If ComicBookMovie is correct, it appears that Jeremy Renner did not learn the lessons of Terrence Howard and Edward Norton and will now pay the price for it.

The website is quoting “Hollywood sources” in saying that the actor who played Clint Barton/Hawkeye in both Thor and The Avengers is being dropped by Marvel Studios, mainly due to negative comments he made about his role in the latter film.

Renner was candid in his feelings about the way his character was portrayed on screen in an interview with Total Film magazine:

“For 90 percent of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play. It’s kind of a vacancy. [He's] not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to him. To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses … I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No.”

To be fair to Renner, he does have a point. On the other hand, Hawkeye pretty much serves the same purpose as Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow character, and since Johansson joined the Marvel family first, she gets to play the hero and they had to find something else for Renner to do. That being said, even in the 10% of the film where he WAS the character he signed on to play, he really didn’t make that much of an impression. His quiver had more personality than his Hawkeye did.

But regardless, Marvel has made a point not keeping any actor who is unhappy or unable to work the Marvel way. Terrence Howard was rumored to be difficult to work with during Iron Man. so his role as James Rhodes was minimized in the sequel and he was asked to take a substantial pay cut. He balked and was allowed to walk and Don Cheadle (who was rumored to be Marvel’s first choice originally) took his place. Edward Norton was supposedly so hands-on during The Incredible Hulk that rumor has it he even did script rewrites on set. This didn’t sit well with Marvel or Joss Whedon, so in The Avengers he was replaced with Mark Ruffalo (who was rumored to also be Marvel’s first choice for the role). Hugo Weaving has also been very vocal about  not being excited about his role as the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger and has expressed not being interested in reprising his role in the future. Well, everyone from Toby Jones to Hayley Atwell to Dominic Cooper will be back for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but not Weaving.

All of this makes the rumor very plausible. And all things considered, this might be the best thing for Renner. He has a burgeoning franchise in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters(which made an inexplicable amount of money overseas), appears to be in line to take over the Mission Impossible franchise in the event Tom Cruise ever lets go of it, and while many view The Bourne Legacy as a disappointing entry into the franchise, it made enough money worldwide that he might be in the mix if they continue with it. While, at Marvel, his next appearance would have been in a similar, low-key capacity in The Avengers 2. Hawkeye wouldn’t be even considered for a solo film until 2016, and there are a lot of characters, concepts and ideas in development ahead of him.

The source also brings up the possibility of the character being recast and appearing on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. If the role is recast, it will probably be with whoever Marvel’s first choice for the role was.

You have to love Kevin Feige. He has provided enough talking points in a recent article on Comic Book Resources to fill fifteen blog posts. I’ll try my best to squeeze them all into this one.

The comments come from a one-on-one interview with CBR News’ Josie Campbell as part of the promotional blitz leading up to May 4th’s The Avengers release. That film was a main talking point, but Feige also touched on Marvel Studios’ past and future.

Let’s start with the now-expected post-credits button scene. Feige explained what that scene will contain:

There’s a reveal at the end — the notion that Loki has made an arrangement with somebody, that somebody has provided these extremely deadly and creepy and cool aliens to fight alongside him and then to reveal who that somebody was, that’s all Joss and that was sort of the big payoff

So, who could the the big baddie of the button scene be? This modus operandi sort of fits Thanos, the cosmic Marvel Comics bad guy that has been long rumored to be included in the film. However, the fact that Joss Whedon appears to be the one who came up with the bad guy could lend credence to the rumor that the villain would be Ord from Whedon’s run on the Astonishing X-Men comic book. Personally, I think it will be the former rather than the latter, if only because Thanos would have more of a wow factor for the comic book fans in the audience.

Feige also touches on the casting of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. If you recall, the recasting of the character caused a bit of controversy back in July of 2010 as Edward Norton was removed from the role, which cause a flurry of statements from Marvel, Norton’s agent, and Norton himself over the brouhaha, before it was announced that Ruffalo signed on. Well, if Norton’s fans were looking for a black hat in all of this, Feige gave them one–Joss Whedon.

