Ed Norton Refusing to Do Press For The Incredible Hulk
Posted on June 13, 2008
Ed Norton is living down to everyone's low expectations: he's refusing to do press for The Hulk and generally being a diva, because of his tiff with the studio over his brilliant revisions to the screenplay and -- presumably -- the studio's failure to conform to his artistic vision.
[T]here's been a dispute right along about who did what on "Hulk." The screenplay is credited to "X-Men 3" writer Zak Penn, who definitely wrote the original draft and mapped out the movie. But wasn't it only last July 2007 that Norton boasted of writing the screenplay at Comic-Con, the convention for people who trade comic books and associated materials? Uh, yes, he did.Robert Downey, Jr. is in The Hulk? Wow, that would have been a nice twist in the screenplay -- if it had remained secret and not been put into the trailers. So far, the reviews are good, so we think Ed should come out of hiding. Don't leave it all on Liv Tyler's shoulders to promote the film.I'm told that Norton did substantially rewrite the Penn draft, added lots of dialogue, and worked on the character of the Hulk's alter ego Bruce Banner to make him more human. Interestingly, Norton is not signed to do the typical two sequels to this "Hulk," although Tyler is and so, I'm told, is director Louis Leterrier. The reason for Norton holding out is likely a money issue. Could he be replaced in future versions? Undoubtedly, although that would be a shame. He's terrific as the un-jolly green giant.
Meantime, some Web sites like Cinematical have noted that Universal is using Robert Downey Jr.'s surprise appearance in "Hulk" as Tony Stark aka Iron Man in their TV commercials. Downey's presence was supposed to be a big twist at the end -- so much so that I kept it out of my review the other day. But I guess that Marvel and Universal want to capitalize on "Iron Man"'s huge box office.