Zak Penn talks...Hulk sequel!

[Advanced Dark]

Nah just a hunch considering we start filming in 4-5 mos.

 

[kainedamo]

Nah just a hunch considering we start filming in 4-5 mos.

What do you mean "we"??

 

[Advanced Dark]

Figure of speech.

 

[kainedamo]

You're not involved in the film.

 

[Advanced Dark]

I always say that way when I refer to Marvel because I'm so involved in it as a fan and an investment so actually I'm part owner of Marvel since I own stock. Quite a bit actually. I also own TWX (owns DC), HAS,ATVI, and many more but as a fan I'm attracted more to MVL so when defending the company or talking about the company, or when something goes right or wrong I usually say we. As an investor (especially in the investing forums) you talk that way so it's just a habbit. No I'm not involved in the "filming" the movie.

 

[kainedamo]

Whats TWX, HAS, and ATVI?

 

[Advanced Dark]

TWX = Time Warner
HAS = Hasbro
ATVI = Activision

HAS & ATVI signed huge contracts w/Marvel and all 3 of those stocks will benefit greatly in 2007 and beyond.

My investment in TWX is small just to diversify a little bit but I don't like the company very much right now. They've screwed up almost everything except recently w/BB and SR.

See the link to my myspace page and see my blog. I update it with news here and there on the investing and fan side.

 

[kainedamo]

I've always wondered about investment.

 

[Advanced Dark]

Marvel's the only pure play in this arena since TWX has so many other products and services unrelated.

 

[Cracker Jack]

well


hulk seems actually have people working on it

first it has a script that it was based on
then it has changed
then expect rewrites
then expect more rewrites once u get the actor(sometimes u just cant picture certain words out of certain people)

i'm not asking for complete devotion

more like......****...i dunno, lets wait until they really **** something up, like hire madonna to play banner and have the hulk speak french

Good post. This is what i've been trying to get across.

 

[Advanced Dark]

We should hear something really soon on casting I'd imagine or something else at least before the NY as LL said.

 

[DACrowe]

I'd just like to say that now that the hype has died down the third X-Men film is quickly becoming the least popular in the series.

Anyway sounds like it will be a stupid action movie. What a surprise when Bana and Connelly (after doing work since then like Munich and Blood Diamond combined) are gone and the director went from the man who did Sense & Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain to the guy who did Transporter 2 and the screenwriter has given us such gems as Inspector Gadget, Elektra and the hugely tragic X3 (due ot its failure to live up to the first 2, and his screenplay was rejected for X2, btw).

Oh well.

 

[Advanced Dark]

Thanks for speaking for everyone. Clearly from the poll on the front page X3 is quite popular, and though many of us fans loved The Hulk...the general moviegoers didn't like it at all. It was not what the world expected and it was not well recieved at the box office because of this. While an artsy Hulk film is nice it's not the direction I want the franchise to continue in cause it won't continue as it was.

 

[Mr. Green]

I'd just like to say that now that the hype has died down the third X-Men film is quickly becoming the least popular in the series.

Anyway sounds like it will be a stupid action movie. What a surprise when Bana and Connelly (after doing work since then like Munich and Blood Diamond combined) are gone and the director went from the man who did Sense & Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain to the guy who did Transporter 2 and the screenwriter has given us such gems as Inspector Gadget, Elektra and the hugely tragic X3 (due ot its failure to live up to the first 2, and his screenplay was rejected for X2, btw).

Oh well.

Despite what AD would like to believe, more Hulk fans agree than disagree.

Zak Penn has produced nothing but ****. Period. Why exactly are we supposed to think that this is going to be different?

 

[HULKSTER'04]

Originally posted by DACrowe
I'd just like to say that now that the hype has died down the third X-Men film is quickly becoming the least popular in the series.

Anyway sounds like it will be a stupid action movie. What a surprise when Bana and Connelly (after doing work since then like Munich and Blood Diamond combined) are gone and the director went from the man who did Sense & Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain to the guy who did Transporter 2 and the screenwriter has given us such gems as Inspector Gadget, Elektra and the hugely tragic X3 (due ot its failure to live up to the first 2, and his screenplay was rejected for X2, btw).

Oh well.

Good point. Ang Lee was a great director, i'm just not so interested with Zak Penn on this. Leterrier's not that bad either the Transporter was a perfect pacing of movie making, i mean with the drama and action relevance.

