Screenwriter talks "Hulk", "Punisher" and Beyond
A two part interview with "Hulk" screenwriter Michael France, where he talks about how his interest in comic books led to his current work. France also comments on "The Punisher" and some other upcoming projects.
Comic book movies are big business in Hollywood these days. Michael France is one of a handful of screenwriters that has carved a niche for himself in the burgeoning superhero genre. He wrote a draft of "The Fantastic Four" and more recently penned a script for "The Punisher." He'll even admit to writing a TV pilot script for "Green Arrow." ("That one's almost like jury duty for action screenwriters," France said. "I think they've done about twenty different pilots for that.")
However, his first comic-to-film effort to make it to the silver screen is Friday's "Hulk." France was hired onto the project at two different times and he, along with John Turman and James Schamus, is credited with the screenplay.
Comics2Film/CBR News talked to France about his interest in comics and his work on "Hulk."
ORIGINS
France broke into the industry with his spec script "Cliffhanger," which he sold in 1991. "When I was writing the thing I thought it was so expensive it would never get made. I thought it would just turn into a writing sample so I could get assignment work," France told C2F. "It sold and it went into production almost immediately, and it was very expensive to make, but it turned out alright."
Indeed, "Cliffhanger" turned out to be one of Sylvester Stallone's better action movies and a box-office success as well. From there he took on another big-screen hero, penning the James Bond installment "GoldenEye." Soon Marvel and Fox had him writing the script for "Fantastic Four"
"Everyone at Marvel like the way 'Fantastic Four' turned out so that led to my being offered 'Hulk,'" France said.
Then, in 1997, Marvel brought France in to do a rewrite of "Hulk," although his time on the project turned out to be short-lived. Jonathan Hensleigh ("The Punisher") was hired to make his directorial debut on the movie and wanted to go in a completely different direction than the previous efforts. France was fired from the project before he had written a single page.
RETURN OF THE MONSTER
France says he has no hard feelings over the situation, though. "They wound up bringing me back in a couple of years later when the Hensleigh version did not get made," France said.
In 1999 the comic fan and screenwriter began his proper tour on the project, turning in work that would ultimately be part of the final film. His plan was to put more focus on Banner and the psychology of the character.
"I wanted to go back to the real roots of the comics. There was something else that I wanted to try, that I knew hadn't been tried in the recent development of it and I didn't know that it had been tried at all," France told C2F/CBR News. "That was, I knew about the comic material that had been done in the eighties when Peter David wrote storylines that involved Banner's family past, that he had an abusive father and that really impacted on his psychology. That background made him afraid of the anger that he's buried inside himself. I wanted to make him afraid of his own anger even before he developed his little Hulk problem -- so that when the Hulk does appear, it's that much more devastating. It's his nightmare of who he really is, blown up ten feet wide and fifteen feet high..
"I wanted to get into that. I knew that the key of doing this thing would be to get into Banner's character, instead of just the spectacle of it.. I wanted to look for ways of dealing with the human character aspects of it so I brought in the family background from the comics."
This same element had appeared in the earliest drafts penned by John Turman, although France didn't know that at the time. While the studio had not been receptive to the inclusion of Banner's father (played by Nick Nolte in the movie) during those first drafts, they were now willing to reconsider.
"That's just something that happens in development. For whatever reason they weren't ready to hear it when Turman started his screenplay, and I think maybe because they'd gone down a couple of blind alleys very recently, everybody was ready for that approach when I came on."
DA BOMB?
France also knew that the origin of the character would have to be tweaked. Most modern audiences know well that getting exposed to massive doses of radiation typically doesn't lead to beneficial side effects, so the gamma bomb story from the comic books had to be reworked.
"A larger concern that I had was that Banner was basically building the bomb to end all bombs and it seemed to me that a guy who had the background that he had, who faced cruelty as a child, that he would want to use his skills and intelligence to make the world a better place instead of just trying to build better bomb craters," France told C2F.
"So I changed his background and made him a civilian scientist who was looking at peaceful, beneficial uses for gamma rays."
France's research on the subject revealed that there are actually serious scientific endeavors afoot to harness gamma rays for beneficial purposes, such as medical treatments.
"So I thought it would make sense for him to be a guy working in the San Francisco scientific community. I had him invent a gamma generator called the Gammasphere -- and I also had Banner looking into gamma assisted ways of changing cells from the inside out, as a way of developing a cancer cure. Those were some of the mechanics of changing the origin that I brought to it," France said.
HUMANS AND VILLAINS
Another France contribution that ended up in the final film was one of the super villains. While the Leader, who appeared in many early drafts, isn't in the movie, another character from the comics does make an appearance, though in different form. Without giving too much away, France brought in this character and he appears in a substantial role, albeit in altered form, in the movie. "If you know the comic, you'll recognize the character but I think you'll be surprised how he's used.
While the fan in him wanted super villains and a story that was true to Hulk's "Tales to Astonish" run, France began to realize that the human components were more interesting.
"At a certain point when I was doing the script I suggested to Marvel that we make the movie half as expensive and twice as good by just forgetting the super villain stuff and dealing with that. It would be the Hulk versus the military and basically the Hulk versus Banner. He's gotta deal with these problems."
Just as the decision to include the father was rejected and later accepted, the studio dismissed France's suggestion to discard the super villain plot.
"For whatever reasons they didn't want to hear it when I said it, and again, this is just something that happens in development, th