Screen Talk: Green for danger

Edward Norton is not angry, he keeps saying, which probably doesn't matter quite as much any more as it did a few months ago. Norton has found himself on the other end of constant enquiries as to why he won't be reprising his role as the Incredible Hulk.

While the sequel to Norton's green monster adventure is being prepped under the working title The Avengers, the actor has certainly caused consternation among those that pay the bills. Seemingly green with anger, Marvel head Kevin Feige is on record as saying Norton wasn't coming back because of "the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members." Sheesh. Then Norton's agent responded, snapping that Marvel Studios was "unprofessional, disingenuous and clearly defamatory". For his part, a calm and slightly detached Norton told MTV viewers stateside his reason for not doing it is down to a very professional and very respectful business decision. "My life's way too good on too many levels to be over-intense about things like that," Norton said.

Spain ride

Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, a comedic look at telenovelas and Mr Will Ferrell sounds like a recipe for... a Spanish-language comedy. Which is just as well as those ingredients are all cooking up for the Matt Piedmont directed project, Casa de Mi Padre, which is being put together in the US. As with all things Ferrell, it promises to be "overly dramatic" and also has a cast boasting Genesis Rodriguez as Ferrell's love interest and Hector Jimenez.

Troll calling

The Mexican-born writer and director Guillermo del Toro is drawing up plans to make a second career in animation. The director of Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy and The Devil's Backbone is paving his way into animation with a sharp deal with DreamWorks Animation. Del Toro plans to make Trollhunters, a film he will write and direct for DreamWorks. The maverick film-maker said his move into animation stems from where the future of movie-making lies - a "transmedia world". While it sounds like a creation he might have dreamed up, transmedia refers to the confluence of movies, TV, books, video and online. In return for DreamWorks' hospitality, he will serve as a consultant and exec producer on several projects already in development, including Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and the upcoming Megamind animation will also have his "fingerprints on it". Trollhunters, a working title, is based on a young-adult book del Toro submitted to publisher Hyperion a few weeks ago.

It's Chinatown

A Chinese entertainment company has bought a piece of Hollywood. Though Chengtian Entertainment is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment, the company that bought a 3.3% share of Inception, producers Legendary Pictures of LA is Beijing-based and focused squarely on China's booming entertainment market. Legendary Pictures, while not suffering from lack of confidence in the name stakes, has produced several big- budget productions from Inception and Clash of the Titans to Ninja Assassin and The Hangover. Now the rest of Hollywood hope other cash-rich Chinese bidders will follow. Without,of course, censorship issues and moral objections to worry about.

Super Abrams

Kyle Chandler and Elle Fanning are taking the leads in J J Abrams's mysterious new film Super 8, which began shooting in West Virginia at the end of last month, backed by Paramount. Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich, Gabriel Basso and Joel Courtney, round out the main cast. Abrams wrote the screenplay, about which very little is known, and he is producing along with Bryan Burk, his Bad Robot partner, and Steven Spielberg.