Nikki Finke reports this morning that Edward Norton, the star, screenwriter, and producer of this summer's The Incredible Hulk, is battling Marvel over how to edit the movie. When he signed on, Norton was promised "tremendous involvement and access" and was invited to help rewrite Zak Penn's script, which sort of strikes us a mistake given his famously cooperative past (in 1998, director Tony Kaye tried to take his name off American History X after New Line let Norton recut the film, purportedly giving himself more screen time) and the fact that he's, well, never really written anything before (Update: He's done some uncredited rewrites on a few of his films, most notably Frida). Now, according to Finke, Universal is worried that Norton might refuse to do promotion for Hulk, due in June (see a teaser of the forthcoming trailer here).

There's no word yet on what, specifically, the dispute is over, but with Universal under pressure to deliver a more action-packed Hulk movie — after Ang Lee's thoughtful, plot-heavy The Hulk put hard-core fans to sleep in 2003 — the studio probably needs Norton's support to win over nerds and earn back its $150 million investment. We hope this will be a lesson to the next studio considering allowing an actor to do anything!

Ed Norton And Marvel In 'Hulk'-ing Feud [Deadline Hollywood Daily]