WILL 'HULK' BE INCREDIBLE?

Dark Horizons has long been a maverick film news and buzz web site and its webmaster Garth Franklin is often on the money with his reviews. Here is a brief excerpt of his take on this Friday's "The Incredible Hulk."

Not the home run that they hit the first time around with "Iron Man", this second effort of the new Marvel Studios is good enough that it fixes some of the key problems brought up by Ang Lee's generally dismissed first attempt at adapting Hulk for the big screen.

Despite a lot of outright hostility towards it these days, the 2003 "Hulk" remains a textbook example of a noble failure. Superhero movies are like the James Bond franchise - variations on the same formula. Those that truly succeed push the boundaries, but also stick to and make best use of certain pre-set structural rules. Lee's "Hulk" abandoned them altogether, crafting an odd blend of morose 'Jekyll and Hyde' melodrama and ridiculously flamboyant action-fantasy antics. Visually it was bold, even innovative, but in terms of storytelling it was a fascinating jumbled mess - distant, bloated, ambitious, arty and often impenetrable.

In contrast Louis Letterier and Edward Norton's new incarnation of the green meanie has no such lofty ideals or hidden depths. This 'Hulk' is designed purely for fast, formulaic mainstream thrills by mixing a chase thriller across the Americas with a few key set pieces of Hulk smashing up things. It's derivative to be sure, various scenes cribbing off better efforts of the genre along with other recent hits, but the script balances its disparate elements enough to likely satisfy fans.

To read the rest of the review, click HERE.

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EDWARD NORTON LOSES WGA CREDIT

Doesn't it seem that every project Edward Norton is involved with ends in some sort of arbitration?

IESB reports that screenwriter Zak Penn is receiving sole credit for the upcoming "Incredible Hulk."

Edward Norton's name or his pen name (Edward Harrison) for that matter is nowhere to be found as a writer in the final credits. As it stands, "Screen story and Screenplay" is solely credited to Zak Penn. Although word on the grapevine is that Norton rewrote Penn's draft of the script.

Those who read it say it was amazing. IESB contacted Zak Penn's office to ask about the credit and they confirmed Penn will be receiving sole writing credit on the film.

Universal reps are saying, "WGA determined the writing credit not Zak or Edward or Universal or Marvel. WGA always determines final writing credit for our films right before the film comes out. Up until that time, we include the writers on the project to date."

IESB's call to the WGA got this response, "Zak Penn is receiving sole credit for story and screenplay."

Apparently, there was arbitration, which is quite common since two screenwriters were listed. The WGA sided with Zak Penn.

The Oscar-nominated actor has a reputation for being difficult. Tony Kaye, who directed him in “American History X,” charged Norton re-edited the flick to give himself more screen time. And screenwriter/director Joe Eszterhas once cracked: “You don’t want Edward Norton to star in your movie. He now rewrites all the scripts he agrees to act in.”

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