William Hurt (of Lost in Space fame) is set to play General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross in the upcoming Taco Bell big gulp glass tie-in, The Incredible Hulk.
In the 2003 Ang Lee Hulk film, Ross was played by Sam Eliot (the Dude abides… ) and his mustache. A seething bulldog of pent-up rage, this version of Ross was the Marvel Comic character ramped up to 11.
While Hurt is a capable actor, he is also a very sensitive and nuanced man with more of a bent toward intellectual and caring roles (if you ignore the absolutely stellar performance he gave in A History of Violence). The Incredible Hulk film is looking more and more like a very unique movie… and I mean that in a good way.
Silver Surfer (who as of this writing has still not seen life on the big screen in his Fantastic Four 2 film), is already getting considered for a spin-off movie. The writer lined up to work on it is Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. An experienced comic scribe of some notability, JMS has breathed new and controversial life into The Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics. Something of a Stan Lee-type, he will undoubtedly bring a polished air of grandeur to the project.
Rumor also has it that goldilocks (seen here at a local Magic the Gathering tournament) himself is set to thump the silver screen alive with his magic hammer (sounds like an exotic dancer, doesn’t it?). The Mighty Thor is rumored to have Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn working on it… sure… that makes sense. A hooligan head-thumping working class Thor might be just the way to go.
This just in from the illustrious Greg Moutafis:
Marvel has also developed the first soap-opera/comic book crossover property with the daily program ‘Guiding Light.’
Trailer below:
Part genius, part saddening, this is. I mean, remember how lame and run into the ground ‘virtual reality’ was? Each version of it was painful to the extreme, movies, TV, comics… all of it sucked. But with this kind of cross-platform appeal, super heroes have officially become lamer than virtual reality.
This is how the comic book super hero boom ends… and we haven’t even seen a Watchmen movie yet.
So, uh… don’t forget to TiVo the November episodes, right?