There had been discussion as to where to take that character and where to take the part and Joss had some ideas; he came to us and said, ‘I’d like to think about another actor,’ and we said, ‘Well, much of what we like about ‘The Avengers’ is we’re taking all the actors we had before and putting them together again, so we said it depends on who you’re thinking of — if you’re thinking of A, B or C maybe not, if you’re thinking of Mark Ruffalo we’d be open to a conversation. And he goes, ‘Holy shit!’ and takes a list out of his pocket, and at the top of his list was Mark Ruffalo! We had said that because Mark had come very, very close to playing Banner in ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ which Joss had no idea, we never talked about it before. It was one of those moments when you’re so deeply on the same page without even realizing it.”

It’s pretty clear from this quote that jettisoning Norton was Whedon’s idea. Feige doesn’t give a reason, but presents Marvel Studios as being okay with the decision as long as Whedon didn’t go too far off the reservation. It also goes to show how popular Mark Ruffalo is within this realm of Hollywood.

Feige also gave us a little insight into the creative process of how the studios worked with Whedon to keep The Avengers in line with the rest of the Marvel films:

We told him what characters we wanted, we told him how we wanted S.H.I.E.L.D. to be sort of the umbrella organization that tied it all together, we wanted the Helicarrier and we wanted Loki to be the bad guy and sort of that final, final battle in New York. All of the specifics, all of the dialogue, all of the humor and the emotional states of the characters and the interconnected way the characters relate to each other is from the books, from the other movies and from Joss.

For something completely unrelated yet something that caught my eye was Feige’s comment on the differences between the Marvel film adaptations and the DC film adaptations:

I haven’t seen ‘Dark Knight Rises.’ [Christopher] Nolan’s tone is very specific and is pretty awesome and we’re very different. I think that while we have, particularly in ‘Avengers,’ very serious moments and [it] is as dark and serious as the moments in any of our films, there’s a sense of humor that goes along with it that Joss is an expert at and that we believe very strongly that Jon Favreau really helped define in the ‘Iron Man’ films, that allows, we believe, the audience to get in even deeper into the story. There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on in our movies and we want people to believe in them and we want people to relate to them. When they’re laughing, when they’re cheering, you can suddenly hit them with something else — you open up through humor and that tone, that fine line between the epic, the bombastic, the moving and the humor is to me that favorite part of stringing all these movies together.

I find this to be either a savvy piece of marketing or a subtle dig at the DC film slate (or possibly both). This comes on the news reports that the new Superman film, Man of Steel, will be “edgier,” confirming that Warner Brothers’ film group President Jeff Robinov wasn’t joking when he said again and again that DC films would be better if they were as dark and gritty as The Dark Knight.  I always thought that Robinov’s belief that every DC character would benefit from a darker tone was asinine at worst and ill conceived at best, but with this statement, Feige is saying two things. One, we have no problem getting people to see lighter superhero fare and, two, if you want an alternative to the darker, less kid-friendly DC films, bring them over here! Either way, it’s a genius statement.

Feige also hinted at the future of the Marvel film universe, stating that Iron Man 3 will “redefine” the franchise:

‘Iron Man 3′ being the next one up is a very different film than the others. I am a big fan of continuing to redefine what a Marvel movie is, what a comic book movie is; I think we did that with ‘Iron Man,’ we did that with ‘Thor,’ we did that with ‘Cap’ and Joss [Whedon] has helped us doing it now on ‘Avengers.’ Shane Black is helping us do it on ‘Iron Man 3.’

I get the feeling that many people consider Iron Man 2 to be a disappointment.  I don’t, so I really don’t think that it needs redefining. However, I do appreciate the fact that they are tweaking the concept in franchise instead of doing a reboot, which seems so common these days.

And, when asked which of the four most talked about forthcoming Marvel franchises–Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Runaways, and Inhumans–would be the next to come down the pipeline, Feige offered this cryptic statement.

Two of those four are much closer than people realize, and we’ll be talking about them in the coming months!

Go ahead. Place you bets as to what two he’s talking about. I’ll dare ya. You can pick just about any two from the list and have justification in guessing those particular films. tell you what, here’s my choices–Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy. My reasoning: if they will be talking about them in the coming months, they will probably have something to do with The Avengers. Ant-Man is an Avenger in the comic books, and of the four it seems like the one furthest along in the production cycle. And if you are going to introduce a cosmic, intergalactic villain in the final frames of your big summer blockbuster, wouldn’t you want audiences to see them again in the near future? And what better concept to showcase a threat to the Galaxy than in a film centered on the Guardians of the Galaxy?

