William Hurt reveals Iron Man will appear in upcoming 'Hulk' movie

Posted Monday, January 21, 2008 at 1:23 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

One of the cooler things I recall about reading Marvel comics as a youth was when superheroes made guest appearances in other books. Spider-Man might show up in Fantastic Four to help the quartet fend off Doctor Doom or something. The Hulk might get mad -- he usually did -- and start fighting Wolverine or some other scene-stealer in his book.

(Looking back now, I realize the appearances were just cross-promotional marketing to get fanboys to read other comics than the one or two they were used to. Oh well, they were still cool.)

Just as comic books have made successfully made the jump to the big screen (that's an understatement) so too have comic book crossovers, it seems. William Hurt, star of this year's The Incredible Hulk do-over, recently spilled the beans to MTV News about Iron Man's cameo in the big green movie.

Hurt talked about the appearance of Iron Man's character in the film. "I have a scene with Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr. It's a funky scene," he said to MTV on Friday. The Net talked with the Oscar-winning actor at the Sundance Film Festival where he was promoting Yellow Handkerchief.

According to MTV, this is all a scheme devised by Marvel themselves:

For those who haven't heard the news, superhero house Marvel Comics is aggressively cross-pollinating its superheroes, most likely in preparation for an eventual "Avengers" movie. That means Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury will make a cameo appearance in May 2's "Iron Man," and ol' metalhead himself will drop into "Hulk." Little has been said about the scene — until now.

"I don't know how it'll work," Hurt admitted, saying it was a thrill to appear as General Thaddeus Ross during Downey's scene. "I know it's weird [to work with a character from another movie], and to know it's a device. We did something; I don't know what that's going to be like [to watch]."

Count me among those who didn't hear the news. An Avengers movie would be immensely cool. For the not-so-nerdy, the Avengers was the superhero collective led by Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. Rival comic book distributor DC Comics had Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman in the Justice League of America and Marvel had the Avengers.

Tallying the box office performance of an Avengers movie against the eventual (even though delayed) Justice League film would be the ultimate Marvel vs. DC showdown.

Hurt also discussed the basic differences between the new Hulk movie with Ang Lee's 2003 version.

Unlike Ang Lee, director Louis Leterrier (the Transporter films) is intent on laying off the "Hulk as misunderstood monster" angle, thereby making him more heroic. "I want to see the relationship between Hulk and a world that realizes he's not the villain," Hurt said. "Hulk and [Liv Tyler's Betty Ross] have their moment, and the crowd realizes he's not the bad guy."

The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton, is in theaters on June 13.