Beautiful Mistake

The Hulk
Release Date: June 20th, 2003

Release Date Notes:

1/14/02 - (Universal now has competition in the form of Sony's Charlie's Angels 2: Halo, which is also gunning for this spot... clearly, two such high profile projects are not going to open against each other; one of them will move... but which, and how long will they wait to make the inevitable switcheroo? Fun fun!; (4/18/02) Sure enough! Sony has moved CA2: Halo back a week to June 27th, 2002.

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Title Note:

2/23/00 - The comic book was long known as The Incredible Hulk, but the film will drop the Incredible to be just The Hulk. (5/3/02) Although the logo that flashes at us in the teaser trailer says just Hulk, a closer look at the end credits shows The Hulk.

Production Company: Valhalla Motion Pictures (Bounty Killer, Armageddon, Virus)

Visual Effects: This film will be a combination of live-action and CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) for the Hulk (no human, no matter how "pumped" he is, could accurately play the monstrous beast that is the comic book version of the Hulk).

Cast: Eric Bana (Dr. Bruce Banner), Jennifer Connelly (Betty Ross), Sam Elliott (General "Thunderbolt" Ross), Mike Erwin (Teenage Bruce Banner), Lou Ferrigno (cameo), Brooke Langton (Jennifer Sossman), Josh Lucas (Glenn Talbot), Nick Nolte (Bruce's father); other cast not announced yet.

Director: Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ride with the Devil, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Eat Drink Man Woman; he may direct another project, possibly Houdini, before this)

Digitial Effects: Industrial Lights and Magic (ILM)

Screenwriter: (see notes below) Michael Tolkin (The Player; cowriter of Deep Impact; he's also working on Changing Lanes); rewrite by David Hayter (X-Men; also has X², The Chronicles of Riddick and Watchmen in development); rewrite by James Schamus (Ang's frequent writing partner; he has credits on most of Ang's films)

Screenwriter Notes: Michael France (cowriter of Goldeneye, Cliffhanger) has long been involved with this project, but he wasn't mentioned in the 5/17/00 announcement that Michael Tolkin had been brought onto this project, so it's possible his script won't be used. (4/14/01) Ang Lee has been talking about this film quite a bit lately, such as to USA Today this week, and what's he said more than once suggests that he's going to throw out Universal's scripts and start from scratch himself.

Based Upon: The character published by Marvel Comics. There was also a 1970's TV show loosely based upon the character (lacking most of the elements of the comic book) that led to some TV movies in the 1980's and 1990's; all of which starred Bill Bixby as David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk. Hopefully, this movie will be more like the comics, and less like the TV show.

Sequel Note:

10/17/01 - As you'd expect, Universal is hoping to kick off a series of films, including options for two sequels in Bana's contracts (substantially increasing his salary each time). (12/8/01) Thinking of what direction the sequels might take, I thought I'd submit this idea. In the comics, Connelly's character of Betsy Ross becomes exposed to gamma rays herself, which turn her into a creature called the Harpy, a "bird woman" with green skin, wings and talons. (3/29/02) I should note that there have been some erroneous reports that Jennifer Connelly's character could become the "She-Hulk" in a sequel. She-Hulk, if she ever shows up, is actually Jennifer Walters, the L.A. lawyer cousin of Bruce Banner, who gets a blood transfusion from him that gives her superhuman strength, green skin, etc.

Premise:

12/01/00 - According to Entertainment Weekly, this will tell the tale of Dr. Bruce Banner, exposed to Gamma Rays and transformed into the Hulk, a creature of incredible strength. Chased across the country by the military (and General "Thunderbolt" Ross), he runs into a man named Crusher Creel (who would be played by "Goldberg"), who can take on the properties of things he touches (you might call him The Absorbing Man). (1/13/01) The Hollywood Reporter story about Ang Lee's involvement mentioned that part of what appealed to him was the love story in the script (probably with Betty Ross, daughter of General Ross). (11/28/01) The setting for the film will be the Berkeley campus, and not a desert military base as in the comic book origin story. (12/31/01) There will still be a military base (run, of course, by General Ross). (2/20/02) Lucas has signed on to play Glenn Talbot, long-time friend of Betty Ross and rival to Bruce Banner (indeed, in the comics, she was, at one time, Mrs. Betty Talbot).

Who's the Absorbing Man?: When Crusher Creel touches iron, he becomes iron, when he touches fire, he becomes fire, etc. In the comics, the trick to defeating him, by the way, is often to get him to touch something breakable, like glass painted to look like steel. Watch out to see if they include that trick in the film. So, how did Crusher Creel get this power? In the comics, he got it from the Norse God of Mischief, Loki, the evil brother of Thor (in other words, he started as a Thor villain and migrated to Hulk). Since Loki is no doubt being saved by Marvel for a Thor TV series or movie, this script will probably find a new origin. (10/15/01) It's very possible that in Ang Lee's version, Crusher Steel will no longer be included.

Comic Book Premise: Dr. Bruce Banner is a scientist working on a powerful new "Gamma Ray" bomb. During a test of the bomb, Banner runs out to save the life of a reckless youth, Rick Jones, which leads to Banner accidentally bearing the brunt of the Gamma Rays. Instead of killing him, the strange radiation causes him to gain body mass from a mysterious source and become a huge green monster when he becomes angry....

Grey Hulk Note: One interesting detail that Corona's Coming Attractions reported is that the Hulk will have two manifestations in the film, starting with the Grey Hulk, which was smaller, and then progressing to the huge green (and mentally vacant and savage) Hulk that we all know and love. Most people are less familiar with the Grey Hulk, but if the Grey Hulk is kept, the film will indeed follow the progress that the character went through in the 1960's; as the original Hulk was indeed grey.

Filming: Production started on March 18th, 2002 in Arizona, before moving on, in early April, 2002 to the San Francisco/Berkeley area (including UC-Berkeley). There was also filming at Treasure Island in San Francisco, and near the Sequouia National Forest. There may also be some filming on the Universal Studios lot in L.A.

Genre: Action, Eye Candy, Science Fiction

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Take me. Touch me.
Won't you hold me close.