Back in July we brought you the news from San Diego Comic-Con that Mark Ruffalo (Second Coming) would be taking over the role of Bruce Banner in Marvel Studios upcoming superhero team-up, The Avengers directed by Joss Whedon. The role of Banner was last played by Edward Norton in the Louis Leterrier directed The Incredible Hulk.

Now it seems that not only will Mark Ruffalo be playing Bruce Banner, he will actually be portraying Banner’s big green alter-ego using the same motion-capture technology employed in James Cameron’s Avatar.

Ruffalo told NYMag,

“I’m really excited. No one’s ever played the Hulk exactly, they’ve always done CGI. They’re going to do the Avatar stop-action, stop-motion capture. So I’ll actually play the Hulk. That’ll be fun.”

Ruffalo also said that he was aiming to stay closer to Bill Bixby’s version of Banner/The Hulk from Television series:

“I really love the first TV version of it, the Bill Bixby one. I’m gonna shoot for that a little bit. He was an everyman in it. He’s always on the run and trying to find love. It’s really a sympathetic character, before he turns into the Hulk and f*&ks everything up.”

The film stars Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk) and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye).

The Avengers is slated to hit theaters on May 4th, 2012.