The prospect of a new Incredible Hulk movie starring Mark Ruffalo’s version of the character is something that has been a topic of conversation in recent months. The Hulk is a clear favorite in The Avengers films and there are several key stories that fans would like to see make the jump to the screen and finally wipe the stains of the past off of the character.
The problem, at least according to Mark Ruffalo, is that the rights to a solo Hulk film are still firmly in the grasp of Universal pictures. That’s not entirely true according to Mark Hughes over at Forbes. After some digging and chatting, it would seem that Universal doesn’t hold much weight in the production of a new Incredible Hulk film and their actual rights lapsed back to Marvel in 2005 after the lackluster showing by Ang Lee’s Hulk. Now that doesn’t mean the studio doesn’t have some grip on the character, it just isn’t enough to keep him out of theaters:
But despite obtaining the cinematic rights to make Hulk movies, Marvel did not obtain distribution rights. Universal held those rights, and today I can confirm the exact situation is that Universal currently retains the right of first refusal to distribute any Hulk films in the future. If for some reason Universal chose to forgo distribution, then Disney would immediately pick up the distribution rights for the Hulk movie. So Universal has no claim at all to the production rights, and their distribution rights are dependent on exercising their option, which remains in full effect at the moment.
Hughes goes on to note that Paramount had a similar deal to distribute the first two Iron Man films, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor, and that a distribution deal wouldn’t be enough to hold off on a potential Hulk film for Marvel. So why no sequel?
Well the answer according to Hughes is the money involved in production. The prior Hulk films we’ve seen haven’t been the blockbuster creature features needed to shoulder the cost it requires to create the Hulk on screen. If we have a Hulk film, it’s going to be a full two hours of the green guy in his angry form and fighting something equally as computer generated to make it “believeable.”
The Forbes piece lays out some pretty decent reasoning for why this is a major hurdle for Marvel, so I would definitely suggest on giving it a read if you’re desperate to know when Bruce Banner will get his own solo film. I tend to think that The Incredible Hulk lacked that real potential to show that it is a tie in with the other Marvel films. It was overshadowed by Iron Man and it still seemed like a separate universe from where we are now. Given that we’ve had two Avengers films with record breaking potential and a slew of other films to fill the gaps, A Hulk film being a success isn’t a strange thought. Get with it, Marvel. Make it happen.
(Via Forbes)
