Interesting… I just learned from Michael May’s Adventure Blog that there’s another Hulk movie in the works, something of a surprise considering that Ang Lee’s dismal and ridiculous take on the character didn’t exactly set the world on fire. I guess you can’t keep a good (potential) movie franchise down.

This new film, titled The Incredible Hulk, is apparently intended to be something of a reboot, even though it’s not explicitly billed as such. The entire cast has been changed out, with Edward Norton now playing the modern-day Jeckyll-and-Hyde character Bruce Banner, and, while the Hulk’s origin story isn’t going to be retold, I gather that the events of the first film will not be mentioned. The tone of the movie is said to echo the old ’70s-vintage TV series, and Norton reportedly won the role of Banner in part because he reminded the filmmakers of the late Bill Bixby, who starred in the TV version.

The echoes of the old Incredible Hulk are pretty obvious in this photo from the new film:

Compare that to this screen-grab from the opening credits of Bixby’s Hulk:

Look familiar? I’m sure it’s no coincidence, and I hope this obvious homage is a sign that the filmmakers know what they’re doing. The Hulk isn’t one of my favorite superheroes, but I enjoyed the TV series when I was a kid, and I’d like to see a good feature film version. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will be it.

There are a few more photos here, if you’re interested. Oh, and as a technical note, that screen-grab from vintage Hulk is my very first one. Cool, eh? Well, I thought so…