I want to discuss how you use the canon. Do you go back to Thomas Harris’ books regularly?
All the time.
Do you have signposts—we want to get to this point in this episode—or do you use them more as reference books?
I use them in a variety of ways. Oftentimes, there will be a scene that we break into the story for the series and I’ll say, “This is a scene from the book. You can just lift it out and put it on the page.” This is one of those rare instances where we can just use what is there because it’s GREAT. If I’m struggling with a scene and want to know what it’s about, I’ll start reading one of the novels again depending on where we are. I’ll read until I find a turn of phrase that inspires me. “That’s actually pertinent to this scene. I can unpack that quote and build a scene out of that one line that’s unexpected but allows us to stay true to our characters in this incarnation.” I’m frequently referencing and quoting the books.
How do you maintain such strong visual consistency across multiple episodes and multiple seasons? With different directors, “Hannibal” has maintained such a strong visual language, whether it be the specific angles of therapy scenes or the fetishization of food. How do you keep that consistent every week?
It’s really about finding the right directors that want to share the vision for the show. The first thing I tell any new director is “You are making a pretentious art film.” This is not an episode of television. This is a pretentious art film. It goes back to “The Hunger,” which is a pretentious art film beautifully told. The criticisms at the time where that it was “style over substance,” and I was like, “I’m getting plenty of substance, I don’t know what you’re getting.” I love cinematic poetry. I love juxtaposition of imagery. We have a wonderful second unit director named Chris Byrne, who shoots all of our inserts and picks up all of the things we drop along the way. He’s got such a wonderful commercial eye. We sit with him and say, “We need a drop of blood to hit the carpet and splash upward in operatic fashion.” He can sort of transcend the violence and take it into poetry. The thrust of the show is that the visual poetry is so a part of what we do because the imagery needs to be as elegant and eloquent as the title character.
How is this season different visually or thematically than the last two?
The first season was the bromance, the second season was the nasty break-up, the third season is that moment in a relationship after it has ended where you need closure, and how you go about achieving that. There’s that element in terms of Hannibal & Will. In a broader sense, this season has jettisoned the traditional crime procedural storytelling element entirely. I’ve never seen “Hannibal” as a crime story as much as I have a romantic horror story.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmoqakmr%2B3tcSwqmidnaTBqrvNmqNmpJ%2BctqR5wauwmqZdm8KtuMSrZKudlJqzqrrErGStoJVisLO1zJ5knaqRoq5uw8itn2agkaO7qq7ApQ%3D%3D