Capturing Brazil

Veteran production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli led the design team in creating more than 100 sets for the film. As the movie begins, Banner is in Brazil, keeping a low profile and working at a bottling plant, while he continues his never-ending search for a cure. His whereabouts discovered by General Ross, Banner finds himself once again on the run. On a journey that takes him through Latin America and the East Coast of the U.S., Banner winds up in Harlem.

Bashing and Smashing

For Petruccelli, there was strong appeal at the idea of working on a film with such a large and imaginative canvas. Key to his establishing the visual feel was to ensure all elements reflected the shadowy world into which Banner disappeared. One of the first things Louis said to me was that he wanted the Hulk to be as real as possible, bashing and smashing through the real world, recalls Petruccelli. This is a road picture, a chase movie. Banner is always on the run, and as a designer, that gave me so many avenues in which to take it and contribute to the action.

To create the world, Petruccelli and crew blended a majority of location-based shoots with a handful of staged sets. From multiple city streets, homes and buildings, they integrated recognizable, real locations. For his part, Norton would often arrive on set and be amazed by what the crews had accomplished. He offers, A lot of times, I came onto the set and realized that Louis and Kirk had gone much bigger with it than I had in my headmuch bigger. The scale of it was really amazing to me.

Of his interest in so many locations, Leterrier took the screenplay and literally ran with it. He wanted his action movie to be an interesting mix of a Zen chase on one side and extremely kinetic on the other. He knew that when Banner was being huntedwhether in the favelas of South America or the streets of Manhattanhe could cut to him, and itll be calm as hes trying to regain control. Then he wont be able to hold it in, and Banner will just explode and Hulk out at any moment.

Rio's Slums

The filmmakers took advantage of a number of locales in and around Rio de Janeiro. Filming portions of THE INCREDIBLE HULK in Brazil brought a look to the movie that could not have been achieved by a majority-set shoot. Some of the most vibrant sequences were filmed in the hillside favela of Tavares Bastos, a winding maze of narrow back alleys and steep steps that offered a spectacular backdrop for the elaborately staged sequence at the beginning of the filmin which Banner attempts to escape from Ross commandos.

In addition to shooting main and second-unit action sequences in Tavares Bastos, scenes were also filmed in a number of other locations in the storied city, including the older, colonial neighborhoods of Lapa and Santa Teresa. The team took advantage of its close proximity to Tijuca Forest, the worlds largest urban rainforest, to lens breathtaking ground and aerial sequences.

During preproduction scouting trips to Brazil, Petruccelli meticulously researched the look and design of the favelas in order to re-create on a Toronto soundstage the interior of Banners Rio apartment. Because we were going to be filming in Brazil, it was even more important that our constructed interior set have the same details and textures to give a smooth transition between what was shot on location and what was shot on stage, Petruccelli says. The favelas are so individuala little plaster here, a brick there, vivid colors or no color at all. They are very organic.

Leterrier found the favelas, with their endless stairways and 3.5 pathways quite the bustling ant farm. The director remembers, Its a little difficult to shoot in the favelas. But with the right favela people knowing we were doing everything to not abuse or destroy the space, but respecting it and making it shine to the world, we were fine. People have a really bad impression of what a favela is; its actually very clean, with a sewer system, some electricity, video clubs, rental video places and hairdressers. Its a town within a town. And to his alternate delight and chagrin, they were in the middle of Brazils rainy season, which was good for the dark mood of the film, bad for the cast and crews interest in staying dry.

One of the more formidable tasks for the team was the bottling plant set where Banner works (and has increased access to flowers and plants he can analyze for a possible cure to his gamma-irradiated cells) during his self-imposed exile in Brazil. This would be where Blonsky (pre-Abomination inoculation) has his first encounter with the Hulk. The exterior factory-yard scenes were filmed at the former Behring Chocolate factory located in the Santo Cristo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. But as an integral part of the first act takes place in the interior of the bottling plant, it was necessary to construct a set that would satisfy the specific parameters of the script.

The action sequences were so detailed that several weeks filming would be required. It was a very involved sequence with tricky geography, explains Petruccelli. We needed a massive space we could take over and fashion to our needsThe Hulk needs a lot of space to throw stuff around. After scouring almost every old factory in and around the Toronto area, the filmmakers found an ideal location at an abandoned glass factory in Hamilton. What followed was an exhaustive eight-week construction schedule as carpenters, painters and riggers worked in tandem with set dressers and prop masters to create the illusion of a working bottling plant. This place would eventually be destroyed in an explosive confrontation between the Hulk and General Ross team of commandos.

