Sunday, June 30, 2013
If only I had been charging 1 cent per visitor :-)
Wow, I've been away at an academic conference for the last week, and I just got back and what do I see, over 100,000 visitors !!! Thanks guys.
Friday, June 21, 2013
More *SPOILER* Interviews for the Finale
Further Interviews with Bryan Fuller, I'm guessing they have *spoilers* for the season finale...
http://ie.ign.com/articles/2013/06/21/hannibal-bryan-fuller-on-season-1s-big-finale-and-whats-next-in-season-2
http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/hannibal-producer-bryan-fuller-on-the-season-finale-and-whats-next-for-dr-lecter-and-will
http://www.assignmentx.com/2013/exclusive-interview-more-hannibal-news-with-bryan-fuller-and-pushing-daises-too/
http://screencrush.com/nbc-hannibal-spoilers-bryan-fuller-red-dragon/
http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/hannibal-producer-bryan-fuller-on-cannibal-cuisine-renewal-and-more
http://www.digitalspy.ie/ustv/news/a491414/hannibal-bryan-fuller-on-future-silence-of-the-lambs-is-season-five.html
TV Guide: Hannibal Finale Postmortem: Creator Bryan Fuller Answers Our Burning Questions by Adam Bryant
"Hello, Dr. Lecter."
Those words, so familiar to fans of Thomas Harris' novels and the films they've inspired, closed the first season of NBC's Hannibal, which ended with an inspired bit of role reversal. Instead of seeing special FBI investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) greeting Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) in his famous cell at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, viewers saw Hannibal visiting Will, who had been locked up for a series of murders he didn't commit.
Wait, what?!
Let's recap: After Abigail Hobbs (Kacey Rohl) discovered in the penultimate episode that Hannibal was actually the copycat killer who'd been mimicking her father's murders, Hannibal had no choice but to kill her. However, when Will wakes up from one of his nightmares and vomits up a human ear (!), Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) & Co. become a bit suspicious. They process Will and use DNA evidence to match the ear to Abigail Hobbs. (They also find her blood under Will's finger nails.)
Worse, Hannibal has also turned human remains from his other copycat victims into some of the fishing lures in Will's house. Shortly, thereafter, Will is arrested and although he can't say for sure he didn't kill Abigail, he's determined to prove he isn't a serial killer. So, he breaks out of custody and has Hannibal take him back to Abigail's house. Once there, Will finally realizes that Hannibal could be the real copycat killer, but when he tries to shoot him, Jack shoots Will and has him committed.
So, what's next for Will? Can he prove Hannibal is the real killer or have all his FBI allies turned against him? We turned to executive producer Bryan Fuller to answer our burning questions.
There's only one place to start: Will vomits up an ear! Where did that idea come from?
Bryan Fuller: [Laughs] It was something that I knew was going to happen, even before I started writing the pilot. The last run of episodes was going to [have] Will Graham throwing up an ear, fearing that he had eaten somebody. Initially it was a finger, [but] I just thought, 'There's not as much chew time for a finger as there is an ear.' [Laughs] It was a really great destination to drive to and one of those kind of sparks of inspiration: Will Graham has to feel like he's become Garret Jacob Hobbs in a complete way. And how horrific to think that somehow someone else got inside you in a way that could only mean that you ate them?
It was easy to assume Hannibal had framed Will, but did you think viewers might actually wonder if Will had committed the murders?Fuller: I wanted both of those things. We very carefully only showed pertinent information to the audience. I wanted it to be unclear whether Will could have done these things and also be unclear to Will Graham. Even though he may have the convictions of his investigation, he still has huge blank spots in his memory. But we essentially tell the audience that when Will left Abigail Hobbs, she had an ear. And the last person we saw her with both ears with was Hannibal.
Speaking of what we don't see, how did Hannibal get the ear in Will's stomach?
