First Look at the New Hannibal Lecter TV Series
Here's a few photos from the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly that gives us our first look at Bryan Fuller's new TV series Hannibal, based on the terrifying serial killer Hannibal Lecter. The photos give us a look at Mads Mikkelsen as the title character, Hugh Dancy as FBI agent Will Graham, and Laurence Fishburne as his boss Jack Crawford.
I loved Anthony Hokins in the movie role, but the casting of Mikkelsen was inspired, he's such a creepy looking guy, a great actor, and he fits the character perfectly. I can't wait to see him do his thing.
Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Dead Like Me) wrote and is producing the cannibalistic serial killer series. It is based on Thomas Harris’ best-selling novel Red Dragon, and the series takes us back to the beginning of the two main characters' relationship. The story will follow Graham as he tries to solve a series of murders and enlists the help of brilliant psychiatrist Dr. Lecter... unaware the good doctor is secretly a cannibalistic killer. In a previous interview Fuller talked about the series saying,
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 really is a love story, for lack of a better description, between these two characters. As Hannibal has said [to Graham] in a couple of the movies, ‘You’re a lot more like me than you realize.’ We’ll get to the bottom of exactly what that means over the course of the first two seasons. But we’re taking our sweet precious time.
NBC has ordered 13 episodes for the first season and the pilot episode was directed by 30 Days of Night director David Slade. Check out the photos, and let us know if you're excited about this new series?
