Ang Lee is a filmmaker born in Taiwan, and about a couple of decades ago, back in 2003, he directed the movie Hulk, which at that time was not very well taken by the audience. Ang Lee achieved success early in his career and got the breakthrough he needed to set the stone in Hollywood. Lee’s movies were quite famous in the 1990s and even in the 2000s because of his loyal fans from his home country and viewers from other regions. The only time he tried a superhero film, the response from it was so-so, and later he rejected any ideas for directing any superhero films.
Also read: The Incredible Hulk vs. Ang Lee’s Hulk: Which Hulk Movie is Superior?
Ang Lee’s Disappointment With Hulk
Ang Lee was a very open-minded director who wanted to indulge himself with every new opportunity and technology he got and in the early 2000s, CGI had a great boost and was becoming the technology for the future. So taking Ang Lee’s nature to try a bit of everything, he wanted to make a superhero film for the first time in his career and eventually went with the Hulk.
“I decided that I wanted to do like a psychodrama, like a sci-fi/horror film was where my head was at. It was really adventurous.”
Also read: The REAL Reason Marvel Won’t Make A Hulk Sequel (VIDEO)
Josh Lucus, the actor who was the main antagonist of the movie says that Lee was one of the best directors of his time and a genius filmmaker. Lee was disappointed with the movie because the technology at that time was not capable enough to keep up with his imagination and creativity, moreover, the CGI team assigned for making the Hulk was not up to the mark for him.
Ang Lee in an interview shared that while he was making the movie and as this type of movie was the first time for him, he gave it his all, production-wise, which resulted in a massive production cost at that time. The budget for the movie crossed over $100 million, but according to Lee, the movie was not worth the cost as he declared it to be his last time diving into this genre.
Ang Lee Was Not Confident For His Movie
Ang Lee while in an interview with DiscussingFilm shared that after Hulk was released at the theatres, it received many mixed ratings and critic reviews. Many liked it and many didn’t, and the result of the movie was not something Lee was very proud of, as he wasn’t very happy about it after its release. He further revealed that though all the staff and the production team worked very hard for making the movie under his guidance, it was not a very successful movie in the end.
“I did it once and that was that. I’m glad I did those things, but I was not comfortable when the movie came out and got this mixed reaction. It was confusing for the market. I wasn’t happy about that. But I worked certainly very hard. I was very proud of the filmmakers who made the movie with me.
And then only years later, I didn’t know there was kind of a subculture. It was like a cult movie, but it wasn’t meant to be that way. It was a big, expensive studio movie. But I’m happy some people like you really like it. I’m happy about that, something very cool about it”
Hulk with an estimated production cost of over $137 million, it had a short successful run at the box office collecting only $245 million worldwide after its release. The movie won many awards such as the BMI Film & TV Awards, California on Location Awards, and some others. Hulk was also nominated for major awards like the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, and the Visual Effects Society Awards.
Hulk is available for streaming on HBO Max
Source: Twitter
