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Ang Lee takes risks with mean green 'Hulk'
Taiwan-born director Ang Lee, perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," is taking a big risk with the splashy summer popcorn flick "Hulk." "Hulk," which debuts on Friday, is about the comic book character whose altered DNA has made him 15-feet tall, green, muscle bound and extremely angry. Lee shelled out a reported $150 million on the movie, spent nearly a year away from home to help animators create the computerized Hulk and put his reputation as an Oscar-caliber director on the line. Lee's "Crouching Tiger," a Chinese-language martial arts film set in the 19th century, won the Academy Award for best foreign language film in 2000. Lee sits inside his trailer on the Universal Studios lot days after finishing "Hulk" and admits he's feeling stressed out. "It's the responsibility of making a big movie. It's the invisible pressure," he told Reuters. "They have tried to give me so much and go way out to give me what I want, and if I feel like I don't make them happy, or disappoint them ... it hurts. It really hurts me." "Hulk" tells the tale of young Bruce Banner who, through a failed experiment by his father and a twist of fate in a laboratory experiment, has his genes altered radically to become the Hulk. The film's backers, including Lee, call it part action movie, part Greek tragedy -- a story in which the sins of the father are revisited on the son. "I like the depth," said Eric Bana, the Australian actor who plays Banner. "It's something we haven't seen before" in an action flick. Producer/screenwriter James Schamus, who worked with Lee on "Crouching Tiger," "The Ice Storm" and "Sense and Sensibility" said his first pass at the story was filled with smashing cars, villains and superheroes. He admits it was bad. So, he went back to the 1962 Marvel comics that launched the Hulk and extracted a story of a father whose scientific and human failures harm his son years later. FAMILY DRAMA, BIG ACTION For loyal comic book fans who may think Lee's "Hulk" will be too touchy-feely, think again. "This is a drama, a family drama," said Lee, "but with big action." His slumping shoulders twitch and he laughs. Lee calls "Hulk" the most challenging movie he's ever made due to its complexity. Schamus said Lee is a man who can't resist a challenge. After "Crouching Tiger," Schamus said, "I knew he wanted something to stretch his imagination. I told him this was just pure play. We can go as far as your imagination can take you." Sometimes that imagination took Lee underneath the Hulk's very own green skin. The animators at Industrial Light & Magic said when they were unsure of exactly what Lee wanted in a scene, he went to their computer labs and demonstrated. They have the videotape to show it. There is the relatively small Lee rising up out of a crouch, starting to shake his fists, stomping on the ground. His face tightens into a rage and seems to turns red (The Hulk, of course, turns green). Lee is Hulkifying, transforming from a mild-mannered director into an angry green, pulverizing machine. That was months ago, of course, when the film was still being made, and now it's ready for the big screen. With pent-up audience demand and marketing muscle behind it, "Hulk" is virtual shoe-in to earn big box office bucks in its debut weekend and Lee knows this. "I would like the movie to be at least interesting, inspiring. I know it's intense," Lee said. And with that, he relaxes just a little more.
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