When I first heard about Universal and their
attempt to revive The Hulk, I had mixed feelings. Actually, I didn’t
have mixed feelings at all, it just seemed like a bad idea. Not that Ang
Lee’s Hulk was necessarily a bad film, it just felt like something that it
shouldn’t be. I didn’t feel as if there was any real connection
between beast and filmmaker. So the idea of returning to something that
was released such a short time ago and not being a sequel, well it just seemed
like an idea that should just be put to rest. But it takes a lot for
Hollywood to let things die. And thus, THE INCREDIBLE HULK is hitting
theatres in just a few short weeks, June 13th to be exact. And
with my first viewing of the trailer, I was far from excited. I liked the
idea of putting Edward Norton in the role that Bill Bixby made popular.
And I also felt that the other casting choices were pretty good, including
William Hurt, Liv Tyler and the always interesting Tim Roth. So far, it
was sounding promising, but then that damn CGI Hulk made his appearance.
It didn’t work for me in 2003 and I didn’t think it would work now.
After the trailer, I got the whole thing out of
my mind. It completely went off my radar as to my interest in the film.
And then, Universal graciously invited us to visit the Editing Bay where the
final touches on HULK are underway. Even going in I kept thinking that
this is going to be one of those times where I would be further pushed away from
wanting to see the finished product. But there I was at Universal Studios,
waiting to get at sneak peek along with a few other on-line journalists.
And truth be told, as we made our way to the edit bay, I was oddly impressed
with a life-size Hulk statue. I’m not saying, ’Oh, it’s a life size
Hulk… this movie will definitely be great!’ Frankly, I am just
entertained by life size monsters that I’d like to take home and put in my
living room. But that is a completely different personal issue which I
will possible address at a later date. So as we left the big green guy
behind, we all gathered in a screening room/edit bay, where we were then
introduced to the films director Louis Leterrier and a couple of its producers,
perhaps you’ve heard of Gale Anne Hurd and Kevin Feige. Now, I know that
producers are supposed to be excited about their films, even if they really
think it is a stinking pile of dung. But for some reason, the three of
these nice folk really seemed to be damn proud of the film. Here’s
hoping the audiences will agree.
After a brief introduction, we were shown the
opening credits to the film. I know what you are saying… big f*cking
deal! Opening credits will really tell you a whole lot about a film…
yeah right! But there was a point to this. We are given the entire
Bruce Banner history within a short two and a half minutes, approximately.
Thus, this is truly a new chapter for the Hulk and not another origin tale.
I personally am happy about that fact. One thing we don’t need is a
brand new take on the birth of the Hulk. It has been done, not only in Ang
Lee’s film, but also with the comics and the classic television series.
And keeping in mind that this is only the opening credits, I was happy with the
score. So already, I was a tad more excited than I was before I entered
the hallowed halls of Universal. Again, it was much too little to really
base any assumptions on whether the film would work or not, but it did answer a
few questions as to the type of film we were getting. After that, Louis
chimed in on his rhyme and reason for the opening.
——————————–
Louis Leterrier: This sets the pace because
it’s really a chase movie. It’s like my other movies; non-stop [he makes machine
gun noises]… Whether it’s action or drama, you don’t stop. Action doesn’t wait
for drama and drama doesn’t wait for action… With this little opening sequence
you’ll understand.
Kevin Fiege: That last shot of him grabbing
the metronome is the first shot of the actual story. We meet him in Brazil.
LL: Kyle and myself are super Marvel geeks.
There are lots of little things like the Nick Fury memo, the known
accomplices… That’s Craig Armstrong’s music… Everybody is really excited
about the music… You say that, at the end he stops the metronome, which he is
using to calm himself down, and he’s in Brazil. That’s where he’s been hiding…
Gale Anne Hurd: That was the inciting
incident.
KF: You’ll learn later when Ross has some
dialogue with Blonsky that that was the laboratory experiment that created the
Hulk.
Is this a Reboot?
