Just when you think you’ve had enough of this week’s Avengers hype , along comes perhaps the most irresistible bit of culture to date around the Marvel blockbuster: “Begin by outlining the cookie in your base color. (If you were starting with The Hulk, outline the entire shape in green. Color in your outline with green icing and cover the entire cookie. You can actually use a paintbrush to ‘paint’ your cookie.) Give the base a few minutes to dry and choose your next color. For The Hulk’s hair, outline his hairline in black and proceed to fill in with black icing. You can continue to draw features in and watch your character come to life.” Take that , Jollibee ! Find more kind of awesome Avengers party tips (DIY comic-book placemats!) here . [via Ricky Eisen ]
This morning’s Biz Break includes news of Webby Award winners, more Hulk gigs for Mark Ruffalo, a Rascal -y pick up by Warner Bros. and a new venture by the founder of Summit Entertainment. 2012 Webby Awards Congratulations to our friends and colleagues at Indiewire which won the Webby Award in the Movie and Film category today. Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures’ The Muppets Mahna Mahna won the People’s Voice prize in the same category. Louis C.K. was recognized as Webby Person of the Year for his groundbreaking digital-only release Louis C.K. – Live at the Beach Theater , while also taking prizes at the 16th annual event were Pinterest, Spotify and Google+ — all of which took their first Webbys. Facebook was recognized with the inaugural People’s Special Achievement for Social Change prize, singer Bjork will be presented with the Webby Artist of the Year Award for her “Biophilia” album, and Instagram won the Webby Breakout of the Year award. The Webby Awards will be held May 21 in New York; Patton Oswalt will host. Visit the Webby site for more winners. From around the ‘net… Mark Ruffalo to Return as Hulk in Five More Films? Ruffalo talks about his six-picture deal with Marvel, which would have him returning as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in five more films after his incarnation of the green creature in Avengers explodes in the U.S. box office this weekend. Collider reports . Summit co-Founder David Garrett and Constantin Film Launch New Venture David Garrett, co-founder of Summit Entertainment, and former President of Summit International, announced today that he is launching a new company, Mister Smith Entertainment, at the upcoming 2012 Cannes Film Market, Deadline reports . Warner Bros. Picks Up Rascal Raccoon for Harold & Kumar Director The studio has picked up Rascal Raccoon’s Raging Revenge with Harold & Kumar Christmas director Todd Strauss-Schulson attached to direct and Matt Fogel set to adapt the screenplay. THR reports . Atlas Independent Gets Revenge Tribeca premiere Revenge for Jolly! , the first completed film of Atlas Entertainment’s year-old label Atlas Independent, is set to hit the Cannes Market for international sales via Highland Film Group, Variety reports . Once Dominates Tony Award Nominations The romantic comedy involving a flower seller, a street musician, and a vacuum cleaner repairman — received 11 nominations including Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, and Best Actress in a Musical, Deadline reports .
The most revealing tidbit to come from talking with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is the idea that he equates box office success with the quality of a film – not the kind of mega-million dollar marketing campaigns that put characters’ faces on soda cans, or comic book fandoms that date back half a century, or any other factors that will surely help Marvel’s The Avengers seize the box office crown this Friday. Instead, with twelve years at Marvel and billions in box office under his belt, the exec who’s been integral to the new golden age of the superhero movie is still, refreshingly, idealistic when it comes to making movies: “Every time we actually do it, I get very excited and can’t believe that we pulled it off.” Movieline caught up with Feige to discuss this week’s superhero super-team up flick The Avengers and its place in the larger, rapidly-expanding universe of Marvel comics adaptations — a tremendously successful world of comics-to-film franchises that Feige and Co. aim to keep proliferating with plans for upcoming sequels like Iron Man 3 , Thor 2 , Captain America 2 , and possible spin-offs for Avengers characters The Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow as well as vehicles for Guardians of the Galaxy, The Inhumans, and Doctor Strange. With so many properties and potential franchises swirling around in the ether, Feige discussed the triumph of achieving what was once thought to be impossible at Marvel, the gratification of hiring out-of-the-box directors for their superhero movie launchpads, why Patty Jenkins might yet become the first woman to helm a Marvel movie, and the reason why female-driven superhero movies have earned a bad rap (looking at you, Elektra ). I wonder just how much is knocking around in your brain, between the films you’ve made and are making and the Marvel library in front of you, all those potential stories… Well, I will tell you there are a lot of brains at work on this, so there are a lot of things knocking around. There are a lot of people in the mix — Louis D’Esposito, our executive