Fuller: Hannibal is a wily guy. [Laughs] As a storyteller, I have to have an answer in reality. On one hand, I could see a version of Hannibal sneaking into Will's house with an ear on a stick and pushing it down his throat. On the other hand, as a lover of horror and sci-fi and quasi-supernatural storytelling, I love the explanation that Hannibal is a devil. But that was not Thomas Harris' intention. So, he has to have been physically able to accomplish that in some manner. If we did something where it was sort of magical, then I think we would lose our grip on reality. That's something I think is very important to maintain, out of respect for the audience and also the character and his origins. But in my mind, I love the greater mythology of Hannibal being a very punitive devil.
So, is he punishing Will?
Fuller: I think that everything that Hannibal has done to Will has been a radical, unorthodox form of therapy. I would argue that all of the deeds still come from a place of genuine care. He is trying to help Will see himself better and get to a truer version of who Hannibal thinks Will is. Even setting him up to take the fall for these murders has been an act of therapy, in Hannibal's mind.
Are we to believe this was always Hannibal's master plan? Or does he just adapt very well?
Fuller: I think he has a very loose plan, but he's also quite adaptive. He couldn't have predicted when he met Will that he was going to be suffering from encephalitis. But once he smelled that on him, he knew that, "Oh, this is going to be an interesting playing field for Will and his perception of reality, so I'm going to take advantage of it."
Is it troubling how quickly Jack accepts that Will could be guilty of these crimes?
Fuller: Hannibal is playing off of Jack's intrinsic guilt over what's happening to Will. From the get-go, [Jack] knew that he was taking a man out of a classroom and putting him into a dangerous psychological situation. He had no idea how dangerous it was, but the water was getting hot. Jack was aware of the increase in temperature — he just didn't know that it was going to be Will's brain that was boiling over. So, to deal with his own guilt on that matter, it would be very easy for him to go to the place of, "Will did it." All of the evidence is pointing that direction, and clearly he has no reason to suspect Hannibal at this stage. We'll see more in Season 2 of Hannibal's further manipulations of Jack Crawford on that front.
Jack conveniently comes in after Will accuses Hannibal of all the murders. Would Jack have been swayed if he had heard Will's thoughts?Fuller: In Season 2, Jack will be investigating those accusations. I think after Will woke up from getting shot by Jack and before he was put into the institution, he shared his theories about Hannibal. Now it's up to those characters and Hannibal Lecter to either support or deny those accusations in a properly investigated way.
Do you intend to keep Will locked up for a while?
Fuller: He will be incarcerated, and we will be dealing with all of the threads of that. We need to see all of the things happen that would happen in that scenario. Will Graham needs to go on trial for the murders that he may or may not have committed. Jack has to be brought before a review board for his participation in what happened to Will, and Hannibal, as Will's psychiatrist, is going to continue to try to help Will see the truth that Hannibal wants him to see. The ball is up in the air in so many ways for Jack and Hannibal and Will. The fun of Season 2 will be spiking those balls.
Will Dr. Chilton get his organs put back inside himself and be trying to analyze Will's mind?Fuller: Yes. I would love to have a lot more of Raul Esparza and Dr. Frederick Chilton in Season 2. He will be a nemesis of sorts for Will in the institution.
I loved the role reversal at the end. Fuller: When I was breaking the pilot and thinking about where this goes, it occurred to that Hannibal needs to win this round. Hannibal needs to have everyone in the world think that Will Graham is a killer. And therefore, it will be less work to get Will to believe that he is a killer. I had always pitched in every conversation that ... the last shot of the season is that iconic shot from Silence of the Lambs where you're coming down the corridor toward the last cell on the left and instead of finding Hannibal Lecter there, you find Will Graham. It felt very poetic and it felt powerful and it felt full of promise. It promised so much story, and now we get to deliver on it.
From the beginning, you made it clear you were telling your own story, but do you fear that this choice will alienate some of the diehard Red Dragon fans?
