Comparing Hulk remake to BG

LucianG · February 14th, 2003, 09:19 PM

Someone suggested that remaking The Hulk, scheduled for release in August of this year, is akin to remaking Battlestar Galactica. I really don't see it that way, so perhaps the title of this thread should be "Comparing Hulk remake to BG--NOT!" or something equally silly. Seriously, I belive there are major differences, and others may be able to suggest even more.

First, The Hulk didn't originate on the screen. The character had been in the comic books for a number of years before the tv show began. Battlestar Galactica, on the other hand, originated on tv, so the only frame of reference fans have is to the original characters, same as with Star Trek or Star Wars. When the comic books came out, the characters generally looked like the actors. When people think of Starbuck, they "see" Dirk Benedict.

Second, when The Hulk hit the air, it was already significantly different than the original material. Yes, some people complained at that time that it was different, that David wasn't Bruce, etc. Battlestar Galactica WAS the original material, so there was nothing to which it could be compared. Sure, some people claimed that it was a Star Wars rip-off, but anyone who watched the show could see that though there were visual similarities, it was new and different.

Sadly, a continuation of The Hulk series is no longer possible without recasting the lead character, since Bill Bixby died of cancer sometime ago. In The Hulk, time does not enhance the show since it is not meant to be an epic. Sadly, too, Lorne Greene and John Colicos of Battlestar Galactica, have passed, but there are a couple of major differences when it comes to a possible continuation. Unlike The Hulk series, Battlestar Galactica had an ensemble cast. Two of the three main characters are still alive and eager to continue their roles. More importantly, because of the nature of the story, a continuation twenty to thirty years after the original actually adds to the epic nature of the story. The human fight for survival is not told in just a season or a mini-series, but over the course of countless years. By picking up and going forward as a continuation after all these years, the epic nature of the work is enhanced, opening the possibility of many new storylines for characters, both new and original.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, there is not a large fan base of The Hulk out there actively campaigning for a continuation of the tv show. The show ran its course. In a very brief, very unscientific sampling, I located two websites dedicated to the original series, and both were linked to the same Hulk discussion board. Battlestar Galactica was never given that chance to mature as a series, so many of us still campaign for it, including a great number of webmasters running websites dedicated to the show. There are many more people who would love to see it return to continue with some of the original characters, actors, and actresses, and with the original themes.

What difference does this make? Evidently, in the eyes of those in charge of the new BG production, very little. Still, as a fan of the original show, I'm going to keep trying to pound the point across to TPTB that a continuation, or at minimum, a prequel or distant sequel that preserves the original, is the best option. Sometimes, thinking of it really makes me angry. Oh no! I think I hear my shirt ripping!

Tony

February 15th, 2003, 12:40 AM

That I see is that Bill Bixby, the center of the series,is dead. But Richard Hatch, and Dirk Benedict, the center of BSG, are still very much alive.

Titon · February 15th, 2003, 06:08 AM

Not to take the subject off track but has anyone seen the previews for this thing?

Ummm, this has major flop written all over it.

thomas7g · February 15th, 2003, 06:30 AM

Can't be worse than the Captain America movie

Hito · February 15th, 2003, 10:18 PM

Sorry.
Ang Lee does not = Flop by any strech of the imaginaiton.
The Hulk is going to be as big as Spiderman when it opens.

LucianG · February 16th, 2003, 12:19 PM

Hito,

You may be right that it will be big; however, I haven't heard the buildup for The Hulk that I heard about Spiderman. Fortunately, it is several months before the movie premieres, so they have plenty of time to market it. Also, it may be that I'm just too far removed from the Marvel scene, but I don't remember the Hulk ever being as popular as Spiderman. Much of the success of The Incredible Hulk series on TV was due to the fact that they were able to pull in adults, like my mother, who were not typical comic book fans. I think this was due to the stories that didn't center on goofy comic book villans but on more "believable" situations, and to Bill Bixby, a great TV presence from the 60's and 70's in The Courtship of Eddie's Father and The Magician.

Still, I hope they make a good movie and that it is successful.

Titon · February 16th, 2003, 01:14 PM

Universal is going to have serious problems with this movie. The reason the Hulk flourished on tv and became a legend was the strong presence that Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno had as alter ego's. Lou made the Hulk in my mind and to try and make a movie with a *human* character and a fully created cgi Hulk is a mistake. The effects so far look extremely cheesy and for that i do believe Universal should have thought hard about using a human character to portray the Hulk. Worked on tv why not the movies?

thomas7g · February 16th, 2003, 01:55 PM

What I think made the old Hulk series work was the classy aura Bill Bixby lent to it. Without it the show would have gotten way too campy and tiresome fast.

btw- besides Crouching Tiger what else has Ang Lee done?

Hito · February 16th, 2003, 08:14 PM

It's true thet the TV series only worked because of Bixpy.
Because they had to do storys without the kind of budget that would let the tell comic book they had to retool the character with an eye toward those limitaitons.

The Film Hulk will succede exactly for the same reasons Superman, Spiderman, X-Men, Blade and Batman did.
Name recognition and the general publics farmiiarity with the character from comic books, cartoons and other merchandise.
Plus it will be an "event" movie like Indepandance Day.
Add to that Ang Lee's name recoginiton that they will hype by saying "from the director of crouching tiger, hidden dragon"

The only way they can bring the hulk to the screen as he existed in the comics is to have him be a CGI actor.
The savage green hulk was so huge that there is no way a human can play him (he held up an entire mountan range!!).
The FX from the trailer were obviously raw and unfinished.
Early previews of Spiderman didnt look much better.
By the time it heis the theaters it will have been properly tweaked.

Quote:

Chinese Name: Li An
Lee has directed a remarkably diverse series of films, including the clash-of-cultures comedy The Wedding Banquet (1993), the Jane Austen period romance Sense and Sensibility (1995), the 1970s suburban drama The Ice Storm (1997), and the martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). The latter film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Film. Sense and Sensibility was also nominated for Best Picture of 1995, and The Wedding Banquet was nominated as Best Foreign Picture of 1993. Born in Taiwan, Lee attended college at the University of Illinois and film school at New York University.

LucianG · February 16th, 2003, 08:44 PM

Okay, based on that, and assuming we can find a babysitter, it looks like I'll be going to see it, good or bad. Sense and Sensibility is one of my wife's and older daughter's favorite movies (yawn!), and my wife liked CTHD, so she'll probably want to see it.

At least in this one with CGI, we'll probably get to see The Hulk do one of his incredible jumps, which they couldn't do on tv.