producer and co-president, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham, we all have it in our brains. I will say that you are absolutely correct — what knocks around most is the potential storylines, and that’s how we make all of these movies and how we connected the dots. We worked on all the individual movies first, and first and foremost they all had to work as their own movies. But as we were working on them we started to keep track of some things that the writers and filmmakers of one movie were doing anyway and we started to track them and realized that we could utilize those later down the line. That’s how the Cosmic Cube came about; what started as a little seed would grow and grow and grow to The Avengers . So there were always things that we’d keep track of and now we have enough people that there are a few people on staff who just do that, when potential ideas come up I go, “Keep a record of this — we might be able to connect this to something.” Or, more likely, it’s just potential ideas for full movies — who can the bad guy be in Iron Man 3 , what should we put Thor through in his next movie, where’s Cap going now that he’s here in the modern day… all of those things. And we have lots of great comic books to actually give the true information to it. When you started at Marvel a dozen years ago, were you confident back then that this sort of multi-franchise potential could be achieved? I was young enough and naïve enough to believe that we could do all of this. [Laughs] And I was often confronted by listing the number of projects that we were working on; most production companies or studios have a lot of movies in development and are only going to make one of those movies, at most. So here I was saying, “Oh, we’re working on this movie and that movie and that movie and this movie,” and I remember somebody saying to me once, “You know you’re not going to make all those movies. You’re going to make maybe one of two of them.” But I was like, “I think we’ll make them all!” And have you? We have! I mean, there are certainly others like Guardians [ of the Galaxy ], like Inhumans , like Doctor Strange that we haven’t yet, but I am confident that we will. So there’s a lot of satisfaction now, on the eve of Avengers , that this thing that was deemed impossible has actually occurred. Was Avengers in particular a holy grail kind of film? Well, every movie is a holy grail. I love movies, I grew up loving movies, I want to make movies. So every time we actually do it, I get very excited and can’t believe that we pulled it off. I can’t believe that we pulled off a period Captain America movie. I can’t believe we pulled off a Thor movie. I can’t believe we made Tony Stark as known a character as Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne. So every one of those, and Avengers is frankly just one stop in the road to continuing to do that, I hope. What’s your perspective on your career and what this moment — bringing multiple franchises together, opening Avengers on the heels of a string of successes — specifically means for you? Well, it is equal parts gratifying that something that started as an idea among five or six people in a small room talking about, “Wouldn’t it be great to get the financing to make our own movies — think of the things that we could do,” has now led to this moment where we’ve been able to do that. And, you know, it’s always daunting. Part of the bet — two bets — was one, we would be able to bring all of these characters together into one movie and have that movie work and be relatable to people who have never seen any of the other movies, and the other bet is that we’d then be able to take those characters and break them apart again, and put them back into their own worlds and movies and have them be just as interesting. And even build an even bigger level of spectacle and mythology individually as they can build together. We’re five weeks out from starting Iron Man 3 under the leadership of Shane Black and I think he’s done that. We have a script and a direction that we’re very confident is going to be as unique and unexpected as the first Iron Man . That’s a tall order to fill . Yeah — and it’s very, very different. I want all of the movies to be different. How does that play out in Iron Man 3 ? Tony very much goes back to his world and his life in California and quickly finds himself in a situation that removes him from any of the access to any of the characters and people he met in Avengers . He has to do it all on his own. Shane Black replaces Jon Favreau in the Iron Man series, and over in the Thor sub-franchise Kenneth Branagh did not return for the sequel, while Patty Jenkins was briefly in place. What’s your strategy in terms of hiring directors in these franchises? The Twilight films hopped around with a new director for each installment, and the same appears to be happening for The Hunger Games … Sure, and the James Bond films — there are so many examples. There are no rules. There is no right or wrong, truthfully. You can have one filmmaker continue on through various movies and have them all be great, you can have one filmmaker continue on through a series of movies and have them decline, you can have new filmmakers come in and ruin everything, you can have new filmmakers come in and improve upon everything. So I don’t think there is any hard and fast rule