Special effects guru Steve Johnson, who previously released an amazing wealth of pictures from Tim Burton’s preproduction work on an aborted Superman sequel, has released a YouTube video that shows a road not taken on Ang Lee’s 2003 adaptation of Marvel Comic’s Hulk.
Lee, who received a lot of unfair flack for his film’s rubbery CGI, apparently experimented at one time with a fully animatronic version of the Incredible Hulk. You can take a look at the video below, which offers a brief glimpse at how the transformation could have been done practically.
While the idea of a giant robot Hulk is cool (Where is that thing right now? Is it for sale?), all those who complained about the unrealistic nature of the Hulk in Lee’s version would have been up the wall when they saw a Hulk that had all the same facial expression movements of a Hall of Presidents reject.
With technology advancing, though, a robot hulk could work — as filmmakers could always graft a CGI face onto the robot’s body like Spike Jonze did with Where the Wild Things Are.
Those that would have preferred the robot Hulk will get their wish if rumors are to be believed that ABC’s forthcoming Hulk television show will feature a combination of robotics, puppetry and CGI.
