SPOILER WARNING: This article contains minor spoilers, including discussion of that Marvel Hero cameo that's been talked about all week.
In part 1 of our exclusive interview with 'Incredible Hulk''s Louis Leterrier, the director talked about getting over his own intimidation of the project, and being lucky enough to cast Edward Norton, his first choice, in the lead role.
We continue on to part two...
C2F: As daunting as it was to land Edward Norton in the role of Banner, how tricky is it then, to replace him at different points in the movie with a CGI creature?
Leterrier: It's tricky but technology now helps bridge that transition in a smoother and nicer way, not only in the scene with the transformation but also with the creature itself.
For ten years we've had the motion-capture technology, where you ear the pajama with ping-pong balls. But, more recently, and actually we're the first movie to use this technology: it's called MOVA, it's a facial motion-capture technology.
The actors are painted in a reflective green makeup, and they do all the action, so we can actually see the actor, not only physically but also facially you will see your actor evolving. It's great. It helps smooth out the transition.
They don't look like themselves. It would be weird to have an Abomination with Tim Roth's face or a Hulk with stretched Edward Norton face. It would be weird, so we decided to have creatures that look more like the monsters from the comic books. Still you recognize Edward Norton and Tim Roth in their sequences.
C2F: When people see the Hulk and the Abomination on screen they're actually seeing Edward and Tim performing.
Leterrier: Absolutely. I mean there's a little bit of key frame enhancements to move some stuff. But no, it's the two actors performing.
The technology gives you a lexicon of stuff and afterward you can target. It gives you anger and stuff like that.
Because it takes almost a year to process the information, so we recorded some of the stuff a year before. It's not like they did complete scenes perfectly, but it's a sampling of expressions.
C2F: I think Liv Tyler has one of the more challenging jobs, having to interact with the monster in a scene that's smaller and more personal.
Leterrier: It's funny. When we met her I told her about that scene. I said it would be very difficult. She said, "No. I'm used to this. I've done it on 'Lord of the Rings'. Peter [Jackson] was reenacting things with a little puppet to double for Elijah [Wood]."
When it came to the day of doing it. She was getting a little nervous. "Elijah was very small and I don't know what to do."
Obviously I couldn't hire a nine-foot tall puppet. She had to interact with almost nothing, like a guy with Hulk head on. It was weird.
C2F: There was literally a guy with a Hulk head on?
Leterrier: We tried everything. Me with a Hulk mask. A guy with a backpack and a pole that would stretch him to nine feet tall, with a big, full-sized Hulk head with LED eyes so she could look at him through rain and darkness.
We went through tons of techniques and at the end of the day she said, "You know what? Let's not do anything. Everything we do is just throwing me off. It's kind of ridiculous. It's breaking the magic, so let me imagine it."
And she was much better imagining it. We would block it with a guy and then the guy would walk away and she would do it herself.
These are the shots I used and that's the technique we found most efficient.
It's funny because Edward and Liv, they knew Naomi Watts and they were look, "Oh, it looks like she had great fun on 'King Kong'. Let's call her and she'll tell us how fun it was."
And then they called and she said, "That was the worst experience of my life! It was horrible! And no one to interact with forever."
That actually threw Liv off. "I have to act alone in this scene. It's the most emotional scene in the movie."
But she did a great job.
What's great about Liv is that she relies on purity. She doesn't fake act. She's very instinctive about her acting. She feels it. She's very method in a sense.
Both her and William are the same way and they were the ones that had to interact with the monster the most. Once they were into character, they really had keep the monster in front of themselves and be in character a long time.
C2F: The Captain America thing has come up quite a bit this week. Are you sorry that you mentioned it to G4?
Leterrier: Yeah!
I love that. I could have said anything. I wanted to say I'm directing the "Smurf" movie.
No...it's true! It's true! You just have to open your eyes and you will see it.
C2F: Will we literally see a man who is Captain America?
Leterrier: You will see a man! [laughs]
You'll see it. You'll like it.
C2F: I did not notice it in the screening I saw earlier this week.
Leterrier: The entire movie has not been released yet.
And I'm not talking about the DVD extras. I'm talking about something else, something different.
There's a sequence that's going to be seen on the internet some time very soon. Maybe today or tomorrow.
Go see the movie again. Maybe you'll see it in the movie. That's what's fun about it. Don't you think it's fun? It's an easter egg hunt. That's what it is.
C2F: It's definitely fun, and there are a lot of easter eggs in this movie. We see Mr. McGee. We see Jim Wilson. We see Bill Bixby. Do you ever worry that the movie might become more about looking for easter eggs than enjoying the experience of the story?
Leterrier: No. No because the fact that the guys are called McGee and Wilson, the could be called Johnny John and Steve Summers, nobody would care.
People that don't know, it just flies through. The Bill Bixby scene, it's a nod, it's fine. He's just zapping to watch 'Sesame Street'. It's fine. Some people will recognize Bill Bixby. Some people won't.
The Super Soldier program, the fact that you see Dr. Reinstein's name on the canister, it's the same thing.
It's just fun for us, for the fans. I love watching Sam Raimi's movies because he's the best at that. Not only the easter eggs but also the frames. The digitally making homage to comic book panels. They're perfectly framed and everything in the comics.
Sam started it all. I'm just a pupil of Sam Raimi. [laughs]
C2F: What artists did you reference?
Leterrier: Deodato Jr., Dale Keown, obviously Jack Kirby. Tim Sale. A tremendous amount of Tim Sale. And also a lot of fan renderings of Hulk on the internet.
Not only Hulk, but also Spider-Man. You should look at the poster of Hulk and that's "Spider-Man No More". You know the comic book cover of Peter Parker walking away from Spider-Man, Spider-Man looking over his right shoulder. It's exactly what it is. It's like he's walking away from his identity, his alter ego.
That's what's amazing about working with Marvel. You can do stuff wrong, but you've got such a tremendous amount or material to take, digest, reference, stray away from if you want, come back to and people will love it and recognize it.
Forget about having too many homages. For me it was important because I love Marvel and I wouldn't be directing this movie if I was not a Marvel fan. So it was important to do that.
Tune in for part 3 of our interview with Louis Leterrier later today!
'The Incredible Hulk' is in theaters now!
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