Hitfix is reporting that a new Incredible Hulk series is on its way to television. A live-action version of the Hulk was successful before, in the 1970s with Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby, and ABC (a Disney subsidiary, along with Marvel) is hoping that after the success of The Avengers, they can carry that success into television. The show isn’t ready for the new fall season, but is expected for 2013.
Personally, I think it would be pretty cool to see the Hulk on the small screen. I wonder, though, how well it’ll work… even though CG effects are getting cheaper all the time, it’s still likely to be prohibitively expensive, and I don’t think the audience is going to cut them any slack if it’s not up to par with the movie appearance. I also wonder what type of storylines it’ll have; will it be more of the “Wandering Stranger” archtype that the Bixby/Ferrigno series used? Regardless, I’m interested in seeing how this turns out.
Hitfix also mentions that a Punisher series is under development for FOX, and that ABC has currently stalled on AKA Jessica Jones, based on Marvel’s Alias series (using a different name than the comic, of course, due to ABC’s earlier series of that title.) Either could be interesting, but I don’t have as much personal enthusiasm for those. The Punisher is unlikely to work as a protagonist for an extended series, in my opinion; if it’s true to his comic book characterization, he’s going to be too dark for mainstream audiences to root for week after week (I suspect this is part of why the Punisher movies have been lackluster successes at best.) AKA Jessica Jones has some definite potential, but it’ll be a lot like the short-lived Human Target series that DC Comics created for FOX; if it gets made, it’ll live or die entirely as its own thing, as most people won’t recognize it as “a comic book property”. That’s not a reflection on its quality, simply a statement that its recognizability is the same as an unknown property to most people.
It’s Friday morning, and that means another batch of news bites. This turned out to be a fairly busy week in Hollywood, with a whole lot of movie news coming to light. There’s a big mess of Marvel news, a touch of Turtle news, a dash of Disney, and an assortment of news on other major film operations. What there isn’t, strangely enough, is the need for a rumors section this week. Everything is relatively solid, at least what I came across. I’m sure there’s some random speculation out there, but I only came across a few items that come under that header, and they’re all tied to more definite news.