Fuller: If you look at the scant two pages that talk about Will Graham's back story, they tell us that Will was so psychologically compromised from investigating the Minnesota Shrike that he had to become institutionalized. So, I feel like I've got a car jack and I've wedged it in between those lines. I've just opened them up for room to tell more between the lines than what you may have anticipated. But we're also sticking to the canon. We will deliver what we've come to expect in Red Dragon of Will Graham, but he'll just have a longer, harder journey to get there. I gave myself room to wiggle, so we're going to see some wiggling in the next two seasons.
Does Will have any allies at this point? Perhaps Alana (Caroline Dhavernas)?
Fuller: I think we'll see shifts in relationships. Will has always felt alone and we've seen him victimized by his isolation in the first season. Now, Will has to step up and defend himself and also be much more proactive as a character because it is his life on the line. The tragedy for Will is that he allowed himself to open up and get close to Hannibal, and now he fears that that is the exact wrong person that he should have been so intimate with. Hannibal has so clearly convinced all of those around Will that Will could be capable of all of this. And Will has convinced everyone around him that he could capable of this by his own behavior.
Can Will distance himself from Hannibal, or will he have access to him as his attending psychiatrist?
Fuller: Hannibal will always want to be close to Will. He sees a great potential in Will as this pure human being, and he's seduced by Will's purity. He's attracted to it, and he's also very eager to conquer it in some way.
Is Hannibal's obsession with Will also an attempt to more fully understand himself? Fuller: Hannibal's absolutely on a journey of self-exploration, and he's fascinated by his fascination with Will. He is curious about this change that's come over him. It's sort of like somebody who is falling in love for the first time and had never felt that was actually a possibility for them. That's a fresh, unexplored territory for Hannibal that is exciting to him and interesting to him. Maybe his ultimate downfall is his attraction and affection for Will Graham.
But for now, Hannibal is on top.Fuller: Hannibal Lecter has won this round, certainly. But one of the exciting things moving forward with Season 2 is that Will has hit rock bottom. One of the great gifts that the universe can give somebody in a tumultuous state of mind is for them to hit rock bottom and be free. Now, Will has nothing to lose, and he will be a very dangerous dance partner for Hannibal Lecter.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Annotations of Sorbet
Hannibal Annotations – Sorbet
Time Index
|
Event
|
Notes
|
01:15-
01:20
|
Will:
“Two days later, the eighth is killed in his workshop. Every tool on the
pegboard where they hung was used against him, and, as with previous murders,
organs were removed.”
|
From
Red Dragon Chapter 6 "It was a coincidence," Graham
said. "The sixth victim was killed in his workshop. He had woodworking
equipment and he kept his hunting stuff out there. He was laced to a pegboard
where the tools hung, and he was really torn up, cut and stabbed, and he had
arrows in him. The wounds reminded me of something. I couldn't think what it
was."
|
01:25
|
Wound
Man Illustration on slide
|
Will
showed Wound Man after showing Hannibal’s eighth victim, therefore he knows
the murder is styled after Wound Man, unlike in Red Dragon.
|
04:35-04:40
|
Mrs.
Komeda: “He used to throw such exquisite dinner parties. You heard me. Used
to.”
|
From
The Silence of the Lambs Chapter 4 "Dr.
Hannibal Lecter professed to know nothing about these matters. The president
and the conductor of the Philharmonic testified that they could not recall
the fare at Dr. Lecter's dinner, though Lecter was known for the excellence
of his table and had contributed numerous articles to gourmet
magazines."
From Hannibal Chapter 57 "And
Dr Lecter gave the famous birthday dinner for you. With the wine vintages
keyed to your birth date."
|
09:30
|
The
Shining Bathroom
|
Another
Bathroom reference to “The Shining”
 |
12:15-12:30
|
Jimmy:
“We got twenty-two signature components all attributable to the same killer.”
|
Jack
Crawford is based on real-life former head of the FBI’s Criminal Profiling
Program, John Douglas. Douglas created the idea of a signature which he
described as “a personal detail that is unique to the individual, why he does
it: the thing that fulfils him emotionally” in Journey into Darkness.
|
13:25-14:00
|
Will:
"I see him as one of those pitiful things sometimes born in hospitals.