 

[HULKSTER'04]

If Penn screws up then i hope LL will make up for it, he has the overall control of the movie. Bring on TIH!

 

[Fried Gold]

"X3 was the most entertaining of the three films for me and most of the general audience out there. It might be a dissapointment to the x-men geeks and fans that post daily here but they're not a very signficant portion of the box office dollars."

It's all subjective and based on personal taste. The only reason X2 made more profit is because it cost less to make.

It's not subjectove and based on personal taste if you say that 'most of the general audience' found it to the most entertaining.

 

[Supreme Power]

It's not subjectove and based on personal taste if you say that 'most of the general audience' found it to the most entertaining.

You can argue about it 24/7, six days to Sunday, but away from these boards more often than not, the general consensus has been more people like X3 than those that hate it here. Critics, those who want to be a critic, and those who would jump off a cliff before seeing a movie they wanted to see that was rated badly, notwithstanding. So continue arguing now, and move on.

On another note, I happened to like the first Hulk, besides the whole thing with his dad and he was a little too big at times. But I am interested to see what direction they're going to take with this one.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I'd just like to say that now that the hype has died down the third X-Men film is quickly becoming the least popular in the series.

Anyway sounds like it will be a stupid action movie. What a surprise when Bana and Connelly (after doing work since then like Munich and Blood Diamond combined) are gone and the director went from the man who did Sense & Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain to the guy who did Transporter 2 and the screenwriter has given us such gems as Inspector Gadget, Elektra and the hugely tragic X3 (due ot its failure to live up to the first 2, and his screenplay was rejected for X2, btw).

Oh well.

Yeah i totally agree, Marvel are really losing their heads IMO and now i look forward more to DC movies than i do Marvel one's. I mean, for some of their latest movies, Marvel have hired Tim Story, Brett Ratner, Jon Favreau, Louis Leterrier and Zak Penn, while DC/Vertigo have hired Christopher Nolan, Bryan Singer, The Wachowski Brother and Joss Whedon, and now Johnathan Nolan (who wrote the fantastic Memento) and Zach Snyder), anyone else see the gulf in quality there?

 

[Sava]

kinda agree ... but Marvel do have a way of finding unknown talents. Raimi wasnt really that famous before Spidey, Singer was on the way down before Xmen, they got Del Toro and Ranter is a good director IMO, he just had a *****y script. Marvel also got Ang Lee, which wasnt so bad.

 

[Cracker Jack]

We know a great deal at this point. And right now I'm chiefly concerned with the writing.

I think I speak for most Hulk fans when I say that we don't want a Hulk movie like FF, X3, or Elektra. We want an AWESOME movie. Not some sub-par piece of crap. Do YOU want something the next Hulk movie to be written at the same standard as Elektra? Then I guess you don't have anything to worry about. The rest of us do.

What makes you think I'd want something less than a great movie? I guess I'm not in the mix because I think at this point I know hardly anything about the next movie other than it's going to be closer to the comic. Sheesh I want it to suck because I want it to be closer to the comic.

 

[Advanced Dark]

Nobody can judge Marvel Studios yet because they haven't made a film. Marvel liked something about a very old Zak Penn script which very well may be his best work ever. Why would Marvel take the most lucrative character under their studio wing and trash it? They won't. Things have been very positive and I expect nothing but a great movie until something is in print or on screen that contradicts that. I'm not a negative leech jumping on a bashing bandwagon of a screenwriter,director, producer, etc...Not every writer hits a home run with every script. Same goes for directors and producers. X3 was a great fun film in my opinion and that's my personal feelings about the film. Lots of others share that opinion outside of this holier than thou X-Men fan club online that feels the rest of the world agrees with them even though they have nothing to back it up with. LOL

 

[Mr. Green]

Marvel liked something about a very old Zak Penn script which very well may be his best work ever.

And for all you know, his best work sucks. Marvel is going to make tons of money either way, and the fact that they keep getting the same guy (who is a horrible writer) to write all of their movies proves that they only care about hyping up movies so they can make even more cash.

I don't know why the hell you would think that the Marvel movie industry suddenly cares what the fans think. They get tons of money either way.

 

[Advanced Dark]

Well with the exception of Elektra his films are making money. Studios aren't hiring screenwriters so they can hang a plaque on their wall that says 11,000 die hard fans liked this film even though we went bankrupt making it that way. They're hired to fill seats for these type of films.

And again...Marvel has never made a film under their own studio yet so what do you know that I don't. I'd assume they have the most to lose or gain.

