Puny little actor wants to take down the Hulk?
It seems noted temperamental “star” Edward Norton (when was he last seen in a popular movie 
or, I dunno, just a movie in general?) is not-so-quietly battling with Marvel over the upcoming final cut of The Incredible Hulk movie. I say “not-so-quietly” only because someone must have leaked this beef between Norton and Marvel, unless of course it’s just some marketing ploy to get the movie on the pop culture radar, which really wouldn’t surprise me in today’s controversy loving media. I tend to believe in the veracity of this rumor over marketing ploy, or mere smear-campaign, simply because I live on the web and eat up all and every aspect of pop culture goodness and I find when a story like this makes it onto more than one news/gossip site, well, there’s some truth in “them thar’ hills.”
Apparently Norton wanting a bigger say in the final cut of the film and Marvel is not exactly agreeing with Norton’s input, (or vice a versa depending on your source) and both sides are “working” to come to an understanding. With the June 13th premier date looming over the horizon Marvel really needs to nail down a final cut, with or without Norton’s stamp of approval. If Marvel does go forth with their vision for the film, which kinda makes sense seeing as how this is their property, their character, and when the chips are down and everything is totaled up, if the movie does badly it will be Marvel that will suffer for it. It’s Marvel that stands to be the most effected if the movie tanks: they stand to loose in theatrical revenue, toy line sales, future sequels profits and further Hulk opportunities (cartoon anyone), whereas Norton will most likely remain unscathed by the movie crashing and burning and will just happily move along to his next project (like Eric Bana did in the first Hulk movie!).
Norton’s holds one teeny tiny card in this power struggle; his potential refusal to do press and promotion on the movie if Marvel doesn’t cede to his wishes. I personally don’t see this being such a bad thing really. I mean, we are talking the Hulk here and not some period drama that hinges on the main protagonist. Sure it would be great to have a movie’s star doing press for his movie, but does it really matter who plays Bruce Banner?
People want to see the Hulk, CGI and all, and lots and lots of action, destruction, and gamma irritated green. The key for Marvel is to have a good movie that will appease action junkies and comic book fans (no mean feat) and not so much the snobby critics and “artsy” thespians. Bottom line, Marvel needs a Hulk sized hit, and if Norton’s take on the movie threatens its success - please see Ang Lee’s high-brow snore Hulk - then Marvel would be wise to ditch Norton’s talk-show appearances and amp up the action and excitement. Assuming Marvel somehow makes it to a third film they can always cast another joe-shmoe actor to pickup the Bruce Banner, uh, banner. Third time would be the charm, right?
March 18th, 2008 at 12:57 am
For the most part, Bri, I agree with you; however, if you look at it from where Norton is coming from, he’s not just the lead actor, he’s the screenplay writer. With all the noise about writers recently in Hollywood, I think it’s a bit understandable for a writer to be wary of a conglomerate mucki-mucks who continue to believe that they know what the movie watchers of America (let alone the world) want, but repeatedly produce horrid films. Especially with the terrible lack of success most comic book movies have had, if I had written the screenplay of an up-coming movie and also starred in it, and then the suits try to muscle in with some lame idea that goes against everything you’ve spent so long trying to accomplish, I guess I might be a bit pissed as well. And as far as Eric Bana goes, he hasn’t been doing very much lately (and that goes for Mr. Ang Lee as well). So, yeah, sure, it’s Marvel’s flop if it tanks, but Norton will definately feel it too. How many more writing ops do you suppose he’ll have if this one bottoms out as poorly as the last incarnation of the big green guy?
March 18th, 2008 at 8:01 am
“Especially with the terrible lack of success most comic book movies have had”
Ummmm… WTF are you talking about? Since X-Men in 2000, only Elektra and The Punisher has failed to make $100 million at the box office. Even crap like Daredevil made more than $100 million.
Maybe you’re talking critical success, but financially, comic book movies do very well, which is why they continue to get made.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Okay, you have a point; however, when a movie (Fantastic Four: RSS) takes an estimated budget of $130 mill and only just breaks that with box office sales, is that considered a success? Do DVD sales come in to play? Since it only took $33 mill to make Punisher and it made more than it’s spent budget, is it a flop or a success. Perhaps the real question here is not whether or not the movie made money, but whether or not the fans were willing to bank a return visit, buy the DVD, recommend it to another comic book nerd (sorry, perhaps we should continue to call ourselves “fans”). Or, which is so much more likely, millions see it the first weekend (where generally a third of the film’s total gross is made) only to complain that the film was junk. Maybe the film’s cinematic duration should come into play. Often, if you don’t see a comic book movie in the first four weeks, you will have missed its big screen appearance. For the most part, your argument is flawed: a movie can’t be rated as a success only by how much it’s pulled in at the box office (or even DVD sales for that matter). A $100 mill sounds like a load all by itself, but when it’s compared to what it took to make (Hulk: estimated budget: $137 mill => gross: $132 mill)… And, oh, if we could only forget Catwoman…
Yes, many of them make money, but that doesn’t mean that they were successful. Besides, when has the duration of only seven years been the criteria? Comic book adapations have been in the works forever. But, just because people continue to want them, doesn’t mean they will like them, regardless how many shell out the $12 per ticket. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of really great comic book movies made, and those that were are soon polluted by crummy sequels (X-Men 3, Spider-man 3). But now we are entering a different argument, so I’ll stop being (Dare)Devil’s advocate and go to sleep. But a final thought, shouldn’t we, as the fans of these seminal works, be more picky about what becomes a “financial success”? Should the phrase, “it was okay,” be the best we can expect? As the people whom these Hollywood moguls are targeting, we should be screaming for better written, truer versions of our colored heroes, not merely content with Ben-devils and Hayden Skywalkers. …. I’m too tired for this. Believe what you want. My point in the first place was to argue for the writers out there. So, I’m am so far tangetted now, nothing matters, but since Brian always thanks me for commenting, I’m going to post this rant anyway, regardless of sense, purpose, or reason. Cheers.