to it. The way that we’ve been doing it is always matching a director to the material and the direction that Marvel sees these characters going in. Not having enough time between sequels seems to be a common public reason for directors not continuing… I don’t know if that’s ever been the case with us necessarily, two or three years between films is kind of the norm. And it always varies. But what’s important to us is finding somebody that we believe can take the bones and the structure of the movie that we want to do and make it better, build upon it and bring an unexpected touch to it — and that’s why we don’t need to find big directors who have done big, giant movies like this before. Most of the time we don’t, we find people that they call “outside of the box choices” until, knock on wood, they make the movie and then they’re the hottest commodity in town. I like that. I like that Ken Branagh is now doing a giant movie for Paramount that he never would have been able to do pre- Thor . And Favreau’s one of the top directors in the world. Joss Whedon’s now going to be one of the top directors in the world. Joe Johnston kind of already was, and still is, of course, as is Alan Taylor who is working for us now on the next Thor movie. I believe he’s going to find his career going on that same trajectory. What happened with Patty Jenkins and the Thor directing gig ? You know, we sort of talked as much as we would. Sometimes it’s just not a right fit. We were very encouraged and excited about working with Patty and I hope to make a movie with her someday. It just wasn’t going to be this movie. Not that I believe that there are any discernible gender-based differences between filmmakers, but I did like the idea of a woman helming a Marvel film. No, and you know what I said then was that we didn’t hire her because she was a woman and it didn’t work out, it had nothing to do with that. We want new tastes and new points of view coming in. Patty’s going to make giant movies someday, and I hope one of them is for us. The superhero genre is so dominated by “fanboy” culture – Disney’s made up these awesome shirts that say “fangirl,” and the “A” is the Avengers “A” for that exact reason! There’s been talk of Scarlett Johansson ’s Black Widow getting her own spin-off films. How far along are we from seeing the next female superheroine in her own story? Well, I think you saw it in Avengers . I think that’s one of the many amazing things Joss Whedon can do. I think people are going to be surprised by how powerful Scarlett is in this movie, and how evolved her role is. We have already planned her next appearances and where to take that character because we believe in it and we believe in her in a big, big way. When will there be a standalone? Both is what we’re heading toward. A lot of it is that we’re only going to make two movies a year, maybe sometimes it’ll be one movie a year like this year, maybe someday it’ll be three movies a year just depending on what comes together. But really, it’s two movies. So there’s kind of a backup on the runway right now in terms of when can something go. We do like when some of the characters appear in other people’s movies. Everybody likes that! Yeah. And that’s probably where you’ll see Black Widow next. But my favorite scene in Avengers is when Loki and Widow are having their scene together and Loki’s in a cell, and he’s trying to rile her up by mentioning things like “the hospital fire.” Who knows what those things are? We haven’t seen any of those things in other movies! What were those things, what do they mean? I love that. I’d love to explore that deeper. My experience in watching Avengers was that I left wanting to see a lot more of Hawkeye and Black Widow. There’s always traditionally a romance element to these movies, but that was the pairing I wanted to see much more of. Maybe I’ll make my own fan fiction… [Laughs] That’s great. What can you say in the way of an Ant-Man update? Well, we’ve been working on that movie for forever, it seems. I saw Edgar [Wright] again last night and what I’ve been saying because I believe it to be true is that it’s closer than it’s ever been before. Going back to the subject of women and the female presence in this community, obviously you’re trying to make four-quadrant movies here . I hope so. What do you think is the primary reason behind the lack of female superhero stories in this genre? Are they trickier to tell, address different kinds of themes? No – I think there were some bad ones, and they got a bad rap because they weren’t particularly good and they didn’t make a lot of money. There’s a movie called The Hunger Games that came out a few weeks ago, and just because it’s not based on a comic doesn’t mean that’s not a female superhero movie. That’s what she is. And it did tremendously well. So I think when they’re done well, the audience will come to it. When in your estimation have they been done well before? Well, I would say Kill Bill , or I could go as far back as Alien and Aliens . When they’re done good, they are just awesome hero movies. It’s only when they don’t do well that they say, “Oh, it’s because it was about a woman.” No, it’s because the movie was bad. How do you feel about a movie like Elektra , then? [Pauses] Did you enjoy that movie? I enjoyed… parts of that movie. Right. [Smiling] I think if that had been a better movie, more people would have come to see it. The Avengers is in theaters May 4. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The cast of Marvel’s The Avengers were a spirited bunch Thursday in Beverly Hills, where the familial vibe amongst the likes of Robert Downey Jr. , Samuel Jackson , Chris Hemsworth , Chris Evans , and Mark Ruffalo was evident and mutual admiration, inside jokes, and startling revelations abounded. (Scarlett Johansson, alas, was absent due to a scheduling conflict.) Among the highlights: Ruffalo’s youthful Hulk inspiration, Jeremy Renner ’s suggestive Hawkeye imagery (“[I] played with Thor’s hammer while he stroked my bow”), and one mysterious, maybe-still legit admission from Downey that the assembled Avengers would be filming a scene … that night. But, pray tell: Which Avenger possesses the best Dance Dance Revolution skills ? SPOILERS AHEAD. JEREMY RENNER SETS THE FIRES OF A THOUSAND SLASHFICS AFLAME: The erstwhile Hawkeye described his favorite memory from set. “Getting to play with Thor’s hammer while he stroked my bow. Oh, here we go. That’s gonna get me in trouble.” Hawkeye + Thor 4 eva? HOW MARK RUFFALO “GOT” THE HULK: Watching the Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk TV show with his 10-year-old son on Joss Whedon’s recommendation, Ruffalo found his way into the character. “After the third episode he turned to me and said, ‘Papa, he’s so misunderstood!’ I basically based my character entirely on my 10-year-old boy, who has all of the force of nature screaming out of his body while at the same time having everyone around him telling him to fucking control himself.” ANOTHER LESSON RUFFALO LEARNED EARLY ON: AVOID THE INTERNET. “It was terrifying. I knew what my responsibility was, or I felt it just by going online and reading some of the fanboy responses to the announcement that I was playing the next version of Bruce Banner. That was a mistake. I will never do it again. I’ve never had a role more scrutinized and criticized before I’d shot a single frame.” CODE NAME: GROUP HUG — AVENGERS LOVE ON AND OFF SET ” Tom [Hiddleston] loves hugs,” said Hemsworth. “I did a film with him and there were plenty of hugs in that film… Chris [Evans] sent texts that said ‘The Avengers assemble at such and such bar, 9 o’clock Saturday night.’ That was a good group effort. [Pause] We paid for it at work the next couple of days.” Ruffalo : “You should see that group hug.” Downey Jr. : “Ruffalo, weren’t you the one throwing the roof parties?” Ruffalo : “That was me.” Downey Jr. : “So you were the group instigator.” Ruffalo : “I was the group hugger.” And then: “I just remember coming into someone’s place with a group of half-naked stuntmen in a hot tub and Scarlett Johansson standing over them with a giant ladle…making boy soup.” CHRIS HEMSWORTH ON USING HIS REAL LIFE SIBLINGS TO TAP INTO THE THOR/LOKI RELATIONSHIP: “The last time either one of my brothers tried to take over the world or the universe, I had to think about how did I feel,” Hemsworth joked. To wit, Downey Jr.: “Don’t you feel that Liam is trying to take over your box office universe? Doesn’t he need to be corrected in some way?” WHY JOSS WHEDON WAS THE IDEAL DIRECTOR FOR THE AVENGERS : “The only fear I had was that the whole thing would collapse under its own weight,” admitted Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige . “My biggest interest in The Avengers is the interaction between these people, and looking at Joss’s body of work, the scripts that he’s written and TV shows, the characters never ever get lost. In fact those are the moments that shine. That was, to me, why he was the best person to mount this.” For Downey Jr., it was while watching one moment in Act Three when he felt the relief and elation of knowing Whedon’s vision worked. “I speak to Joss’s wit, whether the wit is funny or whether the wit is actually being able to hold the myriad of ideas and notions that you have to get right for Avengers not to be bunk. [That’s] what he accomplished.” SAM JACKSON SUMS UP THE AVENGERS : “He’s the rich, smart ass guy; he’s the little guy with the big words that might turn and fuck you up at any moment, you never know when that is – and he’s trying to make him do it, the bad little brother… it was a great time doing that and being able to be in that space and allowing an audience to see that these guys have superpowers but they have normal guy attitudes. They get pissed with each other and they argue about petty shit, you know. They can be smart asses and they can be heroes and they can just be jerks, but eventually they’re going to love each other.” WHEDON ON HIS BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “The hardest part is and always will be structure; how do you put that together? How do you make everybody shine? How do you let the audience’s identification drift from person to person without making them feel like you’re not involved. It’s a very complex structure – it’s not particularly ornate or original but it had to be right, it had to be earned from moment to moment, and that was exhausting.” “You see things like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where they just throw out the comic, or Watchmen where they do it frame for frame, and neither of them work. You have to give the spirit of the thing and then step away from that and create something cinematic and new.” WHICH