There’s a lot of other good stuff in the interview. I recommend everyone to check it out.

Ed Norton is currently in negotiations to star opposite Jeremy Renner in David Gilroy’s upcoming The Bourne Legacy. Norton will be playing the villain to Renner’s heroic lead.

Not much is known about the plot of the film outside of the fact that it is a follow up to the Matt Damon-starring Bourne trilogy but will not feature the actor. Instead, the movie will center on another US special agent who was brainwashed into a killing machine by a covert government organization even worse than the one behind the machinations of the previous films.

Director Gilroy is the writer behind the previous installments in the franchise, so he is certainly a good pick to continue things with this new movie. Although this is first crack at helming a Bourne film he has Michael Clayton and Duplicity on his directorial resume and that’s not bad.

What is interesting about the choice of Norton as villain is that he is a much bigger marquee name than Renner. As the first three films centered very much on Damon’s Jason Bourne character, it seems unusual that someone like Norton would take what would be a more supporting role than he usually would. It leads me to believe that perhaps Gilroy is going to be giving his hero’s nemesis more screen time than usual in this outing. Hopefully for Gilroy, Norton won’t be as difficult as some of the stories that came out of the production of 2008′s The Incredible Hulk would lead us to believe.

Via Variety.

Well, if this was true, Edward Norton wasn’t all that hard to replace.

Dateline:Hollywood is reporting that actor Mark Ruffalo is in “late-stage talks” with Marvel Studios to take over the role of Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk in The Avengers.

While Ruffalo might be a great one, I don’t know if I’d call him a “name actor.” He is probably most known for playing the lead opposite Reese Witherspoon in Just Like Heaven. Other than that, he has played character roles in bigger films like Collateral and Reservation Road and leads in indies like You Can Count On Me. He might be a recognizable faxce, but he’s not quite a household name as of yet.

This is not the first time he has been up for a role in a comic book film. MTV”S Splash Page remembers an interview Ruffalo did while promoting Blindness in 2008 where he admitted to auditioning for the role of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. The role eventually went to Aaron Eckhart.

In the same interview, Ruffalo also admitted to being a comic book reader in his younger days (Name dropping Frank Miller and Uncanny X-Men) and expressed doubts that he would ever work in a comic book film. Let’s see if he was wrong on that way of thinking.

We’ve heard the original story that Marvel Studios wasn’t going to be bringing back Edward Norton to reprise his Incredible Hulk role of Dr. Bruce Banner. Then Marvel Studios released an official statement as to why they were going to recast the role. Norton’s agent wasn’t to thrilled with what Marvel had to say, and decided to tell the world about it.

But up until now, the one person who has been strangely silent on the whole controversy is Norton himself. That is, like I said, up until now.

Norton took to his Facebook page and released this statement -

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you take the high road.

Of course, responding with a blistering attack could only be seen as reinforcing Feige’s assertion that Norton is not “an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members.”

Either way, I’m hoping that we have now put the whole story behind us except for seeing who Marvel ultimately casts in the vacated role. Will it be the rumored Joaquim Phoenix? With the San Diego Comic Con coming up next week, I don’t think we have to wait too long to find out.

There’s nothing like a good Hollywood back-and-forth to make the dog days of summer more bearable, right?

The “Edward Norton Dumped By Marvel Drama” continues. We told you Saturday that Marvel Studios Kevin Feige confirmed that Norton would not be asked back to portray Bruce Banner in The Avengers and that the studio would be looking for someone “who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members.” Could be innocuous, could be snarky, all depending on what you read into it.

