First we got news that David E Kelley would be developing a Wonder Woman series (which we can only hope has a unisex bathroom on the Watchtower). I guess because remakes of 80s shows are doing well (Hawaii Five-0), and to celebrate the merger of Marvel and Disney, ABC, not to be outdone, is going back to the well with an Incredible Hulk series.
I’m really, really confused.
We’ve had three different Hulks since 2003 (Mark Ruffalo, Ed Norton, and Eric Bana), but most people still think fondly of Bill Bixby. Since I doubt Ruffalo will take a TV gig (although I would watch religiously if he did!), that means an average of a different Hulk once every 2 years.
I want to see this happen. It could be soooooo great. But doing a show where a CG Hulk smashes things every week is going to get really expensive. Does ABC have the stomach for this? Or will they go with a huge bodybuilder to play the Hulk? Or a pro wrestler?
And given ABC (Disney’s) ownership of the Marvel rights, how likely will we be to see various other Marvel characters showing up?
According to this press release… ahhem, independent news story from ABC News, while Hulk has a “Showrunner wanted” placard around it, they are also looking at several other properties for TV development, including the already announced Cloak and Dagger for ABC Family:
Marvel began narrowing its list of possible TV adaptations in May with a presentation on the Disney lot. Executives presented ABC suits with a list of titles they identified as possible series:
• “Heroes for Hire” (focusing on ex-con Luke Cage offering to take on bad guys for a price);
• “The Eternals” (a race of superpowered beings live amid humanity in secret, inspiring legends);
• “Agents of Atlas, Alter Ego” (private investigator Jessica Jones takes on cases involving superhumans);
• “Moon Knight, the Red Hood” (a low-rent criminal discovers a cloak that gives him superpowers);
• “Ka-Zar” (a Tarzan-type and his saber-toothed tiger must journey to the concrete jungle to seek justice);
• “Daughters of the Dragon” (a dynamic female duo, one with a bionic arm and the other a granddaughter of a samurai, open a private-detective agency); and
• “The Punisher” (one man wages a war on crime; already adapted as two feature films).
Supposedly The Punisher is also on a list for possible cable development. Unfortunately, it looks like ABC lacks an appropriately themed cable network, and since ABC Family and Lifetime look like bad fits… unfortunately, the words “FX” were not in the mix, as having a hard-boiled Punisher show a la The Shield would be epic, and FX is owned by Fox. AMC has also shown major promise with Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and now Walking Dead, and being owned by Cablevision rather than a major entertainment company, might be a great place to go. Perchance to dream?
What we could really hope for is a good Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, etc show. I’m still crossing my fingers for that one.
But we’ll get the Hulk. This has the potential to be great. It also has the potential to be terrible. What do you think? What should ABC do? What should they avoid? (Red Hulk storylines?)
I await comments on the next Geek Show Podcast from Hulk super-fan Shannon Barnson.