Hulk (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hulk | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Ang Lee |
| Produced by | Avi Arad Larry J. Franco Gale Anne Hurd Stan Lee James Schamus Kevin Feige |
| Written by | Screenplay: James Schamus (Story/Script) Michael France (Script) John Turman (Script) Hulk Created by: Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
| Starring | Eric Bana Jennifer Connelly Sam Elliott Nick Nolte Josh Lucas |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | Frederick Elmes |
| Editing by | Tim Squyres |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 20, 2003 |
| Running time | 138 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $137 million |
| Gross revenue | $245.4 million |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Hulk is a 2003 superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character of the same name. Ang Lee directed the film, which stars Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner / the Hulk, as well as Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross, Sam Elliott as General Thaddeus Ross, Nick Nolte as Brian Banner and Josh Lucas as Glenn Talbot. The film explores the origins of the Hulk, which is mainly attributed to Banner's father's experiments on himself, and passing these genes on to his son.
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[edit] Plot
David Banner is a genetics researcher who experiments on himself, trying to improve human DNA. Once his wife gives birth to their son Bruce, David realizes attempts to find a cure for the child's condition when the government, represented by Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, shuts down his research after learning of his dangerous experiment. David, in a fit of rage, causes a massive explosion of the facilities' gamma reactor, and accidentally kills his wife. He is then put into a mental hospital, while 4-year old Bruce is sent into foster care and adopted, taking on the last name of Krenzler, believing his biological parents are deceased. The events leave Bruce unable to conjure the memories into reality.
30 years later, Bruce Banner is a brilliant researcher freshly graduated at the University of California, Berkeley. The military-industrial complex, represented by the unscrupulous Major Talbot, becomes interested in the research to build regenerating soldiers. David Banner reappears and begins infiltrating his son's life, working as a janitor in the lab building. "Thunderbolt" Ross, now an army General, also begins to investigate. Ross, the estranged father of Bruce's ex-girlfriend and co-researcher Betty Ross, becomes concerned both for his daughter's safety around Banner, but also because Bruce is working in the same field as the father he does not remember.
Bruce succumbs to a scientific experiment accident. Afterwards, we see Bruce sitting in a hospital bed telling Betty that he's never felt better, which she can't fathom due to the fact that the nanomeds have killed everything else they've touched. The radiation has intertwined with Bruce's already-altered DNA. That night, his father confronts him, revealing their relationship and hinting at the mutation in his son. Using Bruce's DNA, he begins experimentation on animals. Soon after, the building rage within him stemming from all of the stresses building up around him (his father, Betty, Talbot and the accident) activates his gamma-radiated DNA, triggering Bruce's signature transformation into the Hulk.
After the destruction at the lab, Banner is found unconscious and at home by Betty. Bruce barely remembers his transformation, a sensation similar to birth. Ross arrives, suspicious, and places him under house arrest as well as taking over Bruce and Betty's lab. That night, David phones Bruce and tells him he has unleashed three mutant dogs to Betty's house. Enraged and attacked by Talbot Bruce transforms again and, after seriously injuring Talbot and his henchmen, manages to save Betty. The next morning, Bruce is tranquilized and taken to an enormous underground base in the desert. Betty convinces her father to allow her to attempt to help Bruce control his transformations, but Ross remains extremely skeptical, believing Bruce is "damned" to follow in his father's footsteps. In the meantime, David Banner breaks into the lab and subjects himself to the nanomeds and the gammasphere, gaining the ability to meld with and absorb the properties of anything he can touch.
Talbot, seeing an opportunity to profit from the Hulk's strength and regenerative capability, attacks and taunts Bruce, but fails. Talbot puts him in a sensory deprivation tank and induces a nightmare that triggers his repressed memories, eventually leading to the death of Talbot. David Banner confronts Betty and offers to turn himself in. In exchange, he asks to speak to Bruce "one last time." Bruce escapes the base in the process. He battles the army in the desert, defeating four tanks and two Comanche Helicopters, and leaps all the way to San Francisco to find Betty again. Betty contacts her father and convinces him to take her to meet the Hulk, believing that he needs "a chance to calm down." Bruce's love for her comes through, and he transforms back into his human state. David is allowed to visit the base and talk to Bruce. David, having descended into megalomania, fails to convince Bruce to help destroy the military. David transforms into a powerful electrical being after biting into a wire and absorbing the energy. This leads into a long fight between Bruce (in Hulk form) and David. Both are presumed dead after Ross orders a Gamma Charge Bomb, leaving no trace of either men. A year later there have still been numerous sightings of the Hulk. Bruce finds exile in the Amazon Rainforest as a doctor in a medical camp.