 

[Spade]

Well with the exception of Elektra his films are making money. Studios aren't hiring screenwriters so they can hang a plaque on their wall that says 11,000 die hard fans liked this film even though we went bankrupt making it that way. They're hired to fill seats for these type of films.

So that means they have a right to ignore those who made this character popular in the first place? Just because one demographic yields more than others doesn't mean you should pander to it. That's the strength of the Sony-owned Spider-Man franchise: the capacity to hit all demographics. The people who argue about SM's unfaithfulness are usually loons who want an ink copy of the comics. And it's not just because "it's Spider-Man". It's because the people behind it know what works and what doesn't. A higher budget version of TIH TV series is not what works, and that's what Penn was going to initially provide us with. A good storyteller knows how to make a creative and refreshing outlook on these stories. Rehashing old elements that weren't in the comics to begin with are not the signs of good storytelling.

This is a wholy different scenario from most stereotypes. We're not asking for an ink copy. We're asking for Marvel to give us what makes the first Hulk interesting but with more incentive for action so that future directors don't have to fight tooth and nail like Ang did just to get an action sequence into the film. Instead, Marvel is putting us off by hiring the Uwe Bolls of their respective industries with the same promises they made during another "popular" film- X3. It's this same attitude that has cost Marvel money in the long run- whether it be moving the medium to a pro-adult stance or allowing bad ideas to filter through into their works, they haven't made good decisions in the past. We're not asking for the moon, just for what's familiar and true to the essence.

The fact of the matter is that Marvel was given an Akira of the comic book industry, and has shown that without any "studio involvement" excuse that they're deadset on making the DBGT equivalent- lots of overemphasis on pretty explosions with no initial intent to provide fans of their first film with even a semblance of plot. Perhaps to you that sounds like the right thing to do because it promises the semblance of a trilogy that so many people are obsessed with attaining, but to me that stance sounds like pandering to all the wrong people. Just because the Hulk invovles higher thought doesn't mean they should dumb it down nor claim that the first formula was 'flawed'. If every film did that we wouldn't have many good comic book films much less good sequels. I don't think most fans of the first want to see the Hulk on a lower budget with a screenplay written by a man known for questionable works and a director whose crowing achievements are films that will be forgotten in due time.

If they really wanted to prove that they are making a film with tweaks here and there to create a fun cinematic experience they would be choosing people who know what the character is about and know what they're doing. But the intent isn't there. The intent is putting what they think works for the character on the big screen, and that apparently involves hiring people that promise more of a cash-in. Talk about hypocrisy- I have quotes from Quesada before Hulk came out that this was a true fundamental-packed film that would wow people, and quotes from the pre-production of this film where he's saying that the first was flawed! Think he'd be saying that if it didn't make beaucoup dollars like X3?

And again...Marvel has never made a film under their own studio yet so what do you know that I don't. I'd assume they have the most to lose or gain.

Oh, believe me- I have no doubt that with the right marketing and the amount of action being promised that people will go out in droves to see this film. So they'll be gaining alot from this. What I'm objecting to is the fact that in the process of making this film we're already seeing signs of a lack of vision. Another fact- X3's cure fight was always in the Penn script, altered and unaltered. So the lack of logic in the X-Men going to Worthington Labs was always there. Not so with David Koepp's script treatment of Spidey- there was a good reason for every snippet of action that supplemented the plot. Now, given the fact that the ideas for the script just involved mindless action, how much in hindsight do you think Penn's script was altered?

X3 went on to make tons of money. People loved it for the instant gratification. But did it stay true to the previous films? Furthermore, did it earn the replay value of other films in the same genre? My observation is that it didn't, though that's purely opinion. Nevertheless, the fanbase disliked it. You may argue that the average moviegoer loved it. You'd probably be right. But in terms of remembrance I severely doubt anyone will be harkening back to X3 with fondness in the fanbase. That, in itself, is the ultimate failure. So I come back to the question- why expect greatness from a man who can't grasp the core concepts outside of the popular points? People will go out in droves to see SM3 just on the Venom factor alone, thus making Marvel and Sony lots of profit, but do you really think that is what will make the film good or bad? It has solely to do with the storytelling and direction, and when that's wrong seldom do you find a good film in the rough.

But I'm just a raving lunatic of a fan who's not really a fan of the Hulk as a character if I liked the first one, so feel free to ignore me...