ALIEN RACE ARE THE BADDIES IN THE AVENGERS, EXACTLY? SPOILERS, obviously: Whedon set the record straight, since the film doesn’t explicitly explain just who is helping Loki in his attempt at world domination. “The alien race are the Chitauri — or a version of them — because they are not one of the key races and they don’t have a storied history. That wasn’t the point. I know this debate will go on long after I’m dead. I would say it was the Kree-Skrull race.” AGENT COULSON WEARS DOLCE & GABBANA His portrayer, Clark Gregg, was initially skeptical that an Avenger s movie could be pulled off. Then he got the script. “I felt like this was not an achievable task, as someone who writes sometimes and loves movies and watches a lot of them, I just didn’t think it was feasible to have this many characters and have them all get to move forward and have the story of them coming together really work. If it did work with that many amazing superheroes and movie stars, I felt it unlikely that Agent Coulson would do anything other than bring some super coffee to somebody. So when I read it and saw that it was my fanboy wet dream of an Avengers script and that Agent Coulson was a big part of it, that was the great day for me. I just drove around the streets with the script in the other seat kind of giggling.” AVENGERS VS. JUSTICE LEAGUE, DC COMICS VS. MARVEL: What would Whedon say to Warner Bros. regarding their attempts to make a similar multi-superhero franchise out of The Justice League? “Call me,” he joked, before astutely addressing WB/DC’s uphill battle. “It’s enormously difficult to take disparate characters and make them work – and DC has a harder time of it than Marvel because their characters are from a bygone era when their characters were bigger than we were, and they’ve amended that but Marvel really cracked the code in terms of [superheroes] are just like us. So a dose of that veracity that Marvel really started with Iron Man. I think you need to use that as your base.” YEP, THE AVENGERS PLAY DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION The Avengers cast was known to bust a few moves playing Dance Dance Revolution at Jeremy Renner’s house. “I don’t know the last video game I played apart from DDR at Jeremy’s house… Scarlett and I will always have “Billie Jean,” said Hiddleston. “Nobody lambadas like Loki,” quipped Gregg. “I have friends, so…” Whedon responded. You’ll find out which Avenger had the best DDR skills in Movieline’s upcoming interview with Ruffalo, but I’ll leave you with this hint: It was a tie. AND FINALLY, IS THE AVENGERS STILL BEING SHOT?? Downey Jr. closed his press conference with the stunning reveal that the Avengers cast was filming one last scene Thursday night. “Not to keep you guessing, but we’re actually not done shooting. We are shooting one more scene… tonight. Not kidding . [Pause] No more questions!” Speculation is that it would be a final bonus post-credits scene to be added to the end of the version that screened at the Avengers world premiere, just in time for release, in addition to an already existing credits scene that is indeed in the version press saw this week. Whedon, asked to clarify, insisted that Downey Jr. was just joking — “He’s Robert – of course he’s kidding,” he said — but Ruffalo confirmed as much, according to The Playlist . Word on the street is that RDJ was, in fact, not pulling our legs. We’ll find out soon enough who was telling the truth, as The Avengers flies into theaters May 4. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Marvel’s The Avengers has the pressure of living up to years of hype resting on its shoulders, but a new trailer for the May 4 superhero pic looks promising, if not terribly complicated. Plot details, like what Loki’s up to and why? Save it for the movie. This is the chance to give every one of the Avengers their close-up. Well, except for you, Hawkeye. Admittedly, Jeremy Renner ‘s archery expert — the least-well known character of the bunch, looking like the loner weirdo lurking around the popular kids at school — does get a neat falling-backwards-through-the-air-while-shooting-an-arrow moment in the trailer, so there’s that. Everyone else, though, gets to reveal a smidge of character in the span of two minutes: Nick Fury is concerned! Captain America is resentful! Tony Stark is bitchy! Black Widow is suggestive! We already know that our heroes will bicker before they unite to fight evil, blah blah blah. It is rather touching to see Hulk leap into the air to save Iron Man from eating pavement. I’m just waiting for fans to shout about how superior Ruffalo’s Hulk is from the Ed Norton and Eric Bana versions, because guys? His Hulkface doesn’t look that much better, does it? Verdict: Oh, who am I kidding? We’re all seeing this one, aren’t we? Anyway, head to Apple to watch the trailer in high res. The Avengers hits theaters on May 4.
When the concept art (the buzziest of promotional buzzwords this summer; see also new concept art for Snow White & The Huntsman and Lucifer ) of Mark Ruffalo as Hulk in The Avengers was released at the end of Comic-Con last weekend, it was easy to joke that it looked like every other incarnation of Hulk. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times , Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirms that similarity is by design… except when it’s not. Hulk confused?
