While there have already been several movies based on his work, Thomas Harris’ novels have suddenly become a source for not one but two developing TV series. The drama based on Hannibal is first out of the gate, tracking down a writer-producer (Bryan Fuller), pilot director (David Slade) and Hugh Dancy as Special Agent Will Graham. As of today, it also has a title character, with Casino Royale villain Mads Mikkelsen taking the role.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the Dane – who scored Best Actor at Cannes for Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt and has been offered one of the main villain roles in** Thor 2 – beat a couple of fairly big names to land the part.
Talking to EW, Fuller explained where we’ll find the not-so-good Doctor in the show’s plot, including the fact that it sees Graham enlisting Hannibal’s help to solve crimes, not realising quite what a danger he really is.
“It’s before he was incarcerated, so he’s more of a peacock. There is a cheery disposition to our Hannibal. He’s not being telegraphed as a villain. If the audience didn’t know who he was, they wouldn’t see him coming. What we have is Alfred Hitchcock’s principle of suspense — show the audience the bomb under the table and let them sweat when it’s going to go boom. So the audience knows who Hannibal is so we don’t have to overplay his villainy. We get to subvert his legacy and give the audience twists and turns.”
It’s certainly an intriguing twist in Mikkelsen’s career too: he did some TV back home, but has largely stuck to the big screen. Perhaps it’s a sign that Hannibal could be something special? US network NBC has given it a 13-episode order and plans to plug it into the TV season either later this year or early next, so we should at least get the chance to see if that’s true relatively soon.