Speaking in this month’s Total Film magazine, Norton had the following to say about his version of the movie.
“First off it’s utterly unrelated to that film,” he said. “This is in no way a response to it or picking up from it. I think like Chris Nolan and those guys did with Batman, we just said: 'We’re going to start completely with our own version of this myth or saga.'”
Norton also revealed he wasn’t on board at first, and for definite reasons. “When the phone rings and someone says, ‘Hey, would you be interested in the big green guy?” there’s that part of all of us that doesn’t want to look like an idiot,” he admitted.
“There’s the wince factor or the defensive part of you that recoils at what the bad version of what that would be. And I did that, basically. I said ‘no’ to it a couple of times.”
And with the movie not even out in cinemas yet, Norton is hopeful of more to come. “To me the whole thing was to envision it in multiple parts,” he said. “We left a lot out on purpose. It’s definitely intended as chapter one.”
The movie debut’s in Australia on the 12th of June and the 13th in the US, starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt.