News: Leterrier Goes In-Depth On “Incredible Hulk”

It’s been a long journey to get The Incredible Hulk back on the screen, and director Louis Leterrier is well aware of everybody’s reservations about a new Hulk movie so soon after Ang Lee’s version. He gave a lot of interesting details to Newsarama about the trials and tribulations of getting the project up and running, including how his own reputation was a hindrance.

“I came in to see Marvel because I really love Iron Man with all the gadgets and he’s an anti hero,” explained Leterrier. “I loved Hulk even more than Iron Man but I thought they would never do it again. When I came to see them and wanted Iron Man, they told me they already had a director which was too bad. I was walking out the door when they said ‘Well, what about the Hulk?’ I told them I wasn’t the right guy because I thought they wanted to do a sequel but they wanted to reboot it.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” said Leterrier. “A couple of versions of the script had been written, another draft was being done by Zak Penn, and I was trying to find the cast. It was fun because every actor in town who met about this movie had the same reaction as me…. Hulk again? I had to personally meet everybody. I was getting phone calls from actors saying they loved the Hulk but everyone was scared we were either going to do a sequel without the same actors from the first movie or a reboot that would be the absolute opposite … a stupid, no brainer action ‘Hulk smash,’ from beginning to end!”

“And it’s not like The Transporter movies are the most actor oriented movies so they were like ‘Umm…that guy from the Transporter movies…’ They think I just do car chases and punches to the face. I had to meet with everyone and tell them about my story, how I became a director, and once the ice was broken, I was like ‘Okay, let me tell you about my vision of the Hulk.’ Eventually, a hundred per cent of the people I met were interested in our take on the Hulk.”

“At one point, someone said ‘What about Edward Norton?’” continued Leterrier. “I am like ‘Edward Norton would never ever be interested in a superhero movie.’ They are like ‘He’s in New York. He is a great guy. Have a meeting.’”

“Eventually, I have the coldest dinner of my life. Edward is very nice but he looks at you and is very analytical. He was looking at me while I was all stuttering and speaking Frenglish. We had a nice dinner but we didn’t talk about the movie at all so when the dessert was arriving, I was like ‘Dude, can I talk for five minutes about Hulk and can you tell me if you are interested or not.’ I gave him my five minute pitch, he is listening, I brought some drawings, and at the end, he just nods and says ‘Do you want something else? Coffee?’ ‘No, I am fine.’ ‘Okay, check please!’ and then he goes. I thought he hated me, that my pitch was horrible, and I was going to come back to Marvel with my tail between my legs. I walk in and they were like ‘Wow! What did you do? Edward loved you and the pitch! He is coming to L.A. on Monday! He is really interested. We had offered him Daredevil and Hulk and he always turned us down. What did you do?’ Edward was very enthusiastic. He took everything I had said, digested it over the weekend, and came back with some really great ideas.”

The whole interview is very interesting, and should help to assuage a lot of the worries people have expressed about the whole project. It may just be the awesome Hulk movie everyone’s been waiting for.