They feed it, keep it warm, but they don't put it on the machines. They let
it die. But he doesn't die. He looks normal. And nobody can tell what he
is."
|
From
Red Dragon Chapter 6 Will:
"He's a monster. I think of him as one of those pitiful things that are
born in hospitals from time to time. They feed it, and keep it warm, but they
don't put it on the machines and it dies. Lecter is the same way in his head,
but he looks normal and nobody could tell."
|
14:00-16:20
|
Franklin:
“I tried to get your attention.”
Franklin:
“I was listening to, uh, Michael Jackson last night, and I burst into tears,
and...my eyes are burning right now just talking about it. You know what I
think is the saddest thing about him dying is that I will never get to meet
him, and I feel like if I was his friend that I... I would have been able
to...help save him from himself.”
|
Franklin
is not getting good treatment; he is suffering from overidentification with
Hannibal.
He also
appears to be experiencing transference,
where a patient's feelings for a significant person are redirected to their
therapist. Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a
therapist or even placing the therapist in a god-like status.
He
also seems to have some type of Celebrity Worship Syndrome.
Hannibal
seems to be using a Psychodynamic psychotherapy approach.
Franklin
needs a new therapist.
|
17:05-17:15
|
Dr.
Bedelia Du Maurier: “I respect its meticulous construction, but you are
wearing a very well-tailored "person suit".”
|
From
The Silence of the Lambs Chapter 25 “He's making himself a girl suit out of real
girls”
|
18:20-18:50
|
Pink
Wine
|
Huh,
what the heck happened there, Hannibal was in Dr. Du Maurier’s office having
wine, and then he tells Will that she was in his office. Is Dr. Du Maurier
real?
|
24:20-24:50
|
Hannibal:
“Beer brewed in a wine barrel. Two years. I bottled it myself.”
Alana:
“A cabernet sauvignon wine barrel.”
Hannibal:
“I love your pallet.”
Alana:
“I love your beer. I taste oak.”
Hannibal:
“What else do I taste in there?”
|
Bryan
Fuller tweeted “Beer is People”
Hannibal
himself explains how later: “I have a butcher who carries sow's blood.
Centrifugate. Separate the matter from the water. Creates a transparent
liquid.”
Since
this beer is two years old, it’s possible it’s Miriam Lass beer.
|
Monday, June 17, 2013
IGN: Hannibal Coming to San Diego Comic-Con by Eric Goldman
Friday, June 14, 2013
AssignmentX: Bryan Fuller Interview - Part 1 by Abbie Bernstein
An excellent interview by Abbie Bernstein on Assignment X, some highlights below, but check out the full interview here:
:
:
AX: Prior to HANNIBAL, had you been looking to do something this dark, or is it that that once you got the project, you found within yourself, “Hey, I actually want to go here”?
FULLER: Well, I had always been a horror fan, and I have pictures from my youth of makeup effects with arrows sticking all over throughout my body like a pincushion. For me, I also enjoy a little bit of whimsy and levity and humor to cut my horror. But it was interesting. I felt like, “Oh, this will be different for me.” That was just the big appeal – to do something that was very dramatic, that was more serious in tone, and I think it was just to cleanse my palate in a way and try something different, and really engage the characters, not from a romantic comedy point of view, but very high-stakes drama. Also, psychological horror is so insidious that I thought, “How can I shape this into my lens that gives it a valid point of view, but also allows me to express myself as an artist?” I still very much consider myself an artist and have to say something with what I’m doing. I can’t just write something that I’m not emotionally connected to in a great way, so I found myself very much emotionally connecting to Will Graham. I have written about characters who experience isolation in various ways and he felt like somebody that was in my wheelhouse. Also, it was fantastic for me to have Hugh Dancy on this project, because we were both Will Graham in different ways, and that he’s such an intelligent actor and so insightful with the character that it was the beginning of a great partnership; I didn’t feel like I was alone.