Well, Edward Norton’s agent, Brian Swardstrom of WME, read into that Marvel was insulting his client. S0 he decided to respond, yesterday, to Drew McWeeny of  Hitfix once again, to tell the Norton camp’s side of the story:

“This offensive statement from Kevin Feige at Marvel is a purposefully misleading, inappropriate attempt to paint our client in a negative light.  Here are the facts:  two months ago, Kevin called me and said he wanted Edward to reprise the role of Bruce Banner in The Avengers.  He told me it would be his fantasy to bring Edward on stage with the rest of the cast at ComiCon and make it the event of the convention.  When I said that Edward was definitely open to this idea, Kevin was very excited and we agreed that Edward should meet with Joss Whedon to discuss the project.  Edward and Joss had a very good meeting (confirmed by Feige to me) at which Edward said he was enthusiastic at the prospect of being a part of the ensemble cast.  Marvel subsequently made him a financial offer to be in the film and both sides started negotiating in good faith.  This past Wednesday, after several weeks of civil, uncontentious discussions, but before we had come to terms on a deal, a representative from Marvel called to say they had decided to go in another direction with the part.  This seemed to us to be a financial decision but, whatever the case, it is completely their prerogative, and we accepted their decision with no hard feelings.

We know a lot of fans have voiced their public disappointment with this result, but this is no excuse for Feige’s mean spirited, accusatory comments.  Counter to what Kevin implies here, Edward was looking forward to the opportunity to work with Joss and the other actors in the Avengers cast, many of whom are personal friends of his.  Feige’s statement is unprofessional, disingenuous and clearly defamatory.  Mr. Norton talent, tireless work ethic and professional integrity deserve more respect, and so do Marvel’s fans.

Brian Swardstrom
WME”

 Whew! First off, can we officially say the “Joss Whedon is directing The Avengers” announcement Marvel was saving for Comic-Con has been spoiled? Because it has.

Second, Feige’s  announcement might have been a tad passive aggressive, but accusatory? Defamatory? I just don’t see that Harry. That leads me to possibly believe that this statement wasn’t 100% cleared with Norton. Who knows, it might have been, but it seems more like a knee jerk reaction than a metered, carefully considered response.

Swardstrom’s statement does seem to confirm McWeeny’s view on the previous meeting between Whedon and Norton. Which kind of makes you wonder where the buck will stop in this. Whose decision was it to bounce Norton? Was it Joss Whedon or Marvel? Or both? or someone else?

The only other question we need to ask is how far will this brouhaha go? There’s a lot of fanning the flames that could happen. Norton makes a statement, FWOOSH! Whedon makes a statement, FWOOSH! Feige is interviewed, FWOOSH! Norton is interviewed, FWOOSH! And so on.

This drama could be far from over. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be more interesting than the actual film.

Behold the power of Drew McWeeny.

Not 24 hours after he broke the rumor of Edward Norton being bounced from The Avengers, he gets an exclusive confirmation from Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige–on a weekend no less!

Yes, Edward Norton and the role of Bruce Banner have parted ways. The is what Feige told McWeeny, and what McWeeny told his readers at Hitfix:

“We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. 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. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.”

Reading between the lines, they are looking for an actor who will fall in line and play ball like a good boy, not extensively re-write the script and butt heads with the director as is rumored that Norton did on the set of Incredible Hulk. Also, Scarlett Johansson will be a part of The Avengers. Which is a good thing.

It also puts to rest the part of the rumor where they were supposedly were to go with an unknown in the role–the only part of original rumor that didn’t sit well with me.

Now let the speculation on who will step in to the role begin. Brendon Connelly over at Bleeding Cool seems to want Nathan Fillion in the role. Two thing make this unlikely, 1) he’s all but confirmed for the role of Ant-Man and 2) he’s would bring much more to the role of Hank Pym. Having Fillion dampen his natural charm and sense of humor to play the tortured and conflicted Banner woudl be like hiring Picasso to paint your house. Could they do it? Yes, but it will really take away from their strengths.

I wonder what Eric Bana is doing right now?

Anyway, as Marvel Studios panel for San Diego Comic Con was announced today, we might find out more answers at 6 p.m. PST on Saturday, July 24 in Hall H.

Hitfix reported yesterday that Marvel will be looking to recast the role of Bruce Banner in the upcoming The Avengers film, replacing Edward Norton with an unknown actor.

