She-Hulk (lost production material of unreleased live-action Marvel film; 1995)

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The film's poster.

Status: Lost

She Hulk is an unreleased 1990s live-action film based on the Marvel superheroine of the same name (also known as Hulka) and was to have been played by Brigitte Nielsen with Larry Cohen as the director.

Background

The character of Jennifer Walters, aka the She-Hulk, was first introduced in Savage She-Hulk #1 (1980) and made her television debut in the eleventh episode of the very short-lived animated series The Incredible Hulk (1982-83). In the original, the character is a young lawyer and cousin of Dr Bruce Banner, the original Incredible Hulk. When Banner is forced to give her a blood transfusion she is transformed into the She-Hulk; albeit in contrast with her cousin she is able to transform at will and also retains her formidable intelligence, eventually becoming the premier legal resource of the Marvel superhero community.

On TV

The character made her television debut in the eleventh episode of the very short-lived animated series The Incredible Hulk (1982-83). She did not appear during the original run of The Incredible Hulk TV series, but by the end of the 1980's star Bill Bixby had teamed up with independent production company New World Pictures to produce a series of TV-movies that picked up where the series left off after its cancellation in 1982. These leaned much more into the larger Marvel universe, featuring appearances by Thor among others. The third and final installment, The Death of the Incredible Hulk, was to feature a major appearance from She-Hulk, though it's unknown which actress was to play the part. Ultimately, she was cut out of the final draft.

Despite the generally poor reception of DotIH, New World Productions still owned the rights to Marvel characters and was eager to ccontinue developing them. Eventually Marvel Comics bought New World's "Family Filmworks" division outright.

In 1991, work began on a potential She-Hulk TV series with Jill Sherman Donner, writer of several episodes from the original Hulk series, as producer. She completed a draft pilot, titled "Metamorphosis." In the script, assistant district attorney Jennifer Walters is haunted by the murder of her parents and vows to prove that a respected businessman is actually a criminal mastermind. She takes a forced vacation to the Caribbean where she runs into Bruce Banner - unrelated in this version - who is revealed to have faked his death and is now living as a pool boy. When Jennifer is shot by a hitman, Banner's doctor friend convinces him to give the blood transfusion that ultimately transforms her into the She-Hulk. Unlike the comics however, this movie's version would've had her acting like Lou Ferrigno's near-mindless original.

Filming began in the Virgin Islands in 1991. Bradford May (a cinematographer on such projects as the Darkman sequels and The Monster Squad) was chosen as director, with Bixby and Ferrigno reprising their roles as the scientist and his huge green alter-ego. Unfortunately, casting the She-Hulk herself proved far more problematic. Initial candidate Mitzi Kapture was rejected when ABC decided a higher-profile actress was needed. This turned out to be Melissa Gilbert (then riding high as the star of Little House on the Prairie) but her disinterest in the superhero genre further strained production and she was quickly let go. The last serious candidate was volleyball star Gabrielle Reece; like Ferrigno she was appropriately physically imposing, but according to Sherman Donner, her portrayal of She-Hulk would've had golden skin, as Reece considered the canonical dull green "not pretty". The revised look also included bright red hair and green eyes. Eventually, so much production money was spent on the search that the production company lost patience and cancelled filming. None of the footage or any other production material has ever resurfaced.

The film

With Bill Bixby's death in 1993, so came the definitive end of the She-Hulk TV pilot. New World decided to take one last stab at the green superheroine, this time for the big screen. B-movie staple Larry Cohen was chosen to direct a script commissoned from Carl Gottlieb (screenwriter of the first three Jaws movies). The exact plot of the film - and whether it took cues from the existing "Metamorphosis" pilot script - is unknown.

The lead role this time went to Danish actress Brigitte Nielsen, best known as Red Sonja. Photos were released of Neilsen dressed as Jennifer Walters in a red coat, while her superheroine persona sported an all-green leather jumpsuit and pale-green makeup with darker hilights. The photo shoot was evidently done in hopes of attracting more investors to the project.

Cancellation

Those investors never materialized, and - while its production got farther than most scrapped Marvel films - She-Hulk, the big-screen version, was never finished either. Though no official reason has been given, it was likely due to the generally less-than-stellar cinematic reputation that Marvel had at the time, especially after the disastrous Howard the Duck. It is also claimed that the studio could not afford the budget for the flying car that She-Hulk drove in the comics. It's unlikely that any footage or a trailer was ever filmed. The only released production materials are the publicity stills, along with a mockup poster that popped up on eBay.

On November 12, 2020, the green leather costume that Brigitte Nielsen wore in the photo shoots resurfaced in the Icons & Legends of Hollywood auction held by Profiles in History. It was bid in between $800-$1,200, though it's unknown if anyone actually bought it. Given that most of the items in the catalog were identified as coming from Planet Hollywood’s collection - and that one of the celebrity founders of Planet Hollywood was Sylvester Stallone, who was once married to Brigitte Nielsen - the costume's provenance seems legitimate.

Since then, of course, Marvel's onscreen stock has gone up considerably, making the She-Hulk's eventual appearance all-but-inevitable. On December 10, 2020, Marvel Studios announced the character's MCU debut will be in a comedy series for Disney+, with Tatiana Maslany in the lead alongside Mark Ruffalo and Tim Roth reprising their roles as Hulk and the Abomination respectively. The series is set to be released sometime around 2022 and Kevin Feige has stated that she will then go on to appear in future MCU movies.

Gallery

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  Publicity stills taken of Brigitte Nielsen in character.

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  The green leather jumpsuit that Brigitte Nielsen wore in the photo shoots of She-Hulk.

External Links

• Wikipedia page for She-Hulk.
• Was Gabriel Reece Cast as the She Hulk in a Failed She-Hulk TV Pilot?
• Hulka (the movie we'll never see)