ERIC BANA - BANA PRAISES NORTON CASTING IN NEW HULK FILM

Actor ERIC BANA has praised movie bosses for replacing him with EDWARD NORTON in upcoming sequel The Incredible Hulk. Bana, who played Bruce Banner in filmmaker Ang Lee's original 2003 movie Hulk, is pleased he wasn't offered the role as he may not have subsequently landed critically acclaimed parts in movies such as Munich. He tells Australia's Herald Sun newspaper, "If it came up in the right amount of time I might have (done it) but, you know, in an ideal world it has not been a bad thing for me. "I think it's even better that they've got a new guy and better again that they've got someone of the caliber of Edward Norton. "You know, I can't wait to see it. And I suppose if they had come back in the right amount of time I wouldn't have been doing films like Munich." But Bana insists he never considered making more than one Hulk movie when he signed up to appear in the original film. He adds, "I never went into the first one thinking I was going to do three films. I didn't think the word franchise, or the word sequel. To me it always appeared as a one-off opportunity." Shooting on The Incredible Hulk is scheduled to begin this summer (07) in Toronto, Canada.