AX: Hugh Dancy plays Will as though the character has a great sense of shame …
FULLER: Well, there’s a line in RED DRAGON where Will says that he looks at his ability as something grotesque and evil, so I think [he feels] a bit of shame that he can think like these people and he can understand the horrors that men do, and for him, the vulnerability is, “I can understand it – does that mean that there’s a little bit of it inside me?” And that could be where the shame comes from. But he definitely is aware of the darkness and uncomfortable with it, because he I think on some level feels the seduction, and that’s what Hannibal then taps into to try to exploit it.
FULLER: Well, I had always been a horror fan, and I have pictures from my youth of makeup effects with arrows sticking all over throughout my body like a pincushion. For me, I also enjoy a little bit of whimsy and levity and humor to cut my horror. But it was interesting. I felt like, “Oh, this will be different for me.” That was just the big appeal – to do something that was very dramatic, that was more serious in tone, and I think it was just to cleanse my palate in a way and try something different, and really engage the characters, not from a romantic comedy point of view, but very high-stakes drama. Also, psychological horror is so insidious that I thought, “How can I shape this into my lens that gives it a valid point of view, but also allows me to express myself as an artist?” I still very much consider myself an artist and have to say something with what I’m doing. I can’t just write something that I’m not emotionally connected to in a great way, so I found myself very much emotionally connecting to Will Graham. I have written about characters who experience isolation in various ways and he felt like somebody that was in my wheelhouse. Also, it was fantastic for me to have Hugh Dancy on this project, because we were both Will Graham in different ways, and that he’s such an intelligent actor and so insightful with the character that it was the beginning of a great partnership; I didn’t feel like I was alone.
AX: Hugh Dancy plays Will as though the character has a great sense of shame …
FULLER: Well, there’s a line in RED DRAGON where Will says that he looks at his ability as something grotesque and evil, so I think [he feels] a bit of shame that he can think like these people and he can understand the horrors that men do, and for him, the vulnerability is, “I can understand it – does that mean that there’s a little bit of it inside me?” And that could be where the shame comes from. But he definitely is aware of the darkness and uncomfortable with it, because he I think on some level feels the seduction, and that’s what Hannibal then taps into to try to exploit it.
:
:
AX: How many seasons do you have plotted?
FULLER: I can see pretty clearly seven seasons. I think that there are always shifts and alterations and course corrections that you have to take, because you’ll be cruising along and then you’ll hit an idea and go, “Oh, wow, that’s a great idea, we have to do that now.” That being said, I can see the structure for a seven-season arc for the show, but then I also am very open to course corrections along the way to adapt to changes.
AX: If you don’t get to run for seven seasons, are you going to make available to the public in some form what the unaired seasons would have been?FULLER: Well, when you get into Season Four, you get into the literature. And so Season Four would be RED DRAGON, Season Five would be the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS era, Season Six would be the HANNIBAL era, and then Season Seven would be a resolve to the ending of that book. HANNIBAL ends on a cliffhanger. Hannibal Lecter has bonded with Clarice Starling and brainwashed her and they are now quasi-lovers and off as fugitives, and so that’s a cliffhanger. It might be interesting to resolve that in some way and to bring Will Graham back into the picture. So once we get two more seasons, say, of the television show, those are the aren’t-novelized stories, and then we would get into expansions of the novels after that and kind of using the novels as a backbone for season arcs that would then be kind of enhanced.
FULLER: I can see pretty clearly seven seasons. I think that there are always shifts and alterations and course corrections that you have to take, because you’ll be cruising along and then you’ll hit an idea and go, “Oh, wow, that’s a great idea, we have to do that now.” That being said, I can see the structure for a seven-season arc for the show, but then I also am very open to course corrections along the way to adapt to changes.
