April
17
Hanging with The Hulk
Premiere's Glenn Kenny is doing the festival circuit, hanging with the likes of Edward Norton, who starred in three v. cool movies last year: the admirable teeny weeny neo-western Down in the Valley, the sleeper hit magician fable The Illusionist (which is heading toward the $100-million mark worldwide) and the intensely romantic Somerset Maugham adaptation The Painted Veil, which WIP should have done a lot more with. And he's got the ultra-serious Pride and Glory heading for the fall fest circuit. And he and Brad Pitt are producing a National geographic/HBO 10-parter on Lewis & Clark.
So Norton's ready to get back to wide-appeal commercial reality by playing Bruce Banner in The Hulk. I think it's brilliant! The guy is constitutionally incapable of selling out. Which means he has an angle on a profoundly conflicted character who at the same time is beloved by comic book fans all over the world. While Ang Lee's The Hulk had its supporters, it didn't play to the fanboys, which leaves an opening for another pass at this material. In fact, Norton is a huge comics buff and grew up on The Hulk. And he's made a career specialty out of playing characters with duality, from Primal Fear and Fight Club to American History X and The Score. Even The Illusionist comes with a serious twist.
After he finishes shooting The Hulk, which is filming from June through October in Canada, Norway and Brazil, he'll likely return to something small and personal again (maybe his own adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn).
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agree. norton as hulk will be character-driven, focused, and worth every second
Posted by: Alan Green | April 17, 2007 at 07:04 PM
I am one of those rare fanboys who liked the Ang Lee "Hulk," but I do understand the detractors. The Lee version took too long for Hulk to smash anything and is villain ended up being Absorbing Man (a Thor villain).
Lee attempted an extremely character driven version of Banner, but his underlying motivations (the abusive/experimental father), while loosely based on the Doc Sampson analysis of the Hulk (and thus comic based), fell flat. Let's face it, the "my mother and I were abused by my megalomaniac father and so I have suppressed rage" is a little overplayed. I much prefer the old school Id/Ego/Superego Freudian Hulk to the more modern Oedipus Freudian Hulk.
All in all though, I liked Bana's performance and I don't think lack of character depth was the reason fanboys abandoned the last version. I think the hour-long first act did that just fine.
Posted by: Christian Johnson | April 17, 2007 at 07:35 PM
My favorite Norton role is in 25th Hour which I thought was perfect.
Posted by: mitkid | April 18, 2007 at 04:08 AM
I too love that movie and never understood why it didn't do better. one of Spike's best. Written by David Benioff!
Posted by: Anne Thompson | April 18, 2007 at 08:03 AM