Hulk was in development for years before Ang Lee's version, and some concept art for the unproduced film for Jonathan Hensleigh's film are online thanks to concept artist Kerry Gammill (Virus, Species 2, Phantoms)
In April 1997, Joe Johnston was directing with the film's title as The Incredible Hulk. Hensleigh was asked to write the script since he worked with Johnston on Jumanji. In 1997, Johnston dropped out of directing and Hensleigh stepped in for his directing debut. Hensleigh wrote a script featuring Bruce Banner experimenting with gamma-irradiated insect DNA on three convicts before becoming the Hulk. This transforms the convicts into murderous mutant "insect men." Lynn "Red" Williams, a former American Gladiator was cast as one of the three "insect men." He transforms into a combination of human, ant and beetle.
Kerry Gammill describes the art this way.
These designs were for an unproduced movie version of "Hulk" which was cancelled in pre-production a few years before the Ang Lee version went into production with a new script.
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I'm not digging the whole idea of "insect men" (just hearing that would
ReplyDeletemake someone go "Insect Men?? Pfft..."), however, what I AM lovin is
that AMAZING Hulk concept! Now THIS is how he should've been in The Hulk
(which I hated btw...)
I worked on this version too. I remember the story a bit different though. As I remember it, Jonathan Hensleigh was the original director, and did some development on it, but dropped out. The script was brought to Johnston to look at, but he passed on it.
ReplyDeletePersonally I'm glad this version died. The other versions were much truer to the source material