Incredible Hulk Details
I got an email from my good friend Nick over at the amazing Empire Magazine, who wrote to tell me about a conversation they just had with Incredible Hulk director Lewis Letterier and got some nice little details about the movie from him. Some of the highlights from the conversation were:
1) The Hulk appears in the first 3 minutes of the film
That’s right… no waiting around for half the movie for the big green guy to finally show up. Although this is a re-do, they’re not covering the Origin of The Hulk… when the movie starts, Bruce is already “infected” with the gamma radiation and we see him transform into The Hulk by minute 3 of the movie. SWEET ASS! This is right in line with what a vice president at Universal told me at Comic Con last summer who said Hulk shows up in the first 8 minutes.
2) The final fight with Abomination is 26 minutes long!
I had to re-read that a couple of times. A 26 minute fights between The Hulk and The Abomination. I was on set in Hamilton Ontario as they were filming some parts of that sequence and all I can tell you is that there are a LOT of explosions, fires, cars flying all over the place.. mmmmm… delicious!
3) General Ross Is Ahab
This is always how I’ve sort of pictured Thunderbolt Ross. As Ahab from Moby Dick. He’s obsessed with The Hulk. Not to destroy him… but to capture him, to use him, to harness him for the benefit of the military. He’s so obsessed that he’s alienated himself from his family, his friends… even from the military itself.
4) Why the design change for Abomination:
” I really wanted to justify [Abomination’s] appearance. I really wanted to wrap my head around the original scaley-with-big-ears monster that was in the comic book, but I couldn’t justify it. The guy isn’t crossed with a fish; he’s not crossed with a lizard. Just like the Hulk he’s an über-human — his body, everything, grows out. And the way he gets injected with the serum, he’s shot in the skin and the muscles, and shot inside the spine. That makes his bones grow thicker and bigger and longer, making him a super-weapon. So he’s got that spine that flares out, which becomes a weapon. He’s got elbows that stick out and become these martial arts, Chinese knives — things that can slash back and forth. He’s got this tongue thing and the heel-spikes… so he’s a killing machine. It’s pretty cool, it’s funny. He’s got bones sticking out, so it becomes like an exo-skeleton which he uses as armour…”
There is a whole bunch more. You can check the article out yourself over here.
23 Comments, Comment or Ping
bigsampson
awesome news…i painted myself green for the last one and brought my own beer and food in with me do to the lousy turn out on the opening….now i just might do it again the way this is shaping out to be….
ps read the hulk wars if u can great series
Mar 13th, 2008
nbakid2000
Just for the record, I was neither put off nor impressed by the trailer. However, the action in this movie sounds amazing and I can’t wait to see how it (the movie) turns out.
Mar 13th, 2008
Kevin C
The Abomination is what I imagine Doomsday would have looked like on the big screen.
Im not entirely sure they dont adress the origin at all. Ed Norton spoke at comic con about not doing the typical obligitory origin in the first act, but fleshing the origin out over an arc and revealing things slowly and out of order, perhaps over 3 films.
If you go to youtube and pull up the discussion its pretty cool.
Mar 13th, 2008
sleeve
Great! There really is no need to do the origin story all over again, and I can totally understand the change for Abomination, it makes more sense.
Mar 13th, 2008
Paul
1) Good.
2) That is the BEST news on this flick!!!!!!!!
3) Boy in the trailer he sounds like William hurt PLAYING Donald Sutherland… Maybe it’s the mustache.
4) I personally hate the way Abomination looks… Yea, the ears may have looked lame, but he could at least have been scaly, believability is sooo mute when we’ve a movie where lethal radiation gives green skin and strength instead of tumors or internal hemorrhaging and a painful death. Like (I think) Doug said on the podcast about Fantastic Four, if you suspend disbelief for the FF, a huge purple clad Galactus isn’t much more of a stretch, so… yea, Abomination could have been scaly.
Mar 13th, 2008
Phil Gee
After the trailer (which, gratefully, didn’t show us much action), i’m most intrigued about what other action sequences the Hulk will have before the climatic fight.
Mar 13th, 2008
Melbye
I love how the Abomination looks. I am very glad he isn’t green like in the comics, it might have become difficult telling them apart since the fightscene is set at night. Only three months to go until June 13th(hey today it’s MARCH 13TH)
Mar 13th, 2008
Bishop
Jeebus I hope I don’t end up Paul Reubens-ing the theatre.
But I might.
Mar 13th, 2008
sleeve
I’m not so sure a scaly Abomination would have looked any better than this design. It all just depends on the CG I guess.
Mar 13th, 2008
Mykrantz
The more I hear from Mr. Letterier, the more I think the Hulk is in very capable hands, hopefully the studio interference is kept to a minimum.
Amazing how this thread is MUCH more positive than the trailer thread was.
