I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1181: The New Hulk]

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Eric faced the daunting task of casting the main characters for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In recent months, with the massive success of Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been fully launched as planned. One of the most important tasks was selecting the new members of the Avengers.

Since the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe project had been moved up nearly ten years, many of the characters Eric remembered from past references were no longer suitable.

Of course, there were a few actors who were 'ready-made.' For example, the role of Thor had already been filled by Brad Pitt, whom Eric had secured a few years earlier. After The X-Files concluded, Brad's career in Hollywood faced some obstacles, but when Firefly Group extended the invitation, he quickly agreed and signed a long-term contract for six films.

Additionally, the actor for Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner, was also established in the industry. Born in 1971, he was now 28 years old, making him a suitable choice. Under Eric's direction, this character was promptly confirmed.

Other characters -- such as the Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, and some standout supporting roles -- were still in the casting process.

Firefly Group's plan for the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe consisted of nine films, covering the span from 1999 to 2004, a total of five years. So far, Iron Man and Spider-Man filled two of the nine slots. Captain America, Thor, and ultimately The Avengers would take up another three slots. The remaining two films were reserved for The Hulk.

On the original timeline, the films The Hulk from 2003 and The Incredible Hulk from 2008 could only be described as failures. There were many reasons for this: the wrong choice of director, arbitrary replacement of actors, creative conflicts between the lead and the director, and so forth.

Additionally, due to the Hulk's unique character design, this comic book character was indeed more challenging to adapt than any other superhero. However, as one of Marvel's most popular superheroes, if done right, the Hulk could certainly achieve unexpected success.

In Eric's view, even though both previous Hulk films were utter failures, each had themes that aligned well with the Hulk's timeline. One told the origin story of the Hulk, while the other focused on Bruce Banner's struggle for control over the Hulk.

The new Marvel Cinematic Universe would still adopt this timeline and, in fact, needed to do so. The original Hulk, after transformation, was incredibly violent and completely irrational, making it impossible for this version of the Hulk to join the Avengers. Therefore, it was crucial to develop a sequel that completed Bruce Banner's journey towards self-control.

In contrast, Captain America would simply need to tell an origin story, and Thor would also only require one introductory film.

Based on these plans, not counting the already licensed X-Men series, The Hulk would become the third member of the Avengers to hit the big screen after Iron Man and Spider-Man.

With Iron Man now a success, Eric did not want to rely on a single actor holding up the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Robert Downey Jr. once did. He hoped that the other superheroes could excel as well.

The Hulk series was the most difficult to film, but if executed well, with the Hulk's destructive power, there was no question this superhero could be as beloved by audiences as Iron Man and Spider-Man.

Because of all these reasons, combined with the previous failures of The Hulk's initial films, Eric was particularly attentive to this superhero's film.

In order to allow the new version of The Hulk to undergo a complete transformation, Eric directly eliminated Eric Bana, Edward Norton, and Mark Ruffalo from consideration to play the Hulk.

The Eric Bana version of The Hulk failed to leave much of an impression on Eric, while Edward Norton's challenging personality in real life meant he was also excluded. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's director would have too little say if they relied on an actor as controlling as Norton.

As for Mark Ruffalo, due to the past success of the Avengers series, he was undoubtedly the most accepted Hulk actor by audiences.

However, the Hulk portrayed by this actor lacked any particular highlights. This was evident from the actor's salary revealed during the Avengers series; as one of Marvel's most popular superheroes, Ruffalo's pay for playing the Hulk was even lower than that of Jeremy Renner, who played Hawkeye.

There was no doubt that if they used Mark Ruffalo, Firefly Group could save a considerable amount on actor salaries, but suppressing pay was never Eric's primary goal. Firefly had always emphasized cost control, but fundamentally desired to keep obvious salaries in a more fair and reasonable range. If the actor playing the Hulk could personally pull in $1 billion at the box office, Eric certainly would not mind paying over $20 million in exorbitant fees. On the flip side, if The Hulk movie failed at the box office, Eric wouldn't agree to have the lead act for free or even pay to perform.

...

At Firefly Studios, Eric spent the last few days personally overseeing the final round of auditions for the Avengers actors.

Today's audition subjects were several candidates for Bruce Banner, and coincidentally, Jeffrey Katzenberg was also available to attend. Along with Joss Whedon, who had also become a creative core of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the audition team today was exceptionally strong.

Due to the success of Iron Man and the perceived importance the Firefly Group attached to the Avengers, virtually every leading male star in Hollywood showed interest in the roles for the Avengers series.

However, Eric wasn't too fond of casting overly famous male stars. He didn't want a situation like in The Incredible Hulk where audiences saw the Hulk and their first thought was of Edward Norton instead of Bruce Banner.

Thus, during the casting selection, the foremost criterion for the creative team was whether the actor fit the role. They didn't place too much importance on star power. This led to almost all Hollywood leading stars interested in the Hulk being eliminated by the time they advanced to the final round of auditions. Recently, this caused quite the stir in Hollywood media, which had been closely following the developments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As dusk approached and the last auditionee left, Eric and the others leaned back in their chairs, somewhat fatigued.

The number of actors auditioning today had been quite small -- only five had made it through various rounds to reach the final stage. However, starting from 9 AM, each candidate had auditioned for nearly two hours, leading to their rather late conclusion.

Although Eric treated each auditionee equally, after a day's auditions, it was clear to everyone that Eric had personal preferences.

...