Realistic Mayhem and Destruction

To achieve the level of mayhem and destruction the filmmakers were looking for in this and other action sequences, the combined expertise of special effects coordinator LAIRD MCMURRAY and stunt coordinator JOHN STONEHAM, JR. was called into play. To bring realism to The Hulks destructive fury, McMurray and his special effects crew devised elaborate wire rigging mechanisms and machinery capable of exerting thousands of pounds of pressure and pull. These apparatuses could accelerate large weighted objects at very rapid speeds to make it appear as if The Hulk was tossing or kicking them around. Working closely with McMurray and his crew, Stoneham and his stunt team were able to devise scenarios in which the destruction The Hulk leaves in his wake is rooted in high-flying reality.

Face-Off in Manhattans Abomination Alley

The script also called for a fight of monumental proportions in which the Hulk must save New York City and her citizens from the wrath of the Abomination. Recalls Petruccelli, When Louis told me he wanted the climax of the film to take place in Harlem in front of the Apollo Theater, I said Sure, but well have to build it, because there was no way anyone was going to let us throw cars around, blow things up-basically trash and terrorize a historically designated areafor a couple of weeks in New York City.

The team explored a number of locations and options, but, in the end, they decided to film the sequence in three different locations over a period of several weeks. Dubbed the biggest bar fight in history by visual effects supervisor Kurt Williams, the clash between two titanic forces was one of the films most multifaceted and complex sequences. Almost 80 unique visual-effects shots were seamlessly blended with action to give audiences, The Hulk and The Abomination a fight to the end. Here especially, integration between the art department and the visual effects team was critical. Comments Williams, Where the Hulk goes, action follows. Our mandate was to devise a scenario as realistic as possible by combining practical environments with CGI.

An urban section of Torontos Yonge Street was deemed the ideal location to recreate some of the storefronts of Harlem and, in mid-September, the production was given permission to shut down a four-block section of the street where, over a period of four nights, the main and second-unit crews worked in tandem with the visual effects, special effects and stunt crews to film elaborate sequences involving hundreds of extras and a lot of pyrotechnics. To accommodate the scripted mayhem of cars crashing and buses blowing up, faades and storefrontsincluding a faade of the Apollo Theater and its legendary marqueewere constructed and positioned along the route.

With the aid of visual effects, the destruction continued across a two-block section of downtown Hamilton, where Petruccelli and crew erected faades replicating a Harlem street on a couple of parking lotsbuildings that would be destroyed in the brutal fight along the route Leterrier and the producers called Abomination Alley.

Finally, the action culminated on a virtual Courthouse Plaza set constructed on a backlot at Toronto Film Studios. The set had to ccommodate, among other chaos, a helicopter crash and the ensuing havoc. The project kept the scenic art mold shop busy making breakaway bricks for months, not to mention the countless stone and marble plaster molding and vermiculite tilesalways helpful to cast and crew disinterested in being injured by flying debris.

While filming in Toronto, the production also made good use of a local university campus, Morningside Park and the citys Financial District. Toronto Film Studios housed the movies constructed interior sets, including the place where it all began, Banners laboratory. Other filming locations included the Canadian Air Forces Base in Trenton, Ontario, and a glacier in Bella Coola, British Columbia.

Regardless of the shoot, the cast and crew grew very accustomed to seeing their director in one location in particular: at the helm of his 15, 30 and 50 techno cranes, with their telescoping arms. Recalls Norton: Louis uses a techno crane like other people use a shoulder cam; he is very dynamic with the camera. I told him once, Ive never seen anybody more married to his cranes.

For Leterrier, his commitment remains to give audiences nothing less than the full-force action they want. Part of the whole Hulk experience is that you put the audience in Bruce Banners shoes by literally following him when he runs down the favelas. But you also are next to him on that motorcycle through the cable cams. When hes Hulk you want to be behind him so the Russian arm [key camera crane] helped us to run as fast as The Hulk, be as high as the Hulk and get into Hulk Vision. To do that, we used the Russian arm and techno crane to make you feel like you are The Hulk, so you move like him. You are fast, and you push in and you grab and throw stuff outthat is the total Hulk experience.