| March
11, 2008
Disagreement on Incredible Hulk Movie Cut?
Over at www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com, they have this news about
a possible disagreement between Ed Norton and Marvel on the Incredible
Hulk movie cut:
The Incredible Hulk trailer is on its way. It debuts Wednesday
night at 9:56 pm on all the MTV channels and Spike TV and VH1. It
gets shown Thursday at ShoWest. And it plays this weekend in front
of Universal pics in the theaters. (But it's also being teased on
YouTube now.) I'm told the pic's producer-screenwriter-star Edward
Norton helped get the trailer ready last week and loves it.
But does he also love the movie? Not yet.
"I'm told that's because Norton and Marvel are clashing over
how to cut the pic. 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.
Some insiders blame Marvel for not accepting Norton's POV about
the movie. "There's a problem. Marvel won't listen to Norton
about the cut," one source claims. Some blame Norton, known
to be prickly. (Remember his problems with Paramount over The Italian
Job and with director Tony Kaye over American History X?) "Never
let an actor write a script," one insider commented. "Marvel
made a mistake letting the wolf into the hen house."
But I say that, after Ang Lee's troubled The Hulk left audiences
cold, The Incredible Hulk needs Edward Norton's warm support if
the pic's gonna have any street cred. Some fear things blowing up
to the point where Norton might not publicize the movie. And Marvel
is petrified that the new Hulk may be judged "prematurely and
unfairly." (Or that bloggers will start claiming the Hulk franchise
is cursed.)
Right now, Marvel is said to be about 4 to 5 weeks away from locking
the movie for its June 13th release by Universal whose top execs
haven't yet seen it ("though some marketing guys have been
working off a rough cut that's in pretty good shape," I'm told).
"At this stage you always have discussions about what's in
the film and what's not going to be in the film. Everyone's very
passionate, and Edward is very opinionated." Said another source,
"There is a very healthy exchange of ideas going on. Discussions
now are even more heated. But some of Ed's best movies have had
this exact dynamic to them. Everyone's in the process of figuring
it out and working it out. But I expect it'll all get resolved pretty
quickly."
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