The Hulk Muscles into Theaters: Director Ang Lee talks about his ‘Green Destiny’
June 20, 2003
Move over Spiderman and make room for The Hulk. Another Marvel comic book hero is ready to leap off the pages and jump into theaters. Scientist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) transforms into the giant green man to fight injustice and to rescue his love — scientist Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly).
The motion picture opens nationwide Friday and film director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is now going full steam to make it a success. He’s just returned from Mexico, and he’s on a one-month tour to Paris, London, Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka to promote the picture which was filmed in San Francisco.
Lee credits his Crouching Tiger collaborator, screenwriter and producer James Schamus, for bringing the idea to him.
“When James told me [the Hulk] was my alter ego, that was it,” Lee grinned. “I found my new green destiny, my new hidden dragon, my new crouching tiger, only bigger. I began to dig into comic books right away. And I found it a very rich source for melodrama.”
The new motion picture isn’t a dusted-off version of the old television series, which starred the late Bill Bixby as Bruce Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk. When the series was made, a “bodybuilder was the perfect solution” for the green man, Lee said. “But my Hulk has to be more than an embodiment of human strength.”
Some people feel there is a dark side to Lee’s version of the Hulk. Filled with massive strength, he is struggling with his emotions as he chooses between good and evil, anger and peace.
Lee said, “I always thought that it was a good thing to use rage as a catalyst, but not as our goal. It’s the unleashing of true emotion, which is more dramatic and more interesting to the audience.
“The Hulk has to be menacing. He has to be huge and he has to be green. In the meantime, we have to like him. I think it’s important that he’s adorable. So when men and boys see him, they’ll growl. And when the women see him, they want to feed him chicken soup. This is a story of unrequited love. The two love each other. We want them to have a happy ending . . . But it’s a sad one.”
The real challenge is whether audiences will buy his Hulk. The green Goliath is actually a computer animation put together at ILM studios and his movements were choreographed by Lee himself. Lee moved to Northern California to personally direct the computer animators and donned electronic gear to act out the Hulk’s movements and expressions.
“He knew exactly what he wanted,” ILM senior visual effects supervisor Dennis Ruben said. “He would do a performance, step back and look at the TV monitor and the playback. We were all actually thinking, ‘Is he really going to be the Hulk?’”
Lee’s new role in animation was a change from his director’s perspective. “My stay at ILM was a big learning experience. I’m a dramatic kind of person. I was never trained visually. I decide how I will shoot a scene after I block it out and work it out with the actors. For a lot of the scenes in the movie — I had to pre-visualize it, put it on storyboard form, and in the animation. It was almost like working backwards.”
Lee was approached to make The Hulk as he wrapped up production on Crouching Tiger. Crouching Tiger’s success — winning four Academy Awards including Best Foreign Picture — and Lee’s creativity excited The Hulk’s cast.
“I knew that Ang’s approach was going to be unpredictable,” Bana said. “One of the key attractions for me was Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk reluctantly. I was able to play with the idea that it wasn’t ever a conscious decision. That’s what I really liked about the character. He’s not jumping into a phone booth. He’s not going down to the Bat Cave. He’s not putting a special suit on. He’s turning into this out of control large green monster with very little control over himself.”
Jennifer Connelly, who plays a scientist and the daughter of a general who takes on the Hulk, is fascinated with Lee’s concept for the movie.
“Ang expressed to me that he wanted to make this sort of a psychological drama and explore the relations between the families — between Bruce and his father and Betty Ross and her father,” she said. “It’s really interesting [to see] these juxtapositions of these really human … characters struggling to work out their relationships with one another and this comic book element of this guy that goes green. It’s fantastical and larger than life.”
Two-time Academy Award nominee Nick Nolte, who plays David Banner — Bruce’s father and a later adversary — didn’t hesitate when he was asked to be in the movie.
“Ang Lee came to my house and he said, ‘I don’t know how to make a comic book, but I know how to make a great tragedy,’” Nolte said. “He had me hooked right there, because that involves big emotions, but it’s based in reality on the human experience.”
Also in Features
Comments
Got something to say?