Knee-jerk reaction would lead you to believe that the blame should be placed directly on Norton’s shoulders. But according to Hitfix’s Dew McWeeny, who draws from interviews with Norton and information from his sources, Norton was interested, if not excited, about reprising the role. The actor met with director Joss Whedon and according McWeeny’s sources, that meeting went exceedingly well and Norton was rumored to be keeping his schedule clear to accommodate shooting the film.

Well, something happened between then and now because it appears that Norton is out. Mc Weeny assumes that since Marvel is going with a cheaper unknown, that the problem is a matter of money, which McWeeny thinks is silly because he believes Norton would settle for a smaller salary to be able to do the movie.

The reason that this rumor is treated so seriously is because Marvel already showed they would replace an actor with another when salary is an issue. They replaced Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle as James Rhodes in Iron Man 2, and monetary demands were rumored to be one of the reasons.

However, that was a case of replacing an Oscar-nominated, lead-caliber actor with another Oscar-nominated, lead-caliber actor. Replacing Norton with a cheaper unknown might make financial sense, but not be the best way to present your project to an audience.

Of course, this is all speculation at this point. Marvel hasn’t even confirmed Whedon as director on the project yet. If this is real, the reasons could range anywhere from Norton wanting more money to him not being happy with the size of the role in the film to Whedon wanting to cast Alan Tudyk as Bruce Banner. Or it could just be a negotiating tactic to bring Norton in on the cheap. Sources say that we might find out the answers at San Diego Comic-Con. We’ll see then. Maybe.

1. High School Musical 3: Senior Year (3,623 Theaters, 112 Minutes, Rated G): You know, I almost feel sorry for the Saw franchise. They used to own the weeks around Halloween. They’d put out a film the same time each year, have little or no competition, and have the number one film for a couple weeks.

Not this year, however. This film will crush Saw V. If it doesn’t earn twice as much, I will be greatly surprised.

Do not think that it can’t happen. The High School Musical franchise is unbelievably popular. Ask any video store employee. The first two DVD’s go out as soon as they come in, and the sales copies barely get settled on store shelves before they are sold.

It’s so popular that the third film has made the unusual jump from being a made-for-TV film to the big screen.

Seriously, weep for Saw V.

2. Saw V (3,060 Theaters, 88 Minutes, Rated R): Could this be the beginning of the end of the Saw franchise?

No, not because HSM 3 will steal its audience. I doubt anyone would admit being a fan of both franchises. But rather, have these films run their course?

The torture porn trend has lost a lot of its favor with audiences and this series was the granddaddy of it. With each film the franchise moves further away from the original, both in the creative talent involved and in plotline.

I mean, we know there will be a Saw 6. Vh1 is running a reality program to win a role in it. But will there still be an audience there when it hits theaters?

3. Pride and Glory (2,585 Theaters, 125 Minutes, Rated R): If you’re like me, you might have remembered seeing the trailer for this months and months ago. The reason for that is that the film was originally supposed to come out in March and was pushed back.

That is never a good sign. And the fact that it’s opening on a weekend with two other big movies just makes it worse. It seems the studio is just releasing it to get rid of it.

But, really, how bad can any movie starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell be? Sure the plot, involving a family of cops embroiled in a corruption scandal, is fairly common. But these are two actors that could make any movie worth watching.

 

If you didn’t get enough of The Incredible Hulk this summer as he smashed his way through theaters, you can now have him smashing through your own living room on October 12, when the Marvel Comics superhero adaptation hits DVD and Blu-Ray retailers’ shelves.

Universal has put together a pretty good package for both formats, though Blu-Ray owners will get a few extras that won’t be available on the standard DVD release.

Both editions will have an unspecified number of deleted scenes, chief among them, the film’s alternate opening. You may recall that this opening was set in the arctic where a despondent Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) was set to commit suicide rather than allow his alter-ego the Hulk to continue to rampage. Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier stated that in this scene, we would have seen another of the easter eggs that are being scattered through Marvel’s films to help set up an eventual Avengers team film. Additionally, there will be five behind-the-scenes featurettes and an audio commentary track from Leterrier. Each version will also come with a digital copy of the film that can ripped to use on a PC, Mac or iPod.

The Blu-Ray release has several additional features accessed through U Control, which allow the viewer access to additional information without interrupting the film itself and BD-Live features including chat and video clip sharing.