Wizard Magazine interviewed Louis Letterrier again, who goes into more detail about the new Hulk film.
Will we see any of the Hulk’s origin retold here?
LETERRIER: No, but you’ll understand through memories and flashbacks.
What’s the story of this film?
LETERRIER: It’s the story of a more weathered and savvy Bruce Banner [and]
his drive is to find a cure. [And] it’s a manhunt. General Ross is the villain,
but the Abomination—Emil Blonsky—was who Marvel wanted to put in this chapter of
our new saga because he’s an enemy that can actually threaten the Hulk. I didn’t
feel in Ang Lee’s “Hulk,” for example, that there was any threat. He was
invincible. So with Abomination there’s a monster that can actually kill him
when he’s in the Hulk form.
How are you handling the Abomination’s origin?
LETERRIER: Emil Blonsky, when he first came about, was very much a Cold
War-painted Russian spy. We couldn’t do this. We created a plot having Emil
Blonsky as a soldier realizing that he was at the end of his career, physically,
and meeting the Hulk and seeing the power that Bruce Banner had and deciding to
ask if he could go one-on-one against him because he had nowhere to go. That’s
why we decided to cast Tim Roth, because he’s got that vicious, smart way about
him.
Does Emil subject himself to gamma exposure, or is Emil a guinea pig?
LETERRIER: He subjects himself. It’s gamma-based. It’s very important that
both monsters are the same thing. Both men are opposite sides of the same coin.
Bruce Banner doesn’t like this power within, and the other man, Emil Blonsky,
wants this power but cannot get it and eventually will meet somebody that can
give it to him.
Like I said on a previous post that the most appealing thing of this story, that it’s not just supervillians that have vendettas against The Green Goliath, everyone is after him.
Will the Abomination have those crazy ears like in the comic?
LETERRIER: Yeah, we are keeping the ears. We’re making them a little
different [though]. Actually, when I was hired, I came to Marvel with my own
take, a more modern take, on the monster. There was something reptilian about
the original Abomination that didn’t make sense. There was no reptile mix in his
origin, so I just changed it and made it like the “über-human.” It’s a human
that was injected in the wrong places with something, and these places are
growing differently. It still has the general shape of the Abomination, but
there’s something realistic that I wanted to put in it.
Can we be secure, though, that he is still disgustingly ugly?
LETERRIER: [Laughs] Oh, yeah. Actually, this morning we were doing visual
effects, [and] we were like, “Ooh, a little bit too ugly, actually.” We are
taking it back.
Will the character of Samuel Sterns be appearing as the Leader, or will he be
set up for a possible sequel?
LETERRIER: He’s being set up. He’s the Wizard of Oz of our whole story.
Is he creating Abomination?
LETERRIER: Uh, possibly…the Abomination is a creation of many things gone
wrong at the same time.
But Sterns doesn’t get exposed to gamma rays in this movie?
LETERRIER: No, we set him up for the sequel. But it’s like [Doc] Samson, same
thing. We set him up for the sequel. I didn’t want to put too many villains [in
the film]. But I wanted Bruce Banner to cross their path to introduce them for
future episodes.
In terms of the look and shape of the Hulk, how would you compare the CGI
from the 2003 film to yours?
LETERRIER: In the first one, they did a great job [but] there was no weight
to him. He was flying around and it was very poetic, but our movie is grittier.
When I offered my services to do the job, I said I want everything to be gritty,
darker, even a little scarier. Frankenstein, King Kong…these monsters are pretty
scary. They’re not smooth-looking, fluorescent-green-looking characters. They’re
pretty dark and, still, within, there’s a tenderness and a humanity that you can
see through them.
Ang Lee said that about his film being a Universal Monster movie and that’s not how it was played out, I saw an over-dramatized version of The Hulk.
Having seen Unleashed, I’m confident in Letterier that he can explore the physiology of Banner’s inner demons properly.
In the first one, the Hulk was sort of an extrapolation of Eric Bana’s face.
Is it the same here with Edward Norton?
LETERRIER: We actually didn’t start [from] Edward’s face because we started
the Hulk’s design before we got Edward. So once we were comfortable with the
overall design, then we added some of Edward’s features in it. Like, for
example, in our movie, he has a scar on the cheek and his jaw, and he has a
little mole on the right side of his mouth. We added that on. Very subtle
things. And his haircut, obviously.
What was your first exposure to the Hulk?
LETERRIER: Well, we had those comic books, but my real first exposure was the
TV show. That’s why it’s so close to my heart. It’s very…human. It’s really
about the character, the Bill Bixby/David Banner character.
Any favorite episode?
LETERRIER: When he’s a bouncer at a disco. It’s really funny. [Laughs]
Here’s the highlight of the article, that made me smile from ear to f**kin ear.
Is there any way you can get that sad “walking away” music from the end of
each episode into the film?
LETERRIER: Actually, yeah. We got the rights so that’ll be in the movie. The
composer is Joe Harnell. “Dah dah dah…” Let me play it for you. Hold on, I’ve
got it. Listen. [Plays sad Hulk music] That’s the one! [Laughs]
“YES! YES!” – Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
I hope it’s in a scene where Banner checks in at a hotel, as he walks past a room of seniors, one plays the song on a piano in a little moment.
So I take it that Lou Ferrigno has a cameo?
LETERRIER: Yeah. It’s a fun cameo. It’s a little bit meatier than what he had
in the first one [as a security guard]. He’s just the nicest guy and he was so
excited to come on board. It was funny to see Edward Norton and Lou Ferrigno act
together. It’s two different techniques: Edward is very thought out—and Lou, it
was just, like…him. I loved it.
Is Stan Lee making a cameo?
LETERRIER: Yeah, but Stan Lee is the busiest man alive. He didn’t make the
cameo yet but we haven’t finished shooting. I spoke to him the other day and
whenever we do [another] shoot, he’ll do a cameo there.
Are there any special Hulk comics that were a particular inspiration for
you?
LETERRIER: Hulk: Gray, the Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale one, was a big inspiration
for me. It’s so graphic and so perfect in its composition. That’s what got me
back into the mood of the Hulk. When my agent called me and said, “Do you want
to remake the Hulk?” I went to a comic book store and I picked up Hulk: Gray.
That’s what made me hungry to do another Hulk movie. So there will be Hulk: Gray
references, but also there will be Bruce Jones, Peter David [references]…It’s
chock-full of references.
Awsome interiew.
On his website, Michael Bay gives an update for subscribers on the Transformers sequel.
Last night I finished reading #25 of Green Lantern, the finale of The Sinestro Corps story arc, and was a thrilling conculsion to this big event in comics? HELL YES!
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