A couple of weeks ago reports and rumors started circulating that Edward Norton and Marvel Studios were entrenched in a bitter battle over the final cut of the movie. The whispers were that the fight was so venomous that Norton claimed unless he “got his way”, he would totally walk from the Hulk project and disavow anything related to the movie.
Shortly after those rumors surfaced, I got an email from “someone” telling me that the rumors were totally off base. They said there had been some creative disagreements, but that the two sides were very happy working with each other and that Norton had made no such threats.
I’ve been burned by emails from such sources before, so I just decided not to post about the alleged feud, nor post about the woman claiming there was nothing to the rumor. Some people frantically (understandably so) asked me in the comment sections why I wasn’t posting about the fight… to which I just replied “I heard it wasn’t true, so I’m just waiting to see”.
Well, a statement put out by Edward Norton now seems to have cleared it all up and that everything is cool:
Like so many people I’ve loved the story of The Hulk since I was a kid, so it was thrilling when Marvel asked me to write and help produce an altogether new screen incarnation, as well as play Bruce Banner. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and always loved the mythic dimension and contemporary themes in the stories, and I’m proud of the script I wrote. In every phase of production, including the editing, working with Louis Leterrier has been wonderful…I’ve never had a better partner, and the collaboration with all the rest of the creative team has been terrific. Every good movie gets forged through collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed and respect the validity of each other’s opinions is the heart of filmmaking. Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a ‘dispute,’ seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal and I refuse to let happen. It has always been my firm conviction that films should speak for themselves and that knowing too much about how they are made diminishes the magic of watching them. All of us believe The Incredible Hulk will excite old fans and create new ones and be a huge hit…our focus has always been to deliver the Hulk that people have been waiting for and keep the worldwide love affair with the big green guy going strong.
So there you have it… everything seems to be hunky dory in Hulk land. Still, I can’t help but feel there must have been SOMETHING to the rumors considering it took Norton so long to issue such a statement. Why not make this public 2 weeks ago? Meh, either way it seems to be a non-issue now. I can’t wait to see this damn movie! (Source: Entertainment Weekly)
