Marvel continues to surprise me with their movies – Iron Man has a completely killer cast that sells the whole film all on its own. Now they’ve announced the lead for Hulk 2, and it’s none other than The Best Actor of His Generation, Ed Norton playing Doctor Bruce Banner, belted by gamma rays.
This is completely stunning. I thought that this film was being treated as the second cousin to a direct to video feature, and I definitely assumed no one with a name would want to follow in Eric Bana’s footsteps in a franchise that is a franchise only by the sheer force of Marvel’s will. The first Hulk film did not perform, but Marvel is obviously banking that the problem wasn’t the character but the presentation – nobody wanted ‘Hulk Have Daddy Issues!’
Louis Leterrier, the director the Transporter films and Jet Li’s Unleashed, is helming this time. A quick word to the very nice Leterrier: guard your asshole, because Norton is going to try to fuck you. I love the guy, I think he’s bright and when I put The Best Actor of His Generation in caps, that’s not snark. But he’s a meddler – he likes to get in there and fuck around with the script and in editing. He co-directs his features, and I don’t know that Leterrier has the juice to keep Norton playing as just an actor.
But that’s behind the scenes bullshit. For right now let’s all realize that Marvel’s Hulk 2 is going to be done as an honest to God, real fucking movie. It shoots this summer in Toronto for a June 2008 release.