PS- I have now seen the trailer in SD, and I can see how people were saying the effects looked a little poor in the other thread, however The effects look amazing in HD.
Mar 13th, 2008
ALFREDO
A 26 min long fight scene hmmm… I hope the movie is 90mins long. I really do.
Mar 13th, 2008
Kristina
Thanks for the news, John. I haven’t been following this film at all save for your cameo, so I had no clue as to whether this was an origin story or not.
Mar 13th, 2008
Norm
I’m still not wild about the Abomination’s look or size.
Mar 13th, 2008
AjaxLou
Is it just me but doesn’t the Hulk’s skin look plant-like?
Mar 13th, 2008
Mozzerino
A fight that lasts 26 minutes?
I’m sorry, that may sound quite cool to some, but watching two CGI-creatures bash in their digital skulls for half an hour doesn’t seem that appealing to me.
The audience gets bored of this stuff very quick. With a fight sequence that long, everybody is gonna have enough after minute No.10.
Look at SPIDERMAN 3, or MATRIX REVOLUTIONS.
Both had bombastic, big effects-heavy fight scenes. Now I don’t know about you, but frankly I was bored as fuck. Seriously, after watching Neo and Agent Smith punching each other for 20 minutes I just wanted to scream at the screen: “Jesus, finish it already for fuck’s sake!”
It will be no different here, I’d rather see 10 minutes of some carnage and 16 minutes of good plot development.
And by the way, I doubt there is any final cut decision made yet. Apparently Edward “Control-Freak” Norton is not happy with the film and threatens to not do any press if he doesn’t get his way.
This is a cool trailer, but honestly, I think this movie will be a disappointment. The cast is great, but overall this will turn out to be a mess of a film and it won’t make much money either.
This summer is about Indy, Batman and that Iron Dude. No place for poor Hulk.
Mar 13th, 2008
Ethan
Hey Mozzerino why is the summer just about those movies? The answer is…its not. Ooo 26 minutes of fighting, this dosn’t mean the film will bomb. As for Norton’s problem with the final cut, this is the only thing I think the movie has going against it. I mean if it’s not resolved soon then we could have a real problem, if a compramise isn’t made then they could push back the release or something.
Mar 13th, 2008
spagett
Hating on Norton because he wants the movie to be the best it can be? The trailer didn’t inspire me to want to see the movie. The Hulk really doesn’t even inspire me to want to see the movie. The only thing going for this film is the cast (Norton, Hurt, Roth). 26 minute fight scene doesn’t sound appealing to me either. I’m one of the few, apparently, that hated Transformers. One reason was because the fight scenes were so damn long that it became boring to watch. A bunch of walking trash piles of CGI punching eachother for majority of the 2+ hour movie was awful. I still need to get that favor returned for seeing that shitty movie with someone.
Mar 13th, 2008
alfie
sorry ethan its not because of the 26 minute fight scene that this film may bomb as I have been saying they needed a hell of a lot better trailer than this to get over the bad will still hanging around from ang lees Hulk.
I am willing to give this film a shot as I like the vibe of the trailer…but I just do not think there is a big audience for this thing..
and john how come no one here has done a story about the problems they are having with norton and the cutting of the film…have you heard about that??? norton is pulling his weight and fighting with the studio. Might not do press for the film if he doesn’t get his way……
thats not a good start in getting positive vibes on board.
my biggest fear is that its all well and good to promise us a 26 minute fight scene (which sounds dreadful to me…thinking about 26 minutes of non stop CG fighting….ugh) but anyway..
thats all well and good but if the rest of the film surrounding said fight is horse shit then who gives a fuck.
this guy is the guy behind the transporter movies. they are fucking awful.
anyway…I am anxious about this film. I love the hulk…I like the tv series feeling I am getting from what I see but I just think this film needs to be amazing to counter the general lack of interest.
Mar 13th, 2008
John
Hey Alfie,
The reason I haven’t written about the Norton fighting the studio thing is because I’m told it’s not true
Mar 13th, 2008
alfie
So its just made up? I didn’t know that, Thats a weird thing to have been made up for no reason…..hhmm…oh well….
so just to clarify you are saying you don’t report on unconfirmed stories anymore…is that a new rule you will be sticking too in the future?
Mar 13th, 2008
John
Alfie,
First of all… I’m not a journalist… I’m not a news site… I don’t “report” on anything.
Secondly, there’s a difference between not talking about something that’s not “confirmed” and not talking about something because I’ve been directly told there’s no “story” and nothing to it.
Mar 13th, 2008
Ben
Here’s the trailer from Screenrant.com
http://screenrant.com/archives/the-incredible-hulk-trailer-1467.html
Cheerz
Mar 14th, 2008
TM
Okay…. :oP
Mar 14th, 2008
Reply to “Incredible Hulk Details”