Hulk (2003)

Director: Ang Lee
Writers: Michael France, David Hayter, James Schamus
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: June 20, 2003 (USA)

Cast
- Eric Bana
- Jennifer Connelly
- Sam Elliott
- Nick Nolte
- Josh Lucas
- Brooke Langton
- Sasha Barrese
- Cara Buono
- Mike Erwin
- Lou Ferrigno (cameo)
- Lyndon Karp
- Paul Kersey
- David Kronenberg and Michael Kronenberg
- Stan Lee (cameo)
- Kevin Rankin
- Geoffrey Scott
- Todd Tesen
- Celia Weston
- Rhiannon Leigh Wryn

Synopsis
I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what I’m becoming. But I know one thing for sure – you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.
- Bruce Banner, scientist
What if you always had someone around to look out for you?

To defend you when challenged by a bully, threatened by an enraged driver, assaulted by a knife-wielding mugger? That at those moments of stress and escalating violence, someone appears — an ever-present avenger, fueled by righteous anger and possessing unequalled strength — and vanquishes the antagonist, rights the wrong, settles the score. Without remorse. Without consequence. Without memory.

And what if that someone … was you?

After more than four decades of continuing popularity, one of Marvel Comics’ most enduring and compelling comic book creations comes to the big screen, continuing Marvel’s superlative track record of bringing its classic characters to motion picture life: Blade, X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil. And now, this summer, The Hulk arrives.

Scientist Bruce Banner (ERIC BANA) has, to put it mildly, anger management issues. His quiet life as a brilliant researcher working with cutting edge genetic technology conceals a nearly forgotten and painful past. His ex-girlfriend and equally brilliant fellow researcher, Betty Ross (Academy Award?winner JENNIFER CONNELLY), has tired of Bruce’s cordoned off emotional terrain and resigns herself to remaining an interested onlooker to his quiet life.

Which is exactly where Betty finds herself during one of the early trials in Banner’s groundbreaking research. A simple oversight leads to an explosive situation and Bruce makes a split-second decision; his heroic impulse saves a life and leaves him apparently unscathed — his body absorbing a normally deadly dose of gamma radiation.
…And yet, something is happening. Vague morning-after effects. Blackouts. Unexpected fallout from the experiment gone awry. Banner begins to feel some kind of a presence within, a stranger who feels familiar, slightly dangerous and yet darkly attractive.

All the while, a massive creature — a rampaging, impossibly strong being who comes to be known as the Hulk — continues its sporadic appearances, cutting a swath of destruction, leaving Banner’s lab in shambles and his house with blown out walls. The military is engaged, led by Betty’s father, General “Thunderbolt” Ross (SAM ELLIOTT), along with rival researcher Glenn Talbot (JOSH LUCAS), and both personal vendettas and familial ties come into play, heightening the danger and raising the stakes in the escalating emergency.

Betty Ross has her theories, and she knows the shadowy figure lurking in the background, Bruce’s father, David (NICK NOLTE), is somehow connected. She may be the only one who understands the link between scientist and the Hulk, but her efforts to stop the military threat, deploying every weapon in its attempt to capture the monster, may be too late to save both man and creature.

Acclaimed Oscar-winning filmmaker ANG LEE (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) turns his masterful eye to adapting the classic Marvel Comics character for the big screen. Setting out to faithfully transfer the Hulk comic book character from four-color paneled page to motion picture screen, Lee combines all the elements of a blockbuster visual effects-intensive Super Hero movie with the brooding romance and tragedy of Universal’s classic horror films. Staying true to the early subversive spirit of the Hulk as envisioned by its creators (Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) while also tuning the tale to current dangerous times, Lee presents a portrait of a man at war with himself and the world, both a Super Hero and a monster, a means of wish fulfillment and a nightmare.

Committed to bringing the Hulk to authentic life, director Lee and his effects teams logged countless hours to assure a creature true to the essence of Kirby’s powerful seminal artwork and Lee’s mythic stories. Designers and artists returned to the original Hulk character conceptions to honor the Marvel traditions and place the creature in a motion picture world — grounded in reality, dictated by time-honored practice and colored by comic book convention.

Alternate Titles
- Hulk Argentina / Brazil / Canada (French title) / Croatia / France / Germany / Greece / Italy / Peru / Portugal / Spain / Turkey (Turkish title)
- Халк Russia
- Big Green USA (fake working title)
- Hulken Sweden
- The Hulk USA (working title)

Trivia
- When the project was in the works in the mid-1990s Johnny Depp was orignally the top choice to play Bruce Banner. Later on, Billy Crudup was Ang Lee’s first choice to play Banner, but the actor declined the offer. Then Tom Cruise was offered the role of Bruce Banner, and then Steve Buscemi, David Duchovny and Jeff Goldblum were tested for the role before finally Eric Bana was cast.
- Eric Bana commented that the mood during shooting was “ridiculously serious and morbid.” Ang Lee explained to him that he was shooting a sort of superhero tragedy and he would be making a whole other movie about the Hulk at the Industrial Light and Magic studios. Ironically, the film was criticised as being an overly serious superhero film.
- Ang Lee took Eric Bana to watch a bare-knuckled boxing match to prepare him for the brutality of his role.
- Eric Bana was cast on the strength of his vicious performance in Chopper (2000).
- Ang Lee employed the split-screen technique to cinematically mimic the panels of a comic-book page. This required many takes of one scene, which was draining for Eric Bana: it took him four takes to film Banner’s first Hulk-out, and by the time of its completion he was on the verge of collapse.
- Costume designer Marit Allen had to come up with unflattering, nerdy clothes for Bruce Banner to disguise the fact that Eric Bana was actually in perfect shape.
- Eric Bana was not a fan of the Hulk comics, which this film is based on, but he was a big fan of “The Incredible Hulk” (1978), which the sequel was based on.