bruce Banner Edward Norton.

Kevin Feige said where this fits into movie mythology: "This is Part 1, the beginning of a whole new Hulk saga."

Gale Ann Hurd: "We have a Hulk who's not going to be three different sizes in this movie. I think everybody will be very happy about that."

Edward Norton rewrote the screenplay and both he and Letterier talked about the influence of the Hulk TV show and the performance by Bill Bixby. Liv Tyler also said that she was a fan of the TV show because of the "humanity and what the man is going through." She was drawn to the love story between Bruce and Betty.

After they showed a concept sketch of the direction they're going for, which looked similar to the previous version but with longer, mussed-up hair, Edward Norton told everyone why he we interested in the project "I came into this and wrote the screenplay. I was a Marvel kid. I had subscriptions to a lot of Marvel comics. I loved the early incarnation of the Hulk and then the television show, and then in later years, where they took it in the Bruce Jones Return of the Monster series. I always felt like it was like one of those great contemporary myths. Comes right out of the tradition of Greek mythology, notion of suppression of your inner demon. Initial idea of starting from scratch and reconceiving the story as a mythic saga was really appealing to me and I liked the idea of the lonely fugitive aspect of it."

Norton will be playing both parts of it, which makes one assume he'll be doing some sort of performance capture.

It was mentioned that in this story, they're looking for a cure for Banner.

Hurd on the new direction of the movie: "We have a great character story to tell in the tradition of the Hunchback and Frankenstein. We have a terrific misunderstood character at the heart of it. We have the technology now to have the Hulk come to life. We're very confident in Rhythm and Hues and Kurt Williams as our visual effects supervisor, that we're going to bring the humanity."

When asked whether there'll be a new origin story in the movie and whether it'll be based on the television show version, Norton replied, "I'd say two things about that. I don't even like the phrase origin story and I don't think in great literature and great films, that explaining the roots of the story doesn't mean it comes in the beginning."

He wasn't into the idea of doing an origin, rushing though it to get to the heart of the film. WIth that in mind, the origin will probably spool out over the course of the story rather than be at the beginning. It won't be completely based on the TV series though but spun together from all different versions of the Hulk.

There will definitely be a respect for Bill Bixby "in one way or another", and Letterier says to look for easter eggs.

 

[Prodigy]

Norton helped write the script? is excited and actively involved?... my excitement for this movie went from a 2 to a 9

 

[Nivek]

What the hell is up with all this Bruce Jones name dropping bullcrap? Any Hulk fan will be quick to ask why keep bringing up a recent run that was (a) hated by most long term fans, (b) severely lacking of the title character, and (c) lacking of a cohesive plot and came off as pretty much made up on the fly.

C'mon, over 40 years of comics and this is what they give the writers and actors to look at?

Norton re-wrote the script? that does seem odd...

 

[Golgo-13]

He wasn't into the idea of doing an origin, rushing though it to get to the heart of the film. WIth that in mind, the origin will probably spool out over the course of the story rather than be at the beginning. It won't be completely based on the TV series though but spun together from all different versions of the Hulk.

They love dancing around the origin question don't they? No i don't want this to be an origin story. All ppl are asking is if this movie will acknowledge Ang's origin. The article mentions that the origin will revealled, possibly in pieces(via flashbacks) throughout the movie- which is perfect imo.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Norton helped write the script? is excited and actively involved?... my excitement for this movie went from a 2 to a 9

Im up to, like...11!

 

[blind_fury]

Didn't the reveal the concept art?

Where's the pics?

 

[Obi-Ron]

Edward Norton rewrote the screenplay

Norton will be playing both parts of it, which makes one assume he'll be doing some sort of performance capture.

Hurd on the new direction of the movie: "We have a great character story to tell in the tradition of the Hunchback and Frankenstein. We have a terrific misunderstood character at the heart of it. ...We're very confident in Rhythm and Hues and Kurt Williams as our visual effects supervisor, that we're going to bring the humanity."

It won't be completely based on the TV series though but spun together from all different versions of the Hulk.

There will definitely be a respect for Bill Bixby "in one way or another", and Letterier says to look for easter eggs.

Holy shnikeys, this sounds AWESOME!

 

[Golgo-13]

After they showed a concept sketch of the direction they're going for, which looked similar to the previous version but with longer, mussed-up hair,

Is anyone else a little taken back by this..?

I mean in a bad way; he look like the Ang Hulk with a tad longer hair.

No mention of skin tone though.

 

[Bannerless Hulk]

Waiting for Sava to give us a pulse on the new developments, namely the "Edward Norton rewrote the screenplay" part. Isn't the screenplay different from the script? What does it mean for speak-of-the-devil Zak Penn, who was noticeably absent from the conference?

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Norton has worked on or put in insight on the script/screenplay of other past movies no surprise.