Stepping out of celebrity chow wagon BOA, The Incredible Hulk legend Lou Ferrigno says that Charlie Sheen is a good guy who will overcome his disease of addiction. The expressions of the disease might very well extend into the drug or pornographic arenas, the former Hulk elaborates, and when one is successful like Charlie, blowing through half a million bucks in six months on sex ‘n drugs is not unusual given the nature of addiction. Regardless, Lou is confident Charlie will overcome this battle. But the question is begged — is this life following art?
‘My life’s way too good on too many levels to be over-intense about things like that,’ he tells MTV News. By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Edward Norton Photo: MTV News A war of words broke out in July between Edward Norton and Marvel production chief Kevin Feige after it became clear the actor wouldn’t reprise his Hulk role in the superhero all-star flick “The Avengers.” Feige accused Norton of lacking sufficient “creativity and collaborative spirit,” while Norton took the high road , saying he was simply “appreciative of the outpouring of support from fans of the Hulk and the Avengers.” Months later, while promoting “Stone” at the Toronto Film Festival, Norton went into greater detail about his dust-up with Marvel. Feige’s accusations clearly still irk him, but the actor once again strove to avoid engaging in overly negative words. “The thing that was disingenuous about some of the stuff that had gone on is it was a very professional and very respectful business situation,” he told MTV News. “We really couldn’t work it out on a business level, and I know that’s disappointing to some people, but it’s nobody’s fault. I don’t have any disrespect for anybody’s decisions in the business framework. You do what you feel you need to do on both sides, and that’s totally fine. “I have no idea why anybody tried to characterize it as anything other than that kind of a decision, which is absolutely what it was,” added Norton, who took over the Hulk role in 2008 following Eric Bana’s 2003 turn. Yet Feige publically stated the opposite in July, weeks before Marvel announced that Mark Ruffalo would be next in line to play Hulk for the planned 2012 “Avengers” film . “Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members,” Feige said at the time. Taking such behind-the-scenes negotiations public was a surprisingly in-your-face move on Marvel’s part, but calling Feige’s comments “disingenuous” was as confrontational as Norton would let himself become. “My life’s way too good on too many levels to be over-intense about things like that,” he said. “I didn’t want to be negative about anything,” he said earlier in our interview. “I had a great time doing that. I was very happy to be part of it all. People’s response to that film was great. That’s everything you want. If you’re going to do one of those, and be in those long traditions of those things we all grew up in, you don’t want to be in one of the bad ones. So I’m really happy people had a good thing with that.” For breaking comic book movie news, columns and more — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com .
‘I sincerely hoped it could happen and be great for everyone, but it hasn’t turned out as we all hoped,’ he writes on Facebook. By Eric Ditzian Edward Norton Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images Things got ugly in the Marvel universe over the weekend when word leaked that Edward Norton would not be reprising his role as Bruce Banner — a.k.a. the Incredible Hulk — in the 2012 superhero all-star flick “The Avengers.” Marvel production president Kevin Feige zinged Norton for a lack of “collaborative spirit,” a statement Norton’s agent called “purposefully misleading.” Now Norton, who took on the Banner role in the Louis Leterrier-directed “Incredible Hulk,” has weighed in on the brouhaha with a post on his Facebook page . “As most of you know, I don’t like to talk much about the business of making movies because it means a lot to me to protect the audience’s fullest enjoyment of the ‘magic’ that films can have,” the statement began. “But I am so appreciative of the outpouring of support from fans of the Hulk and the Avengers that I feel it would be rude not to respond.” Norton went on to avoid addressing the specifics of Feige’s statement, as well as the heated words of his agent. Instead, Norton simply stated the facts of the situation, declared his appreciation for playing the character at all and thanked fans for their support. “It seems it won’t work out for me to continue playing Bruce Banner for Marvel in ‘The Avengers,’ ” he wrote. “I sincerely hoped it could happen and be great for everyone, but it hasn’t turned out as we all hoped. I know this is disappointing to many people and that makes me sad. But I am very sincerely grateful to Marvel for extending the offer and even more so for giving me the chance to be a part of the Hulk’s long and excellent history. “And I really can’t thank the fans enough for how much enthusiasm you’ve sent my way about what Louis and I tried to do in our turn with the legend,” Norton concluded. “It means a lot to me. I grew up with Banner and Hulk and have been a fan of every incarnation. I’m really proud, and very blessed, to have been one of them and will be thrilled to see him live on through other actors. Hulk is bigger than all of us, that’s why we love him, right?” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Avengers.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos ‘The Incredible Hulk’ Sneak Peek
