Over the weekend, ComingSoon.net sat down with Eric Bana to talk about his upcoming romantic drama, The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on the popular Book Club book and as always happens, the topic drifted to some of his other movies, some of it coming from our love of Bana’s documentary Love the Beast, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival a few months back. (Sadly, it’s looking like that will be released on cable rather than getting a full-on theatrical release.)
We’ll start with the Mad Max bit, since that came about in a rather strange way. During the interview, the topic drifted to the subject of remakes and realizing that George Miller was hoping to revive the character that first brought Mel Gibson to fame, we asked Bana if that’s something that might interest him.
ComingSoon.net: If someone was to ask you to do “Mad Max,” would you want to do it? You were kind of a fan of those movies, right?
Bana: Yeah, “Mad Max” and “Mad Max 2” are two of my favorite movies of all time. I guess it would depend on what it was. Yeah, I think it’s always tougher especially when it’s your favorites.
Later on, we asked whether he might want to do a movie that incorporated his love for cars and driving, as seen his Love the Beast, into his acting career, something that might be useful for a “Mad Max” movie.
CS: I know you have a love of cars and driving from seeing your documentary. Would you be interested in doing a movie like a biopic about a racecar driver or something that allows you to bring those two things together or do you feel like you want to keep that part separate?
Bana: No, it kind of works better to keep it separate. I’m just back to racing without cameras around, and it’s a lot more fun. Suddenly my hobby became my job for a little while there and I got a taste of the crossover, and it’s not necessarily a good thing. I’m enjoying the separation now. I’ve had a great bunch of races long since the documentary was made, so yeah, I do enjoy the separation. I’d be frustrated as hell working on a feature film that involved driving. (Well, that would probably take him out of doing “Max Max.”)
We also were talking a lot about the premise of time travel since it plays such a large part in Bana’s latest movie, and we decided to broach the subject of the other time-traveler Bana played this summer, that being the Romulan Nero from J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. (And SPOILER WARNING! the next couple responses are kind of a spoiler for the movie if you haven’t seen it.)
CS: Do you know if J.J. wants to have you back for “Star Trek?”
Bana: Did he say that? No.
CS: I was just curious because as we know, Nero is a time traveler, and in theory, he could just come back in time from the future, so he doesn’t have to be dead.
Bana: Theoretically, but no, I think I’ve been taken care of in the movie. I mean, you saw what happened to Nero, so I doubt it.
It definitely was a longshot but with Ed Norton having so many problems with Marvel during the marketing of The Incredible Hulk, we decided to ask Bana if maybe we’d see him back in the role someday.
CS: I hate to ask about “The Hulk” because that seems like another life for you, but Ed Norton seems hesitant about doing more with Marvel, so do you think they might bring you back rather than having a fourth actor playing the character?
Bana: No chance of that happening. It’s just something that I’ve done and I’m moving on forward. My road panned out different and I’m happy with the road I’m on.
Look for our full interview with Eric Bana sometime next week before The Time Traveler’s Wife opens on August 14.