[edit] Cast
- Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner / Hulk: Banner is a brilliant, but withdrawn Berkley-educated scientist, rarely expressing emotion even in extreme cases. He is constantly haunted by repressed memories of his tragic upbringings through nightmares. He was adopted at a young age following the accidental death of his mother and incarceration of his father (he was told that both of his real parents are dead) and was renamed as Bruce Krensler. Due to a scientific-related accident in which he intakes gamma radiation and activated nanomeds, Bruce transforms into the Hulk when rage and stress build in his mind. Mike Erwin portrays Bruce as a teenager.
- Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross: Bruce's ex-girlfriend and co-researcher. Betty is possibly the only way for the Hulk to lead back into his transformation of Bruce. Rhiannon Leigh Wryn portrays Betty Ross as Child. Betty also has an estranged relationship with her father "Thunderbolt" Ross.
- Sam Elliott as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross: A four star general who was responsible of prohibiting David Banner from his lab work after learning of his dangerous experiments (while he was in the process of finding a cure for Bruce's mutated genes) and subsequently sends him away after causing a gamma reactor explosion in retaliation. An estranged father of Betty, he watches over her upon realizing that his daugther is working along side Banner, who is working in the same field as his father and become very untrusting of him.
- Nick Nolte as David Banner: The mentally unstabled biological father of Bruce Banner who was also a genetics research scientist and had been locked away for 20 years for causing an explosion in the gamma reactor and accidentally killing his wife Edith. He had experimented on himself to created a formula for improving Human DNA. However his genes are mutated in the process and were passed on to Bruce. Before he can work on a cure for Bruce, General Ross, who found out about his years of self-experimentation, cited that it was "dangerous and stupid", has David shut down. Upon release, he works as a janitor near Banner's lab where he not only provokes Bruce's transformation but also plans to harnest the Hulk's powers for himself. Paul Kersey portrays Young David Banner.
- Josh Lucas as Major Glenn Talbot: A ruthless former soldier who offers Banner and Betty Ross an oportunity to work for him in an attempt to start an experiment on self-healing soldiers.
- Cara Buono as Edith Banner: Bruce's biological mother of whom he cannot remember. She is heard and barley appears in most of Bruce's nightmares.
- Celia Weston as Mrs. Krensler: Bruce's adoptive mother who cared for him after the death of Edith and Daivd's incarceration.
Hulk co-creator Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno cameo as security guards. Johnny Kastl has a small role as a Soldier. Daniel Dae Kim has a small role as a Government Aide.
It was widely reported Billy Crudup turned down the role. Johnny Depp and Steve Buscemi were reported to be in under consideration for the lead. Bana is a fan of television series.[1] Edward Norton, who went on to play the part in The Incredible Hulk, expressed interest in the role.[2]
[edit] Development
[edit] Jonathan Hensleigh
In December 1992 Marvel Studios was in discussions with Universal Studios for a Hulk film adaptation.[3] Michael France and Stan Lee were invited into Universal's offices in 1994, with France writing the script. Universal's concept was to have the Hulk battle terrorists, an idea France disliked. By late 1996 Gale Anne Hurd and husband Jonathan Hensleigh signed on as producers. Industrial Light & Magic was hired to use computer-generated imagery to create the Hulk. For the second time, France was invited to write the script.[1] By April 1997 Joe Johnston was directing with the film's title as The Incredible Hulk.[4] Universal wanted Hensleigh to write the script since he worked with Johnston on the financially successful Jumanji. France was fired before he wrote a single page, but received money from Universal. However, France still wanted to write the script.[1]
Johnston dropped out of directing in July 1997 in favor of October Sky, paving the way for Hensleigh to have his directing debut. John Turman was brought on to write two more drafts, the second of which was rewritten by Zak Penn.[5][1] Turman's script featured the Leader and Rick Jones, as well as the canonical atomic explosion origin from the comics. Penn's script featured a fight scene with the Hulk and a school of sharks.[6] Hensleigh himself started from scratch, coming up with a brand new storyline.[1] In August 1997 Hensleigh completed his script, featuring Bruce Banner, who prior to the accident which will turn him into The Hulk, performs experiments with three gamma-irradiated insect DNA on convicts. This transforms the convicts into "insect men" that cause havoc.[7][1]
