There's an interesting phenomenon in Marvel movies that Marvel rarely looks for big-name actors to star in.
Careful children's shoes will find that this "strategy" is actually not implemented since the establishment of Marvel, but there is a process of promotion.
When the Marvel Universe was first established, the producers were not exclusive, and it can even be said that they were very eager to have big-name actors to star in movies, such as Brother Tang, who was once invited to star in "Iron Man", but people refused.
So the question is, from the desire to make well-known actors to the exclusion of big stars, why does Marvel's strategy suddenly come to a 360-degree flip?
This has to say that there was an entanglement between a former big-name actor and Marvel.
Yes, the actor is Edward Norton, the protagonist of The Invincible Hulk.
At the beginning of the century, the film and television rights to the role of Hulk were in the hands of Universal Pictures.
As early as 2003, after the release of Ang Lee's "Hulk", although Marvel hoped to continue to launch a sequel, due to the film's poor box office, Universal Pictures was reluctant to continue to invest.
So, when the contract period expired, part of the Hulk's copyright returned to Marvel, which could invest money to set up a project and shoot without the permission of Universal Pictures, and Universal retained the distribution rights.
Therefore, "Invincible Hulk" was officially established.
Since it belonged to the early stages of the establishment of the Marvel Universe at that time, Marvel hoped to find some big-name actors to support the heat of the movie.
"Iron Man" said above, looking for Brother Atang.
And "Invincible Hulk" is looking for Edward Norton.
Interestingly, Norton didn't really want to take on the movie in the first place.
The reason is simple, Norton is very disliked of Ang Lee's Hulk, and he thinks that version of the story is detached from the familiar comic book story and doesn't make much sense.
However, in fact, Marvel at that time was also planning to restart the movie of the role of Hulk.
When they first thought of launching a sequel, it was because the copyright was in universal hands, losing money was also their business, and they could even return the copyright because they saw the Hulk movie continuously hit the street.
And now that the Hulk rights are back in his hands, how can he possibly launch a sequel to a box office movie?
It was also Marvel's plan, so Norton took over the play.
However, the next development is very interesting.
Edward Norton is a very talented actor in Hollywood, who not only has superb acting skills, but also has a variety of skills in the production of movies and the choreography of scripts.
Moreover, he himself is a more ambitious actor, and he does not want to be just the protagonist of a commercial popcorn film.
To this end, on set, he gave the director almost daily a script proposal about the role of the protagonist Banner.
Every day you have to rewrite the script, what would you think if you were the director? That would certainly feel like your authority was being challenged.
However, since the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just established at that time, Marvel did need a well-known actor to increase the heat.
Coupled with Norton's own coffee position placed there, the director can only have a bitter swallow.
In order not to affect the production, he also publicly stated to the media: "Norton's scripts make the protagonist Banner more sacred and solemn." ”
However, although the director did not say anything for the sake of the overall situation, the screenwriter could not sit still.
After all, for the screenwriter, he worked hard to write a script, and then every day was told that this is not okay, that he must change, and this person is not a director but an actor, which no one can stand.
Norton's interference in the operation of the script also led the American Writers Association to support the screenwriter, believing that the script changes and suggestions provided by Norton were meaningless and useless.
In the end, all the contradictions broke out in the post-production after the filming of "Invincible Hulk".
Norton wanted to cut the film to 135 minutes because he thought the protagonist Banner needed more plot to show his portrayal.
But Marvel wants not to shape the protagonist, they want a commercial movie that can make money, so they want to control the length of time below 2 hours, after all, if the time is short, the theater can give more scheduling.
So the two contradictions are not reconciled, and Norton even said that if you Marvel insisted, I would not cooperate with your publicity plan.
However, in the end, Marvel did not budge, and "Invincible Hulk" was 112 minutes long.
Norton didn't even go to the premiere of the movie.
Of course, after this matter was exposed, Norton also immediately came out to clarify what to say that this is a distortion of the media, and he has worked well with Marvel, these are just private matters, some discussions in the production of the film, and it is not a controversy at all.
But everyone understands, there is really no such thing, why don't you cooperate with the publicity?
Mainly because the movie was released at that time, there could not be too many negative reports, so even if it was a superficial peace, it had to be maintained.
Why is it just a superficial peace? Because later when there was no interest, Marvel and Norton's company were ruthlessly torn apart.
After the release of "Invincible Hulk", the global box office was only 264 million US dollars, which is not very eye-catching compared to the production cost, and the word of mouth can only be said to be acceptable.
The overall performance is not comparable to "Iron Man" in the same year.
Even today, even if the Marvel Universe has launched more than 20 movies, "Invincible Hulk" is still the penultimate first at the box office.
The movie is not performing well, of course, it is necessary to find out the reason, Marvel naturally thinks that Norton interfered in the production, and Norton will definitely feel that Marvel has asked for it.
It was also at that time that Marvel set the strategy mentioned at the beginning, and would no longer select well-known actors who were big names and had the ability to interfere in production to star in the movie.
So, in 2012's "Avengers", Marvel naturally could not find Norton to play the Hulk, so it replaced Banner's actor with Mark Ruffalo.
In this regard, Marvel Studios issued a statement of substitution, saying:
"This substitution is definitely not because of money, but because we need a talented, but more collaborative actor."
Norton Company is not to be outdone, and directly replied:
"It's offensive and discrediting Norton, who has been a Hulk comic book fan since he was a kid, loves the character, wants to continue acting, and wants to work with the rest of the Avengers."
"Norton's own talent and abilities, as well as his tireless work ethic and professional ethic, deserve more respect than this kind of groundless slander."
As for Norton himself, he also said on the show that he just hoped that the script of the movie would be better.
Sure enough, what I said before that the two sides cooperated very well during the filming of "Invincible Hulk" is completely a scene.
In fact, Norton's particularly talented, capable and pursuing actor is relatively rare in Hollywood.
But the problem is that Marvel needed to build a cinematic universe, and President Kevin Feige laid down a complete blueprint early on.
In layman's terms, Kevin has designed every puzzle, and he needs directors and filmmakers who can really make the puzzle, not actors who want to change the shape of the puzzle.
So here, the conflict of ideas between the two can be said to be impossible to reconcile, and it is also a matter of course to part ways.
And simply for the Marvel Universe, the loss of a talented and capable actor, in exchange for a smooth film production, so that the film becomes a puzzle that can be embedded, which is actually a good thing.