Ang Lee did not want to think of his next project after completing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon three years ago.
He thought he would not think of any film for many months, but he knew he was trapped when Universal Pictures, who had heard whispers about Crouching Tiger, approached the Taiwanese-raised director and asked him to direct the sci-fi adventure The Hulk.
At $110 million, it would be the biggest film of Lee's career, which has included films like Sense And Sensibility, the British classic, and Crouching Tiger, the Chinese martial art drama. The last film, his most expensive, had cost about $40 million.
Ang Lee called the new project his new Green Destiny, referring to the magical sword in Crouching Tiger.
Based on a hugely popular Marvel Comics series, The Hulk, starring emerging idol Eric Bana and Oscar winners Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) and Nick Nolte (Affliction), is the story of a young man who comes from a very complicated background. He puts on gargantuan weight and assumes superman power when his rage erupts.
'The comics dealt with huge issues and fears,' Lee recalls in the production notes of the movie, which opens across America on June 20 and is expected to have a huge three-day weekend. Many expect the film, despite its darker edges, to be among the five top grossers of the year.
'I feel everyone has a Hulk inside and each of our Hulks is both scary and potentially pleasurable,' Lee continues. 'That's the scariest thing about them.'
Lee felt the challenge of making The Hulk was in a way similar to the challenge he faced when he created Crouching Tiger. The new film too had to be a classy work while offering enough entertainment. The new movie, he says, 'is a weird mixture of pop culture and realistic drama'.
To combine something that is visually exciting, very free, and almost like a childhood fantasy with the reality of psychodrama, comedy, and romance seemed daunting, he adds.
'The toughest thing for a filmmaker is to keep it balanced,' Lee says. 'It's like walking a constant tightrope and that's a thrill for me.'
The Hulk is not just about one very angry person. It is also about scientific fraud, parental manipulation, corporate greed, fractured home lives, and suppressed dark memories.
Bana, who acted in several small Australian films, including Chopper, in which he played a killer who has considerable charm, made quite an impression in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. His voice is also heard in the top hit of the week, Finding Nemo.
As The Hulk is widely expected to push Nemo to second place, Bana will be in an enviable position: starring in two, back-to-back big hits over the weekend.
'Eric played a kind of human monster in Chopper,' Lee notes, 'someone who was so monstrous because he was so human, too.'
'With a simple look, he could communicate a kind of superhuman fury and intelligence,' Lee adds. 'I thought it would be marvellous to see him as Bruce Banner [the scientist who metamorphoses into The Hulk], having suppressed that energy until he couldn't take it anymore.'
Bana was attracted to The Hulk's character because he found him to be 'a slightly reluctant hero'.
'The Hulk can't control being The Hulk, really,' the actor muses. 'Batman goes into a cave, Superman goes into a phone booth --- but it just comes over the Hulk... He flies into rage when pushed to the extreme, and within a few seconds, he becomes an entirely different creature.'
