#THE INCREDIBLE HULK 2003 MOVIE#
The first half of the movie is really mine and the second half is the studio’s expected Hulk movie - two giants kicking each other’s ass.” It’s very obvious in The Incredible Hulk. I always try to bring the character and the actor forward. “A movie is a sum of compromises until you grow into your own independence. But actors on set noted that Norton was writing during filming, as the film continued to evolve while Leterrier and Norton reportedly fought to make the film more cerebral, while Marvel fought to make the film more commercial. Norton’s screenplay contributions remain a matter of debate, as the Writers Guild of America sided with Penn in arbitration (hence his sole credit) and Penn subsequently expressed his displeasure at Norton attesting that he himself wrote the script. The rest was for me to figure out, so starting with Zak Penn, we crafted a story, made it ours, finding different ideas from comic books and trying to compile them in one big story, and then Zak had to do his movie The Grand so he left and Edward who we were seeing as an actor said, ‘I write screenplays,’ so I asked if he could do the last draft and he said, ‘No problem.’” “They knew they wanted to revive Hulk and they wanted to use animation. So negotiations with Norton began with an unfinished screenplay, which Norton saw as an opportunity to help craft the story, according to Leterrier: Leterrier initially wanted to cast Mark Ruffalo, but Marvel instead lobbied for Edward Norton because he was “more famous” according to Leterrier. In early 2007, Penn left the project to attend to his film The Grand, at which point casting for the role of Bruce Banner was underway. However, the screenplay is really where things start to get interesting. Elektra and X-Men: The Last Stand co-writer Zak Penn was the first screenwriter onboard and wrote multiple drafts, ultimately earning sole screenplay credit for the film. At that point, the comic book adaptation marked the biggest film the Transporter and Unleashed filmmaker had ever tackled. They liked Leterrier enough, however, that they offered him The Incredible Hulk.
#THE INCREDIBLE HULK 2003 SERIES#
For this new movie, Marvel wanted to look back to the roots of the TV series and create more of a thriller about a man on the run.Īs for the film’s director, Marvel at the time had already spoken with Louis Leterrier about helming Iron Man, but that job went to Jon Favreau. The dramatic, philosophical nature of that film rubbed fans the wrong way. Indeed, while Marvel Studios holds the license, Universal Pictures maintains distribution rights on all Hulk sequels, which explains why we still haven’t gotten any additional Hulk standalone movies.Īnyway, back in the mid-2000s, when Marvel Studios began plotting a standalone Hulk movie, they aimed to steer clear of Ang Lee’s direction on Hulk. While The Incredible Hulk was creatively produced by Marvel Studios, which also paid for the film, the movie was still distributed by Universal. That movie was met with a muted response from both critics and audiences, and indeed Universal Pictures dragged its feet in producing a sequel, which led to the rights for Hulk reverting back to Marvel Studios-hence why this was one of Marvel’s first independently produced films.īut before we get too in the weeds, a note on the complexity of the Hulk rights. When Marvel Studios set out to make its own films independently, they decided to start fresh with Iron Man and then hedge their bets with The Incredible Hulk, which was initially developed as a sequel to Ang Lee’s 2003 film Hulk. But while Iron Man’s production was characterized by an independent, improv-heavy spirit that bled onto the screen, The Incredible Hulk’s production was fraught with infighting and creative disagreements that continued all the way through post-production. Of the two, The Incredible Hulk was seen as the more commercially viable, and the film with the safest potential. While Iron Man is widely known as the film that started the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the MCU nearly could have derailed the same year with Marvel Studios’ second film: The Incredible Hulk. “How the MCU Was Made” is a series of deep-dive articles that will delve into the ins and outs of the development history, production, and release of all the Marvel Studios movies.