Filming was set to start in December 1997 in Arizona for a mid-1999 release date, but was pushed back to April 1998.[8][7] Hensleigh subsequently rewrote the script with J.J. Abrams. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski were also brought on board to rewrite with Hensleigh still attached as director.[1] In October 1997, Hulk had entered pre-production with the creation of prosthetic makeup and computer animation already under way. Gregory Sporleder was cast as "Novak", Banner's archenemy. Lynn "Red" Williams was cast as a convict who transforms into a combination of human, ant and beetle.[8] In March 1998 Universal put Hulk on hiatus due to its escalating $100 million budget and worries of Hensleigh directing his first film. $20 million was already spent on script development, computer animation and prosthetics work. Hensleigh immediately went to rewrite the script in order to lower the budget.[9]
[edit] Michael France
Hensleigh found the rewriting process to be too difficult and dropped out. It took eight months for France to convince Universal and the producers to let him try to write a script for a third time. France claimed "Someone within the Universal hierarchy wasn't sure it this was a science fiction adventure, or a comedy, and I kept getting directions to write both. I think that at some point when I wasn't in the room, there may have been discussions about turning it into a Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler movie."[1] France was writing the script on fast track from July—September 1999. Filming for The Incredible Hulk was to start in April 2000.[10][11]
France stated his vision of the film was different from the other drafts, which based Bruce Banner on his "amiable, nerdy genius" incarnation in the 1960s. France cited inspiration from the 1980s Hulk stories which introduced Brian Banner, Bruce's abusive father who killed his mother. His script had Banner trying to create cells with regenerative capabilities in order to prove to himself that he is not like his father. However, he has anger management issues before the Hulk is even created, which makes everything worse. The "Don't make me angry..." line from the TV series was made into dialogue that Banner's father would say before beating his son. Elements such as the "Gammasphere", Banner's tragic romance with Ross, and the black ops made it to the final film. France turned in his final drafts in late 2000 and January 2001, to positive response from the producers.[1]
[edit] Ang Lee
Michael Tolkin and David Hayter rewrote the script afterwards. Hayter's draft featured The Leader, Zzzax and the Absorbing Man as the villains, who are depicted as colleagues of Banner and get caught in the same accident that creates the Hulk.[12] Director Ang Lee and his producing partner James Schamus became involved with the film in January 2001.[13] Schamus rewrote the script, merging Banner's father with the Absorbing Man to create a physical antagonist.[1]
Bana was cast in October 2001. The role was heavily pursued by other actors. Signed for two sequels. Schamus was still rewriting the script in October 2001. During the casting of Bruce Banner, Bana was also in heavy contention for Ghost Rider, but lost out to Nicolas Cage.[14] In early 2002, as filming was underway, Michael France read all the scripts for the Writers Guild of America, to determine who would get final credit. France criticized Schamus and Hayter for claiming they were aiming to make Banner a deeper character, and was saddened they had denigrated his work in interviews. He, Turman and Schamus received final credit.[1] Lee claimed he cited influences from King Kong, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Beauty and the Beast, Faust and Greek mythology for his interpretation of the story.[15] Schamus said he had found Peter David's storyline that introduced Brian Banner, thus allowing Lee to write a drama that again explored father-son themes.[16]
Filming began on March 18, 2002 in Arizona.[17] Several weeks later, it moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, shooting at Lawrence Berkeley labs, the Treasure Island military base and the sequoia forests of Porterville, before several weeks in the Utah and Californian deserts. Filming then moved to the Universal backlot in Los Angeles, using Stage 12 for the water tank scene,[18] before finishing in August.[17] Eric Bana commented that the shoot was, "Ridiculously serious... a silent set, morbid in a lot of ways." Lee told him that he was shooting a Greek tragedy: he would be making a "whole other movie" about the Hulk at Industrial Light and Magic. Lee took many takes of each scene, and one example of his art house approach to the film was taking Bana to watch a bare-knuckle boxing match.[16]
[edit] Reception
Hulk was released on June 20, 2003, earning $62 million in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $132.2 in North America, and $113.2 in foreign countries, coming to a worldwide total of $245.36 million. Hulk failed to recoup its $137 million budget.[19] Still, the hype was substantial and it drew a $24.3 million opening day and a $62.1 million opening weekend, which made it the 16th highest ever opener at the time. However, poor word of mouth spread, and it never recovered. With a second weekend drop of 69.7%, it was the first opener above $20 million to drop over 65%.[20] With a final North American gross of $132.2 million it became the largest opener to fail to earn $150 million.[21]
