Edward Norton isn’t speaking. The star of The Incredible Hulk, the new $150 million adaptation of the Marvel
comic-book series, would normally be chatting up the press this time of year, promoting his big summer movie. Instead, the 38-year-old Oscar nominee has declined repeated interview requests, following a disagreement he had with his producers over the final cut of the film. In recent months, Norton and the film’s director, Louis Leterrier (The Transporter), campaigned for a longer, more detailed film. Marvel Studios wanted a faster, leaner one. Marvel won. These creative arguments happen in Hollywood a lot but usually remain a secret. This time, they didn’t. So Norton isn’t talking, and others are ready to lay the blame — well, everywhere. ”It’s as much Marvel’s fault as it is Edward’s,” Leterrier says. ”And my fault. It’s everybody’s fault! Or no one’s fault, in a way. I regret that [Marvel and Norton] didn’t come to an agreement where we could’ve all worked together.”
It’s amazing that Marvel wanted to make another Hulk movie in the first place. In comic-book stores, The Hulk is only slightly less popular than Spider-Man, but at movie theaters, not so much. Ang Lee’s moody 2003 Hulk flopped, earning only $132 million domestically. Normally, that would mean franchise death, but in 2005, Marvel grew tired of licensing its characters (and losing profits) to studios and acquired $525 million to start funding films itself. Marvel also decided that The Hulk’s popularity as an icon made the movie do-over worth the risk. ”It’s Spidey and Hulk standing atop Mount Marvel,” says Kevin Feige, the company’s president of production. ”It felt silly to wait more than five years to bring The Hulk back to the screen.”
The Incredible Hulk is not another origin story: When the movie begins, Bruce Banner (Norton) is already The Hulk. He’s hiding out in Brazil, trying to find a cure for the gamma-ray exposure that turns him into a monster. Before long, his whereabouts are uncovered by Gen. Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), and the movie turns into an extended chase, as Banner tries to cure himself while eluding Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a soldier who turns into the scaly fiend Abomination. The new Hulk film is said to remain truer not only to the comic book but also to the old Lou Ferrigno TV show.
It’s unfortunate that Hulk has been generating negative publicity lately, because there’s a lot at stake for Marvel: The company’s first two films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, are being released this summer. Marvel’s decision to cast Norton as Banner was a gutsy choice in more ways than one. Norton is an enormously respected actor, but the Fight Club star also has a reputation for being an intense presence behind the scenes. ”When you work with Edward, you are dealing with an actor/producer/director — someone who is passionate about film and cares about every project he does,” says Bob Yari, who produced two of Norton’s movies, The Illusionist and The Painted Veil. ”You have to be prepared. You are not dealing with an actor who’s not going to have an opinion.”
In 1998, Norton cut his own version of Tony Kaye’s American History X after battling with the eccentric director. ”Edward is very bright, charismatic, articulate, and aggressive,” says Steve Tisch, an exec producer of that film. Kaye was taking a long time cutting the film, to everyone’s frustration, Tisch says, and Norton simply took matters into his own hands. A decade has since gone by, and Norton has made more than a dozen films without incident. More to the point, Marvel seemed eager for the actor’s input. They hired him not only to act but also to rewrite sections of the script, and they let him function as an uncredited producer. Still, Leterrier was nervous. ”The stories I heard about Edward — they scared the bejesus out of me,” he says. ”I was scared the guy would come in and say, ‘All right, you’re a little French director who’s just done action movies, so you stick to the action and I’ll do the drama.”’ Did that happen? ”Not at all!” he says warmly. ”I love the guy. He has a voice; he just wants to be heard. And he hates lip service.”
According to Leterrier, he and his star hit it off beautifully, and there were no issues with Marvel while the movie was being shot. During post-production, though, the relationship with Marvel hit a snag. The company wanted to release the most commercial film possible: lots of action and a running time under two hours. Norton and Leterrier, however, lobbied for a more meditative cut of the film that ran about two hours and 15 minutes. Tempers flared between Norton and Marvel. ”Everyone was exhausted; it was like a little burst,” Leterrier says. ”’I'm angry with you!’ ‘No, I’m angry with you!’ And me in the center saying ‘Boys, calm down.’ It didn’t come to blows. It was just a remark here and there.” And it would have ended there. But, Leterrier says, ”then it became public.”
On March 11, Nikki Finke’s industry blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, broke news of the scuffle between
Marvel and Norton, declaring it a ”feud.” And suddenly it was. Communication between Norton and Marvel seems to have stopped. ”The press is what kept Edward and Marvel from talking to each other,” Leterrier says. ”[The argument] was nothing, but then it became something big.” Norton is honest and forthright, say those who’ve worked with him, so why hasn’t he defused the situation by speaking up? Sources say the actor is worried about being unfairly branded ”a pain in the ass” by the press. They say he wants The Incredible Hulk to be a hit — and concedes that Marvel’s cut, though not what he wanted, is more commercial than his. ”He’s very Zen about it,” says a source.
On April 14, after more than a month of negotiations about whether Norton would or would not be interviewed for this story, the actor’s publicist e-mailed EW an exclusive 257-word statement, approved in advance by Marvel and Universal (read the full text below). ”Every good movie gets forged through collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed, and respect the validity of each other’s opinions, is the heart of filmmaking,” he wrote, in part. ”Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a ‘dispute,’ seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal and I refuse to let happen.” Maybe that’s for the best. The Hulk wants to be a movie star, and he doesn’t take disappointment lightly. —Additional reporting by Sean Smith and Nicole Sperling
THE FULL TEXT OF EDWARD NORTON’S E-MAILED STATEMENT
“Like so many people I’ve loved the story of The Hulk since I was a kid, so it was thrilling when Marvel asked me to write and help produce an altogether new screen incarnation, as well as play Bruce Banner. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and always loved the mythic dimension and contemporary themes in the stories, and I’m proud of the script I wrote. In every phase of production, including the editing, working with Louis Leterrier has been wonderful…I’ve never had a better partner, and the collaboration with all the rest of the creative team has been terrific. Every good movie gets forged through collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed and respect the validity of each other’s opinions is the heart of filmmaking. Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a ‘dispute,’ seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal and I refuse to let happen. It has always been my firm conviction that films should speak for themselves and that knowing too much about how they are made diminishes the magic of watching them. All of us believe The Incredible Hulk will excite old fans and create new ones and be a huge hit…our focus has always been to deliver the Hulk that people have been waiting for and keep the worldwide love affair with the big green guy going strong.”
