Signs that The Hulk may hail from The Village

With news breaking over the weekend that Marvel had decided not to retain Edward Norton’s Gamma Ray-exposing talents for “The Avengers”, you can pretty much guarantee every agent, manager and self-represented thirty-something actor has shot off an email to Kevin Feige, with it’s contents pertaining to just how perfect they’d be to play cinema’s (3rd) Incredible Hulk.

But if Feige’s statement is anything to go by, the comic-book movie conglomerate would seem to be after another another A-lister (Speaking of, Rob Lowe is interested. I can’t imagine he’d be the first guy on Marvel’s list – if only because the Lowester is more of a tele-guy than film-guy these days – but yeah, he might be work. Supposedly a big comics fan, too) so no need for any part-time waiters to send in their headshot to Marvel.

(Wonder if any of the guys that were shortlisted for the Banner role the first couple of times around (when Uni were casting “Hulk” and “Incredible Hulk”, respectively) – like, David Duchovny, Jeff Goldblum, or Billy Crudup – will be reaching out to Feige? Wouldn’t surprise me.)

The company has already, according to my mate Devin at CHUD, put out an offer to one bigwig – Joaquin Phoenix. Now whether Phoenix, who spent the last couple of years fooling Hollywood into thinking he’d transformed into an unintelligible white rapper that’s allergic to showers, has an interest in playing a superhero is anyone’s guess. He’s a picky son-of-a-gun, so he might possibly have already have nixed the offer. Personally, can’t imagine he would be too interested in playing the alter-ego of a computer generated image, not to mention a character that two of his peers has already played.

Still…What gets me, is that Marvel reportedly ditched Norton because either a) he was too expensive (says Norton’s agent) or b) he’s difficult to work with – do they not know of Phoenix’s reputation!? He’s not only just as costly, he’s apparently a bit of a headache to work with. Confusing. But then, none of this Norton/Marvel predicament makes much sense at the moment, does it!?