 

[FlawlessVictory]

Waiting for Sava to give us a pulse on the new developments, namely the "Edward Norton rewrote the screenplay" part. Isn't the screenplay different from the script? What does it mean for speak-of-the-devil Zak Penn, who was noticeably absent from the conference?

The writers for Iron Man weren't present either.

 

[Bannerless Hulk]

The writers for Iron Man weren't present either.

Thanks for the info. Still am left to wonder about the rewrite, however.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Thanks for the info. Still am left to wonder about the rewrite, however.

Read my post.

 

[Compi716]

THUNDERCLAP, in another topic, found in this on some other website:

 

[Bannerless Hulk]

Read my post.

So what are you saying, that it's not surprising that he's gone, if in fact he is?

 

[SPIDER-MAN-ROX]

Norton has worked on or put in insight on the script/screenplay of other past movies no surprise.

If Norton is a big improviser in his movie roles then he probably just got to alter some of his lines between him & other characters so that it worked better for him so it wouldn't be that drastic of a change to the overall original story or movie itself.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

So what are you saying, that it's not surprising that he's gone, if in fact he is?

No I am saying Norton has worked on scripts, screenplays, and adding input on his characters in the past so it isn't surprising to me at least that he did some work on the script. Zak Penn isn't gone he just wasn't present.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

If Norton is a big improviser in his movie roles then he probably just got to alter some of his lines between him & other characters so that it worked better for him so it wouldn't be that drastic of a change to the overall original story or movie itself.

Nah it is deeper than that Norton. Norton likes to get involved. I think him and Tony Kaye have a lot of bad blood between them with the disagreements they had while working on American History X. He also did an uncredited rewrite for the script Frida I think. I also know that in one of my favorite Norton movies Rounders his character was supposed to be a smoker and he somehow turned it around that his character was anti-smoking.

 

[Bannerless Hulk]

No I am saying Norton has worked on scripts, screenplays, and adding input on his characters in the past so it isn't surprising to me at least that he did some work on the script. Zak Penn isn't gone he just wasn't present.

Oops, I just realized that I read "Zak Penn" when I saw Norton in your first post. My bad. That makes sense about Norton, then. However, I'd still like to hear Sava's take on the situation, since he's been one of the ones here who are nervous with ZP behind the original script, if not the existing one. Thanks for the clarification, though.

 

[GNR]

Glad to hear Norton got to work on the script.

 

[Boom]

Love the concept art, and love that Norton got to revise the script. I ****ing hate Penn.

 

[Sava]

Oops, I just realized that I read "Zak Penn" when I saw Norton in your first post. My bad. That makes sense about Norton, then. However, I'd still like to hear Sava's take on the situation, since he's been one of the ones here who are nervous with ZP behind the original script, if not the existing one. Thanks for the clarification, though.

lol, i knew Norton would work on a bit of the script but i didnt think he would end up writing the sreenplay

The major components of a screenplay are action and dialogue, with the "action" being "what we see happening" and "dialogue" being "what the characters say". The characters, when first introduced in the screenplay, may also be described visually. Screenplays differ from traditional literature conventions in ways described below; however, screenplays may not involve emotion-related descriptions and other aspects of the story that are, in fact, visual within the end-product

Its good that he polised up Penn dialogue atleast.

didnt know he was a "Marvel boy", so he'd have heard or read about Hulk in his early years. I thought everyone knew he was going to do both (play Bruce and Hulk) or atleast there was a major possibilty that he would.

The only thing i dont like about the new design is the size of the nose and that gap bettwen it and teh top lip. Makes him look like an Ape IMO. He looked fine in Ang's movie.

Other than that, i'm very happy now. I want a trailer before Xmas.

 

[odiin]

Nah it is deeper than that Norton. Norton likes to get involved. I think him and Tony Kaye have a lot of bad blood between them with the disagreements they had while working on American History X. He also did an uncredited rewrite for the script Frida I think. I also know that in one of my favorite Norton movies Rounders his character was supposed to be a smoker and he somehow turned it around that his character was anti-smoking.

Yeah, actually Edward Norton took control of the editing process for American History X and it ended up getting so bad between them that Tony Kaye petitioned to have his own name removed from the film's credits. He was denied though because apparently it's a guild rule that you can't have your name removed if you make public your reasons for doing so.

But Edward Norton ended being right on this because it ended up being one of the greatest films of all time, and I just can't even imagine the film would be as effective how Tony wanted it.

So yeah Norton has a history of taking creative control of the films he's on, and it usually ends up being for the better so this news is VERY exciting to me.

It also kind of begs the question though: If Edward Norton works so hard to have creative control all throughout the film making process, and has taken control of the script and editing process in some of his films.... Why doesn't he just take it to the next step and try his hand at directing?