Defamer
Few came away from Ang Lee's vision of Hulk—about two freakishly massive, green cowboys who smash boulders and each others' hearts on the open Wyoming plain—feeling the director had really done the Marvel source material justice. So it was with a measure of relief that Ed Norton announced he would be sweeping in to reclaim the franchise, with a bold re-envisioning of the beloved tale of Dr. Banner and his rageoholic, gamma-bomb-enhanced Mr. Hyde. Now, reports Deadline Hollywood Daily, the legendarily exacting Norton has been locking horns with the Marvel Studios brass over final cut:
Insiders say Norton was "promised tremendous involvement and access" after Marvel invited him into the core team to rewrite Zak Penn's script. Says one insider, "There's a lot of posturing going on between Edward's camp and Marvel over how you edit the final version."
Sources also tell me that, starting last night and continuing at least throughout today, the actor will be holed up with Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel, Marvel Studios president of production Kevin Feige, and director Louis Leterrier to try to "reach an amicable resolution" to this $150+ million film feud.
We're confident that whatever discrepancies of vision have arisen between Norton and representatives from the Guild of Nervous Comic Book Rights Holders Hoping Their Valuable Franchise Isn't Mucked Again Up by Some Artsy-Fartsy Cinematic Visionary will soon be resolved, and that fanboys hungry for some Hulk redemption will soon be emerging from theaters, heartily agreeing that, "Well, he's no Ferrigno, but at least he was better than that Eric Bana-on-CGI-steroids crap."
- Ed Norton And Marvel In 'Hulk'-ing Feud [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
Comments
Marvel, it's Ed Norton. Like this wasn't going to happen...
As long as we get DVD's of the The Director's Cut, The Norton Cut, The Hulk Cut, The Hulk uncut, and the extended edition, s'cool with me.
Didn't he do this once before? With Tony Kaye over American History X? If I remember correctly THAT fiasco was about not enough close ups of Norton.
*sigh*
Maybe he should quit acting and become an editor.
Ed's not difficult, he's just an Avid fan of the art of filmmaking.
@SteamyMcFirecrotch: Avid. hehe, you're funny you... but seriously, Ed Norton as Hulk? I'm not feeling it. Rounders II anyone?
Yes to Rounders II, so long as they have Malkovich actually eating a giant ham sandwich.
So...The Hulk is going to suck maybe, Pride & Glory is DOA, Motherless Brooklyn is nothing at all, and State of Play was a bust - no wonder Ed is falling back on a stoner comedy.
I love Ed, but just how artistic do you expect to get with The Hulk?
If Bill Bixby could be the Hulk then why can't Ed Norton be the Hulk?
This version better use the TV version closing music - saddest music ever:
+ Watch video
@hummingpenguin: Funny, I was just thinking about what the heck happened to Motherless Brooklyn the other night. Pride and Glory is in the can, but good luck on figuring out a release date.
What was wrong with Eric Bana again?
Being an Avid fan of filmmaking, hopefully he'll make it to the Premier CS3...if he ever gets Final Cut.
@Juancho: just read somewhere that he set aside one script to write the final draft of Hulk (yeah, that's basically his script they're editing which explains his urgency). i bet that other story was MB.
colin farrell said that New Line ran out of money after Golden Compass and totally abandoned Pride & Glory. Which sucks.
@hummingpenguin: Did some poking around. It does have a website.
In all fairness to Norton, Tony Kaye is a dick. A talented dick, but a dick nontheless. Too bad Norton the writer now has to inject himself into every project. Supposedly he did "free" rewrites to punch up the Frida script when he was with Salma.
Which makes the fact that Paramount had a contract that forced him to do The Italian Job even funnier.
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