It looks like it won’t be Joaquin Phoenix as Bruce Banner in The Avengers after all. I reported Sunday that he was offered the part, and that he was taking the weekend to mull it over; I still stand by my sources on that one. Especially after I learned later that Phoenix was a finalist for the part of Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk.
But now the search has moved on, and Deadline is reporting that Mark Ruffalo is negotiating with Marvel (like I said, as soon as they had Joaquin’s answer they were going to immediately go to the next guy on the list to get someone on stage next Saturday at Comic Con). He’s a great choice, and a role like this is a great choice for him. Ruffalo remains just on the wrong side of the big time, for reasons I have never truly understood – he’s a great actor, a nice guy and a charming screen presence.
Recent word is that Banner is much more than a cameo in The Avengers, so getting Ruffalo really helps on that front as well.
Will he take it? We should know soon enough.
20 comments
I was bummed when I heard Norton wasn't coming back, but I have to admit Ruffalo would be a fantastic choice. The more I think about it, the more I love it.
I can see scenes in my mind, and they're fantastic. He's such a perfect actor for Joss, how did we not think of this before?
Please, let it be so!! Mark Ruffalo is a great choice.
I'd still rather have Norton, but since that's not an option, I'll gladly take Ruffalo as Banner.
They should get Eric Bana.
Funny, I was thinking Ruffalo would be another choice if Phoneix didn't work out.
You know, Adrien Brody would be pretty good too, IMO.
I concur, the guy's got acting chops for it, and looks the part. As much as it saddens me that Edward Norton is not coming back, this is a great choice, and kudos to Marvel if it happens.
If marvel was going to replace Norton, I like this choice. His performances are understated and he is good at exposition.
It's a shame that we don't see him
in more movies.
He will be much more natural as Banner/Hulk.
Than Ed Norton whom I love but acted with too much freedom and changed his role too much.
So, the Avengers will be taking on not only The Hulk, but a Bruce Banner who hails from the 'Negative Zone' of charisma and screen presence? Lovely. If you want a Bruce Banner, try John Hawkes.
I was acutally thinking Sam Rockwell would be a pretty great Banner/Hulk combo. He has the range, the charm, and the ability to pull off repressed geek very well.
I'm kinda starting to hate the whole Avengers plan now. It's taking too much of a toll on the other movies it's feeding off.
Edward Norton. Bring back the funk.
Viva Ruffalo! Damn good idea.
All this re-casting characters malarkey really isn't helping the "shared movie universe" feel. In fact, it's downright disappointing, but Ruffalo is a solid choice.
Comment #11—Rockwell is a good suggestion, but with his appearance being made already in the Marvel movieverse, it kind of kills the possibility, especially since Hammer could always pop up again. It's not like the Evans Cap/Torch situation where the characters could never legally run into each other in a movie. Even though it's not going to happen, Evans could still play each of those characters at the same time in their respective franchises.
Ruffalo is a perfect choice. He's not a camera hog and he has the whole mild-mannered thing down. Norton was a horrible choice for Hulk to begin with. The Hulk is the star, not Banner. Norton's just too strong a presence to let the Hulk part dominate. I mean when he was going all Bourne through the favelas and his super skilled internet/science espionage I was like ok clearly we could watch *that* moviel all day but that's not what we came for. Just shut up and get angry. We like when you get angry.
Ruffalo is a good actor. He is, however, not a good choice for Banner. He did work well with Downey in Zodiac (great great great movie), so the chemistry may be there if Banner has scenes with Stark, but I still think that he's not puny enough.
I love Mark Ruffalo, he's my imaginary husband but I'm not sure about this…he's too melow. Joaquin Phoenix has that weirdness going on — Bruce Banner is actually a psychopath with a serious case of double personality (it's an obvious referrence to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Another good choice would be Sharlto Copley.
Ughhhh I was satisfied until Justin said Adrien Brodyyyy and is this verification system a sociology experiment? Are you studying how far we'll go to make stupid comments about nerd movies on the internet? Or am I just a verification-incapable Cylon?
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.