KF: Totally separate, totally independent
origin that is not explored in a whole lot more detail than what you just saw.
It just sets the scene for this chase. He’s already the Hulk, he’s been on the
run for a long time… Louis has a great thing throughout the movie… The movie
doesn’t say ‘five years later, two months later, two weeks later.’ The
locators are cards that are ‘days without incident.’ Banner’s whole life is
tracked from the last time he Hulked out and his attempt for it to be as many
days as possible between these events. When we meet him, he’s been holding it at
bay for 100 or 150 days…
LL: For those of you who know the TV
show… Of course we enhanced the technology, but it pretty much looks like the
TV show… We thought it would be cheap and we could go to Universal and say,
‘Can you send us the chair?’ But it never existed so we had to put it together.
It was very important for me to tip my hat to the TV show because that’s what
brought me onto this project. I loved it.
KF: You will learn that [with] the
experiment, he’s attempting to tap into strength within all humans.
GAH: It was something under Ross’
supervision… Now Bruce Banner is on the run and Ross has not given up his
search to find him.
LL: Those ‘days without incident’ locators
are so important because I love this idea of that guy who tries to rebuild his
life and find a cure and then something happens and he Hulks-out and he has to
go back to zero every time… It’s like the myth of Sisyphus…
——————————–
After the discussion, we were then shown the
first major action sequence in the film. It takes place in Brazil as
General Ross has located Bruce Banner. It all leads to a very impressive
chase. Without really seeing Edward Norton in much more than this and the
trailers, I’m already rooting for the guy. Norton happens to be one of
the best actors of his generation, and we already had a glimpse of what happens
when you put a great actor into this type of role with Mr. Downey Jr., it just
might work. In fact, Edward feels much more like the character Bill Bixby
created in the series, which I was a fan of. As the chase continues,
Banner ends up bumping into a couple of thugs. Thus, there is this poor
guy getting shot at and chased by the government, and now he has a couple of
tough guys after him. Bruce is not having a great day here. I loved
how he is desperately trying to keep his heart rate down, and as I said, Edward
really pulls this off. But eventually, as we all know, you don’t want to
make this guy angry. And once he is, they happen to be in a factory which
leads to tons of flying metal and all sorts of people getting thrown around.
I really enjoyed how dark this sequence remains. You can see enough, but
they don’t give away too much of the Hulk himself and it makes for a more
interesting and suspenseful watch. Again, this is already feeling much
more like the series in terms of style than the previous film. This was a
terrific sequence which offered up a much better feel for the film then I had
before I walked in. And our discussion continued…
——————————–
[In regards to finding Bruce Banner…]
LL: They [find] him… He’s very, very
precise and lives under a secret identity hidden from everybody. He tries to
live his life as secretly as possible. Something happens and then he’s
discovered… General Ross locates him on the world map, assembles a team of
experts together, one of which is Emil Blonsky. He’s like a super-commando
soldier – this guy’s never gone up in the hierarchy because he loves being there
and being an action man… He’s at the end of his physical ability. This
scene shows that. He’s smart but he’s not so powerful any more……
KF: He’s right on the cusp of retirement
perhaps. As Louis said, maybe he should have become a commander a year or two
ago, but he loves being in the chase, he loves being in the hunt. He’s quite
effective, as you’ll see, but by the end [of the clip] he catches a glimpse of
something that showcases a power he wants to tap into… Of course it’s the
Hulk…
LL: When I came on board the project, I
said it was as important to showcase Hulk as a hero as Bruce Banner as a hero…
Put Edward in the action to become a action hero, an action anti-hero. The guy
that just can’t and needs this extra boost and that’s when he becomes the
Hulk…
And I see you have the Eye Shot from the TV
show?
KF: That was like the TV show with the
thugs attacking him…
LL: That place where he ends up is the
place he works at. He works in the bottling factory as a day laborer.
Drawing scenes from the TV show?
KF: We had a great scene in the disco with
midgets, but it didn’t make the final cut [Laughing].
LL: [The show] has aged a bit, but the
fundamental themes haven’t aged… It’s still the same thing. Lonely man on the
run, ‘Don’t become me. Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t like me when I’m
angry…’ It’s the same thing……
We notices that some of the shows music seems
to be in the film……
LL: Yeah we are using it.
For someone who’s not a fan of the show but a
fan of the comic, what can we expect?
LL: To answer your question, yes, you start with
the basic theme of the TV show because the comic today is very convoluted…
Banner has stepped out of Hulk and everything… So you start with the TV show
which is very simple and everybody could access the thing… Very crowd
pleasing, and that’s how I related to the Hulk the first time I saw the Hulk in
France… They couldn’t have done that [stuff from the comic book] back then on
a TV show. Even now they couldn’t do it on a TV show… So it starts as more of
an homage to the TV show and slowly transforms…
Two years ago, when we first started, to inspire
myself I took out some of the best drawings and panels from the comic books and
put them up in my office. I said, ‘Oh it would be nice if we did that or
that…’ Kevin walked in and he said, you should be proud because that’s in the
movie, that’s in the movie… Literally 95 percent of the stuff that I said,
‘That would be amazing to have in the movie one day.’ And not only did we have
that, we invented new stuff that was never in any comic or TV show.
GAH: General Thunderbolt Ross is on his
tail and he has a larger-than-life villain.
KF: The whole triangle between Betty Ross,
General Ross and Bruce Banner is right out of the comic book… Those characters
weren’t in the show…
And Lou Ferrigno is in the film?
KF: He actually has two parts in the
movie… He did do a really fun little cameo… And then Louis offered him on
the stage of New York Comic Con to come in and do the voice…
LL: It was not bogus…
KF: A few days after that he came in and
recorded a few lines that, along with having been processed by Dave Farmer who
is a great sound guy that did most of the vocalizations for King Kong, Lou is
now the credited voice of the Hulk… He was great at it… He’d been
practicing… He lost his whole voice…
GAH: He was really excited that, in the
movie, Hulk does speak… [Laughing].
——————————–
After our discussion, we got to see the man, the
myth, the legend, Lou Ferrigno in action. And like I said, I was a fan of
the show so it was a pleasure seeing him in this quick little cameo. And
later on, we even got to see some of the monstrous battle between The Hulk and
Abomination. It all begins with Bruce taking a backwards dive off an army
helicopter. Falling down onto what should’ve been his death, he rises from
the ash [well, actually it was cement] and finds an Abomination ready to fight
to the death. There are cars being used as boxing gloves, and plenty of
flying beasts scaring the locals. And this is where I realized,
although it is still obviously CG which there seems to be no way of getting
around as of late, it looked pretty terrific from where we were sitting.
This is the kind of battle that I’ve seen before and when it works, it can be
pretty stunning. I liked the way both creatures turned out and I hope that
seeing this in the context of the film, it will still be a powerful movie going
experience.
So here I am, I walked into The Hulk with very
low expectations from what I saw in the theatre. But after watching a
selection of scenes, and the genuine excitement that was shared by Gale Anne,
Louis and Kevin, I feel like this may be one to watch for. Out of
everything we saw, I was most impressed with the factory chase. It is
scary, exciting and thanks to Edward Norton, it has a very down to earth feel.
At one point, the poor green guy is being shot at and he calls out in this rough
and damaged voice to ‘leave me alone’. And you know what? I
liked it. It sounds like it could be corny, but it gave this CG character
a little heart and made him even made him a little more powerful. This is
a guy who just wants to be left alone, but because he is different and has this
power, his sole purpose of being for these people is to use him as an
experiment. A human being whose frustration and pain is expressed with the
help of a living, breathing, green beast. And thankfully, he feels much more
alive and less of a cartoon this time around. At least that’s what I
gathered so far. Stay tuned for part 2 of my edit bay visit to THE
INCREDIBLE HULK, for more conversations with Louis, Gale Anne and Kevin…
Let me know what you think. Send questions
and/or comments to JimmyO@joblo.com.