Taking a few sips of coffee brought by his secretary, Katzenberg, who sat next to Eric, didn't immediately bring up today's auditions but instead shifted to another topic: "The other day at a party, I ran into Richard Parsons. He mentioned Warner Bros. may be rebooting the Batman series first."

Eric relaxed as he flipped through a dossier in front of him, eyeing the prominent name "Christian Bale" on the list with a subtle smile. "I thought it would be Superman. Now isn't the best time for a Batman reboot."

With the successful launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner Bros., holding a gold mine in DC, naturally wouldn't fall behind. Eric initially had thoughts of subtly controlling the pace of Warner's DC movie universe development for that reason and had even been instrumental in hiring Nolan for this purpose.

However, due to the altered landscape of Hollywood history, Warner neither secured the rights to The Lord of the Rings nor developed Harry Potter. Thus, to prevent its film business from declining, an early development of the DC franchise became necessary.

"Indeed, it's not a great time. Audiences certainly haven't forgotten the 'deep' impression left by Batman & Robin," Katzenberg remarked, savoring the situation. "Warner wants to develop Superman. However, the production rights to Superman are controlled by Jon Peters. Following the major success of Iron Man, and with Warner recently having spoiled Batman's reputation, Peters would naturally be looking for a good deal. Since negotiations with him fell through, Warner had no choice but to refocus its attention on Batman again."

Jon Peters was the former partner to Peter Guber who managed Columbia Pictures for Sony in previous years. However, before that, Guber and Peters had their own production companies affiliated with Warner Bros., similar to Jerry Bruckheimer's setup.

Back then, to lure these two, Sony as sucker, paid a huge amount of breach of contract fees for them. The result showed that these guys were not ordinary, but that was a side matter.

Neither DC nor Marvel had cared much about superhero film rights prior to the 1990s, leading to a lack of stringent protection like seen years later.

During the late 1980s, while operating under Warner Bros., Peters' production company acquired the film rights to Superman and had held onto them ever since.

In the 1990s, as Warner Bros. produced success after success with the Batman series, the value of superhero rights started becoming apparent. However, due to a variety of reasons -- mainly due to tangled interests -- the Superman movie series hadn't launched for years.

Because of unresolved copyright issues, as Eric recalled, after the live-action Superman films starring Christopher Reeve in the '70s and '80s, it wasn't until 2006 that Superman Returns finally hit theaters, a full 20 years after the previous version.

The media often delighted in discussing the 'twists of fate' surrounding Marvel superheroes, yet Clark Kent's story was far more tumultuous.

At the end of last year, Eric handed Nolan's project, Memento, to Columbia. The film was now complete, but Columbia, wanting to focus on building its reputation, planned to release Memento after the upcoming Sundance Film Festival next year, in the Easter timeframe afterward.

This meant Nolan would have to wait until next year even if he wanted to showcase his skills. Moreover, one film wasn't enough to secure him the opportunity to reboot the Batman series. After all, this British director was probably still unfamiliar with Hollywood's production processes, needing to complete one or two more films before getting to handle big-budget productions.

While Eric was eager to support Nolan in replicating the success of the Batman series, he also didn't want to rush things.

After considering, Eric said to Katzenberg, "Can we coordinate to have Warner prioritize starting the Superman series, even if it's with other superheroes? I have other plans for Batman."

Katzenberg pondered for a moment and answered, "Well, it's actually straightforward; we just need to work something out with Jon Peters to reignite the Superman series."

Eric ran his finger over the actor dossier in front of him and asked, "What's Jon Peters currently working on?"

Katzenberg replied, "That film, Wild Wild West. You should be aware of it, right?"

Eric suddenly remembered that last time, Bill Mechanic mentioned to him that Jon Peters was collaborating with Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld to create a retro sci-fi film, Wild Wild West, which completely emulated the style of Men in Black. Eric had found the news somewhat jarring and had instructed Bill Mechanic to push the underperforming Wild Wild West into Warner Bros.

Clearly, even though they hadn't agreed on Superman, it hadn't prevented Peters from working with Warner.

Chuckling with resignation, Eric didn't want to say much in front of Joss Whedon and the others, so he merely remarked, "Keep an eye on it when you can. If you can intervene, that would be best. Of course, outwardly we shouldn't interfere too much."

Katzenberg nodded in understanding. The Firefly network had already established a considerable presence in Hollywood, and America Online-Time Warner surely wanted to shed the label of being part of the Firefly system.

Thus, both parties instinctively kept a low profile regarding Firefly's investments in America Online-Time Warner Group, which was a major stakeholder in the latter; outwardly, they even projected a sense of rivalry.

Of course, America Online-Time Warner genuinely wanted to compete with the Firefly system, but the Firefly system merely pretended to make some gestures; Eric had never taken the scattered America Online-Time Warner Group too seriously.

After chatting a bit longer, Katzenberg glanced at the actor dossier in front of Eric and asked, "So, Christian Bale or Jim Caviezel, which one do you prefer?"

Christian Bale was, needless to say, the lead in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Jim Caviezel was better known for his role as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ and John Reese in Person of Interest, and currently worked in minor roles in some movies and T.V. series.

Eric hoped that the new Hulk actor, before transformation, resembled a polite, refined college professor rather than the earnestness of Mark Ruffalo or Edward Norton's edginess. It was also true that Eric Bana's version had been a better fit, except the performance left little lasting impression.

Ultimately, among the final five candidates, based on some references from memory and the audition performance, Eric felt most satisfied with Christian Bale and Jim Caviezel.

*****

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