HULK SMASH TORONTO!!!

Marvel Studios announced today that The Incredible Hulk, the studio's sequel/relaunch of the Hulk movie franchise, will shoot in Toronto this summer.

Gone are Ang Lee, Eric Bana and Nick Nolte; the new flick will be directed by Louis Leterrier (who directed the Transporter films), and the director has reportedly been given a specific mandate to up the family-friendly smashabilities and lose the Freudian subtext of Lee's complicated, craftsmanlike original.

As one of the eight people in the world who think that Lee's Hulk is one of the better comic book movies ever made, I'm not looking forward to this attempted repurposing of the Hulk character. Adrien Brody and Dominic Purcell have been knocked around as potential replacements for Bana's Bruce Banner (try saying that five times fast), but no casting has yet been announced for the film.

Expect to see crushed cars on Bay Street and buses used as baseball bats outside HMV, but don't keep your peepers peeled for the big green guy himself: Hulk will, once again, be entirely computer-generated.