Franchise Killers: The Incredible Hulk

https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/06/15/franchise-killers-the-incredible-hulk/

The Incredible Hulk was one of the first two projects fledgling Marvel Studios took on. The other was Iron Man. French director Louis Leterrier who had made the Transporter films expressed an interest in helming Iron Man, but thankfully Jon Favreau had already filled that role. Can you imagine how different things might have been if Leterrier had gotten the job? Instead, he was offered the Hulk sequel/reboot as a consolation gig.

The original script was written by Zak Penn who had previously contributed a draft for the first movie. Penn started working on his script when it was still intended as a direct follow-up to Lee’s movie. As plans changed, he worked on several different drafts to make the movie more of a reboot than a sequel. Eventually, he left the project altogether.

Enter Edward Norton. The actor had reservations about Penn’s script and requested that Marvel hire a screenwriter to do rewrites. With only two months until filming was scheduled to begin, Marvel asked Norton if he would be interested in rewriting the movie himself. Norton agreed. Mostly, his changes consisted of rewriting dialogue. He couldn’t make dramatic changes to the plot because sets were already being built based on Penn’s story. According to Tim Roth who played the movie’s villain, Norton was rewriting scenes every day on the set.

Things got contentious after Norton appeared at Comic-Con to promote the new movie. When asked about his role in the creative process, Norton claimed to have rewritten the script. Penn objected to what he perceived as the actor taking sole credit. Long story short, both men lobbied the Writer’s Guild for credit which was ultimately awarded to Penn.

But that was just the beginning of the conflicts. Norton felt that he had been promised a certain degree of creative control over the movie. When it came time to edit the film, he fought to include several of his own ideas. But Marvel wanted The Incredible Hulk to be leaner than the previous movie. They felt that Lee’s movie spent too much time building up to the Hulk and they didn’t want to repeat that mistake with their reboot. Leterrier backed Norton’s play, but when push came to shove, Marvel retained final cut and there was nothing Norton could do about it.

Well, there was one thing. After stories of the behind-the-scenes drama leaked online, Norton refused to promote the movie initially. According to Leterrier, it was an unfortunate situation with plenty of blame to go around. ”It’s as much Marvel’s fault as it is Edward’s. And my fault. It’s everybody’s fault! Or no one’s fault, in a way. I regret that [Marvel and Norton] didn’t come to an agreement where we could’ve all worked together.”

It’s hard to say who was right. The theatrical film was criticized for being too thin to be satisfying. It could have used some more character work. But unless someone releases previously unseen footage, we’ll never know if Norton’s scenes would have propped the movie up or dragged it down. In the end, The Incredible Hulk performed about as well as Lee’s Hulk. They both earned about $130 million dollars in the US and earned about another $100 million overseas. Fans generally preferred the faster-paced reboot to Lee’s ponderous take on the character, but as I alluded to earlier both movies have their fans. And both are undeniably flawed.

There were plans for a sequel. According to Norton, “The whole thing was to envision it in multiple parts. We left a lot out on purpose. [The Incredible Hulk is] definitely intended as chapter one.” All of the principals were signed on for multiple movies with the exception of Norton who had been reluctant to make the movie in the first place. When the time came to incorporate the Hulk into Marvel’s cinematic universe in The Avengers, the one thing everyone seemed to agree on was that Marvel didn’t want to work with Norton again and the feeling was mutual. Like Eric Bana before him, Norton was out and Mark Ruffalo was in.

With the popularity of Ruffalo’s take on the character, fans have been asking when the Hulk might get another shot at a solo movie. But according to Ruffalo, that’s not in the cards. Marvel has the rights to use the character, but Universal retains the rights to solo movies. This stuff is all very confusing. Seeing as how Marvel reached an agreement to share Spider-Man with Sony, you have to think they could reach a similar agreement with Universal if they were so inclined. But for now, everyone seems satisfied with the status quo.