Rodger Freidman of Fox News reported yesterday that “The Incredible Hulk” star Edward Norton is not doing any press for the film and has eschewed premiere appearances because he’s pissed that Zak Penn (“X-Men 3”) received the only writing credit on the film, despite the fact that the lead actor did quite the polish on his script adding characterization, depth and removed more blow-’em up fare (or at least we can assume he did).
And yeah, we were gonna post this yesterday, but hello, Norton was at the premiere in L.A. on Monday (there’s even pictures). Fox says, Norton has “slipped off to a desert island rather than do publicity for the movie he stars in and nominally wrote,” but Norton has also appeared on an AOL Unscripted with Liv Tyler and ‘Hulk’ director Louis Leterrier (Norton has appeared at at least one other event as well, plus he was on Jimmy Kimmel as well, albiet in a pretty jokey, non-traditional interview kind of way).
But OK, to be fair, Friedman’s right. When “Iron Man,” came out, Robert Downey Jr. was ubiquitous, on the cover of GQ and had major interviews in The New York Times, MTV, Entertainment Weekly, etc. etc. and on the verge of overkill (Maybe Marvel was a little nervous with their first film and RDJ was into selling the “rehabilitation of RDJ” story that everyone ran with).
So far we haven’t seen a major Edward Norton/Hulk cover story, which to Fox’s point is pretty shocking considering all the money Marvel has put into this thing, but maybe that whole screenwriting credit, plus the dispute over editing the film with Marvel heads (which Fox fails to note), really put off Norton despite his claim that the kerfuffle between studio and he was overblown.
Fox is also saying Ed Norton is not signed on for two sequels, but that Tyler and Leterrier are and everyone seems to be talking sequel already.
Oh, Ed, calm down, despite all the odds and CGI, the ‘Hulk’ was pretty damn good! And plus, there’s still a DVD coming with 70 extra minutes of your precious ’emotionality’ and apparently an appearance from Captain America (despite the fact that he hasn’t been cast yet). Come on, don’t spoil it all for the geeks, they’re going to freak if come “The Avengers” movie, you’re not in it (and let’s face it, the end of ‘Hulk’ is one big tease to this super-hero all-star film.
PS, Letterier is a huge fucking tease, he claimed Captain America was in the film, but we saw it and there was no Cap to be found (that is unless they’re doing that whole secret ending for real paying pleeb audiences only). Oh and rumors say Leo Dicaprio is being sought for the role of the Cap’n super solider, but that doesn’t seem up his alley frankly. Brad Pitt’s name has come up too.