The Hulk
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28 Days Later
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DVD
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By David E. Williams
Unit photography by Peter Sorel, SMPSP
Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures.

The long-running Marvel Comics title The Incredible Hulk was unleashed by creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1962, during the same prolific creative wave that introduced Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. An atom-age retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 classic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Hulk chronicled yet another example of well-meaning science gone horribly wrong: Dr. Bruce Banner is bathed in gamma radiation during a genetics experiment, resulting in his occasional-yet-uncontrollable physical transformation into a Frankenstein-like giant who is endowed with superhuman powers but has the I.Q. and temperament of an infant. Triggered by embarrassment or rage, Banner's split-personality "problem" soon becomes a national-security issue involving fighter jets, tanks, helicopter gunships and military troops.

This pop-art take on timeless themes struck a chord with readers and made The Hulk one of Marvel's most popular titles. It later spawned the 1978-82 television series starring Bill Bixby as Banner and green-tinted bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as his uptight alter ego. The show made famous Banner's standard warning to his tormenters: "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

A big-screen Hollywood adaptation of The Hulk languished in development for years before being rescued by filmmaker Ang Lee, whose Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon added "action director" to his already diverse resume; Lee's filmography also includes Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm. Lee explains that while making Crouching Tiger, he discovered that he had an interest in mixing pulp fiction with straight drama: "That combination totally fascinates me, and I was kind of earning my way to being allowed to do what I wanted to, so I indulged myself. And after Crouching Tiger, the chance was there: I was respected enough to do what I wanted to do with a bigger canvas. Then I heard from James Schamus [Lee's writing and producing partner] that such a project was available at Universal. The Hulk clicked right away.

“I called it my new 'green destiny,'" he adds, comparing the protagonist of The Hulk to the mystical jade sword that drives the drama in Crouching Tiger. "It's a perfect psychodrama, and it's really promising: you can experiment with how to bring the excitement of the fantasy world and the emotional projection of the comic world to a realistic image. The most difficult part of making this movie was finding the balance, because if it's total comic book - as many summer blockbusters are - then you're asking too much if you want the audience to invest real emotions. I tried to juggle both."

Toward this end, Lee turned to cinematographer Frederick Elmes, ASC to help him give genuine dramatic life to what many might see as a pure popcorn picture. Asked about his first impressions on the project, Elmes smiles and says, "In simplistic terms, this film is about Bruce Banner and the repression of his feelings. It's a journey from light into dark - the very dark world of the Hulk - and that's what intrigued me. How would we use lighting and color to illustrate that?"

Elmes and Lee had previously collaborated on The Ice Storm, a tale of emotional discord during the 1970s, Ride With the Devil, a soulful take on the Civil War, and Chosen, one of the short films used to advertise BMWs. Interestingly, when the pair initially discussed The Hulk, they came to the conclusion that it would be more of a mystery than an effects film, despite the obvious need for visual effects. "We made a mystery film in which one of the characters has a problem and gets very big and very green once in a while," says Elmes, whose willingness to experiment and sensitivity to character have made him a favorite collaborator for independent-minded directors such as David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart), Jim Jarmusch (Night on Earth) and Todd Solondz (Storytelling). "So how does that fit into the visualization of the story? That was the challenge. Everybody who's heard about the comic book wants to see the Hulk early on, so the first time Banner 'hulks out,' we did a little teasing. We made it clear that he was about to change, but when he does, the laboratory is dark. It's night, he's working late, and the ensuing havoc is shrouded in darkness until the end of the scene, when you get to see his eyes just a little bit."

However, even this approach was not easily determined by Elmes, whose creative process is one marked by meticulous investigation and planning. The cinematographer did not take a crash course in nuclear genetics to prepare for The Hulk, but instead broke down the script's emotional and action beats, interpreting them into colors and textures and then using those impressions to construct a complex, oversized poster chart. The chart maps out the entire film as a timeline decorated with scene-specific colored graphs, reference images culled from surrealist and abstract paintings chosen by Lee, location-scout photos and detailed notations in what Elmes jokingly calls his "secret code."

Pointing to specific areas of the chart as he speaks, Elmes details the film's drama: "At the story's onset, Banner is a very troubled person and an outsider. To convey his emotional state when he's confronted by his repressed feelings, we used colors and textures of light that created a sense of unease. We wanted the audience to feel his turmoil. As the Hulk emerges, we strip all of that light away; it's dark and you don't see much. Then, as his character continues to evolve and gain energy, the Hulk loses his fear of being outside in the daylight. The film follows the Hulk's journey through the Utah desert, a place with no comforting shadows in which to hide. It's a big, sunlit environment with colors we haven't seen in the film before - reds, browns and brighter colors than the more subdued and repressed hues of earlier scenes. From this point, the story follows his quest to return home.

"I'm probably the only one who could possibly understand the chart," Elmes adds a bit sheepishly, "but it was a useful tool that helped me stay on track. The shoot was very long and fragmented, and we were dealing with dozens of sets, many of which were on location." To help communicate his vision, the cinematographer supplied key members of his crew with a pocket-sized edition of his gel chart to facilitate the tracking of the colors they were using.

Another key relationship for Elmes was with production designer Rick Heinrichs. "We talked about the emotional values of colors and how they related to the characters. We tested wallpapers and paints until we were confident we had the film's look right."