The film received mixed (but mostly positive) reviews. Rotten Tomatoes calculated 61% of critics gave positive reviews,[22] although only 53% of reviews from selected notable reviewers were positive.[23] By comparison Metacritic collected an average score of 54 based on 41 reviews.[24] Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review, explaining, "Ang Lee is trying to actually deal with the issues in the story of the Hulk, instead of simply cutting to brainless visual effects." Ebert also liked how the Hulk's movements resembled King Kong.[25] Although Peter Travers of Rolling Stone felt Hulk should have been shorter, he heavily praised the action sequences, especially the climax and cliffhanger.[26] Paul Clinton of CNN believed the cast gave strong performances, but in an otherwise positive review, heavily criticized the computer-generated imagery, calling the Hulk "a ticked-off version of Shrek".[27]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle considered "the film is more thoughtful and pleasing to the eye than any blockbuster in recent memory, but its epic length comes without an epic reward."[28] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe felt "Jennifer Connelly reprises her stand-by-your-messed-up-scientist turn from A Beautiful Mind."[29] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly stated, "a big-budget comic-book adaptation has rarely felt so humorless and intellectually defensive about its own pulpy roots."[30] Connelly and Danny Elfman received nominations at the 30th Saturn Awards with Best Actress and Best Music. The film was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film but lost out to X2. Dennis Muren, Michael Lantieri and the special effects crew were nominated for Best Special Effects.[31]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k David Hughes (2003). Comic Book Movies. London: Virgin Books, 261-269. ISBN 0-7535-0767-6.
- ^ Edward Douglas. "Zak Penn on Norton as Hulk!", Superhero Hype!, 2007-04-16. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ "Marvel Characters holding attraction for filmmakers", Variety, 1992-12-12. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ Michael Fleming. "A Mania For Marvel", Variety, 1997-04-14. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ Michael Fleming. "Hoop duo go hip-hop", Variety, 1997-07-08. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ Harry Knowles. "Make John Turman or Zack Penn's Hulk Drafts, not Hensleigh's!!!!!!", Ain't It Cool News, 1997-11-10. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
- ^ a b "U bulks up Hulk", Variety, 1997-08-11. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ a b Paul Karon. "U adds duo to Hulk cast", Variety, 1997-10-31. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Chris Petrikin. "U has Hulk take a seat", Variety, 1998-03-02. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Michael Fleming. "Marvel takes cue from its superheroes", Variety, 1999-07-13. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ Michael Fleming. "Stewart goes boldly; renewed U fills its slate", Variety, 1999-09-02. Retrieved on 2008-06-01.
- ^ Dayna Van Buskirk. "Feature Article: The Lost Hulk: David Hayter's Draft", UGO Networks. Retrieved on 2007-04-22.
- ^ Cathy Dunkley. "From Tiger to U's Hulk for helmer", Variety, 2001-01-12. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Michael Fleming. "Aussie has bulk for Hulk", Variety, 2001-10-14. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Scott B. "An Interview with Ang Lee", IGN, 2003-06-17. Retrieved on 2007-04-16.
- ^ a b Adam Smith. "The Beast Within", Empire, 2003-05-30, pp. 66-77.
- ^ a b Greg Dean Schmitz. Greg's Preview - The Hulk. Yahoo!. Retrieved on 2007-04-16.
- ^ David E.Williams. "Temper, Temper,", July 2003. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
- ^ Hulk (2003). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Biggest Second Weekend Drops at the Box Office. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
- ^ Biggest Opening Weekends at the Box Office. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
- ^ Hulk (2003). Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Hulk (2003): Top Critics. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Hulk, The (2003): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ Roger Ebert. "Hulk", Chicago Sun-Times, 2003-06-20. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
- ^ Peter Travers. "Hulk", Rolling Stone, 2003-06-20. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
- ^ Paul Clinton. "Hulk not quite all there", CNN, 2003-06-20. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
- ^ Mick LaSalle. "Hulk is a smash-'em-up blockbuster", San Francisco Chronicle, 2003-10-31. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
- ^ Ty Burr. "This not-so-incredible Hulk takes simple joys to serious extremes", The Boston Globe, 2003-06-29. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
- ^ Lisa Schwarzbaum. "The Hulk (2003)", Entertainment Weekly, 2003-06-20. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ 2004 Saturn Awards. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-06-03.
[edit] External links
- Hulk at the Internet Movie Database
- Hulk at Rotten Tomatoes
- Hulk at Box Office Mojo
- IGN news archives
- Comics2Film news archives
| Preceded by Finding Nemo |
List of 2003 Box Office #1 Movies 2003-06-22 |
Succeeded by Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle |
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