Hulk SMASH!

So I was checking out the filmsketchr blog and realized that I had worked on several live-action versions of The Hulk over the years. In fact, the only one I haven't worked on was the new Avengers version.

The first version I did was a bid that ILM was doing to get work on a 1997 version of the Hulk.  This one was to be directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and feature The Absorbing Man amongst other monster types as the bad guys. We did quite a few pencil sketches to get an idea of what he might look like.

I did an "expression chart" as well as a photoshop comp to give an idea of what the green guy might look like.

This version never got made.  However, with the CG technology getting better and better, there was no doubt that someone would try it again. Lo and behold, Ang Lee threw his hat into the ring a mere four years later.  Again, ILM put in a bid to work on it and had the art department put together an art presentation.  I didn't get to see the script at that point, but on a lark, put Hulk in a scene chased by helicopters in the desert ( there happened to be a scene like that in the script, after all )

I did a version of Hulk that was kind of neanderthalish. My idea here being that Hulk should be to Banner, what a kitten is to a lion.

I also did a photoshop version with Billy Crudup as the Hulk.  Early on, Crudup was slated to play Banner before changing his mind and dropping out of the project.

In 2007, I went to Toronto to work on Louis Leterrier's version.  I wasn't involved in the design of the Hulk, but worked as a storyboard artist.  Oddly, most of the sequences I worked on ( mainly the favela sequence ) involved Bruce Banner and not the Hulk.  Below was a sequence I worked on that did have the Hulk.

Hope you enjoyed my trip through Hulk memories!