I really thought Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk movie was awful.

It was so lame, in fact, that I was afraid I’d never be able to be excited about a Hulk movie again.

That changed earlier this year when it was announced that Edward Norton would take the role of Dr. Banner in a reboot/revamp by Louis Letterier, who directed The Transporter and its sequel.

This was excellent news.

And then!

And then!

It was announced that Liv Tyler — my sweet, sweet Liv Tyler — had been cast as Banner’s star-crossed lover, Betty Ross.

And the good news just kept coming. Tim Roth snagged the part of Emil Blonsky, an enemy agent who tries to replicate the accident that awakened The Hulk inside of Banner but instead turns himself into a wicked, hateful monstrosity called The Abomination, who’s even more powerful than Banner’s misunderstood, not-always-jolly green giant.

Today, The Hollywood Reporter reports that William Hurt will play General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, the military man in charge of hunting down Banner and “containing” The Hulk.

General Ross is also Betty’s dad, which makes it even more complicated.

I was a huge fan of the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV series and its televised sequel movies that featured the original on-film appearances of Thor (Eric Allan Kramer) and Daredevil (Rex Smith).

Interviews with Kramer and Smith, along with Lou Ferrigno and Elizabeth Gracen (from Death of the Incredible Hulk), can be found here.

This new movie is set to ignore 2003’s complicated, convoluted mess and take the concept — of a good man hunted from every direction and on the run with a big green problem — back to the roots of the TV series and the original comics.

And with talent like Norton, Tyler, Roth and now Hurt involved, it’s sure to be a knockout.

The Incredible Hulk will sit wherever he wants to in the theater near you on June 13, 2008!