AX: If you don’t get to run for seven seasons, are you going to make available to the public in some form what the unaired seasons would have been?FULLER: Well, when you get into Season Four, you get into the literature. And so Season Four would be RED DRAGON, Season Five would be the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS era, Season Six would be the HANNIBAL era, and then Season Seven would be a resolve to the ending of that book. HANNIBAL ends on a cliffhanger. Hannibal Lecter has bonded with Clarice Starling and brainwashed her and they are now quasi-lovers and off as fugitives, and so that’s a cliffhanger. It might be interesting to resolve that in some way and to bring Will Graham back into the picture. So once we get two more seasons, say, of the television show, those are the aren’t-novelized stories, and then we would get into expansions of the novels after that and kind of using the novels as a backbone for season arcs that would then be kind of enhanced.
:
:
AX: Assuming you cover the eras of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and HANNIBAL, when Will Graham isn’t a character in the books, what do you do with Hugh Dancy for those two seasons?
FULLER: Well, it would be about incorporating him in a way that he hasn’t been incorporated in the books, because Will Graham was only mentioned in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, he was not seen, and so I would be curious to see what happens to Will Graham after RED DRAGON. By the time of RED DRAGON, he’s married to Molly and has her son from a previous marriage, but doesn’t have any children of his own. And then that relationship is more complicated by Francis Dolarhyde and there were suggestions that there was a not-so-happy ending for Will Graham after RED DRAGON because he has his face carved up and you wonder what’s going to happen to Will now, and I’m curious to see what happens to Will after that.
AX: How did you decide to cast a Danish actor, Mads Mikkelsen, as Hannibal?
FULLER: Hannibal Lecter is actually Lithuanian, and Eastern European, which is not Denmark [laughs]. But the interesting thing for me was to work with Mads Mikkelsen, because I think he’s a phenomenal actor and not just in CASINO ROYALE and a lot of the big genre films that had made me aware of him through, “Hey, that’s the guy with the eye patch,” or he’s played heavies in these big science-fiction/fantasy films, but for me what did it was this film AFTER THE WEDDING. It’s a beautiful film and he plays this heartbroken man who is trying to get back a lost romance and he was so sweet and emotional and vulnerable, and I really wanted meet him, because I felt like [part of HANNIBAL is] about Hannibal Lecter trying to find a friend, because he’s lonely in his own way. I wanted to see that vulnerability, that bonding, that need for a companion to share his life with in a way that he thought would never be possible. Then along comes Will Graham, a man who empathizes with the worst of humanity, and perhaps there could be a chance for Hannibal to have a friend after all. It felt like it was such a fascinating place to take a villain. It would be very easy to [depict] Hannibal Lecter as a psychopath or a sociopath, and in the book RED DRAGON, Thomas Harris says, “He’s not really a psychopath or a sociopath, because he does understand empathy, so what kind of crazy is he, and the answer is, we don’t know.” Primarily because it’s a work of fiction, but he does not fit any of the kind of the categories of the multi-phasic tests for psychopaths. He doesn’t fit any of those columns, so [the series] looks at him not as a psycho, but as someone who was completely Other.
When [Mikkelsen’s] name entered the [casting] conversation, I was like, “Oh, my God, yes, yes, yes. Yes, absolutely.” Because I had seen AFTER THE WEDDING and was aware of what an experienced and full-bodied actor he was, or is, and I think a lot of people may have been, “Oh, well, he always plays villains.” Well, he plays the villain in American movies, but he’s actually the George Clooney of Denmark [laughs].
At the very beginning of the season, Mads comes up and he says, “I think Hannibal should be much more active and I’m really good at fight scenes, so if you write one, I will nail it.” And I was like, “Okay, great, we’ll write one.” And he did a fight sequence – all of the stunt choreographers were like, “Oh, my God, this guy is better than anyone that we’ve ever worked with like this.” His experience as a dancer really helps. He has such control of his instrument and his body, so he really is somebody that you want to see in an action sequence.
Mads Mikkelsen’s approach to the character was not to play him as Anthony Hopkins did, but here he is, this fallen angel who is capable of horrific things, but yet has an awe for humanity and an appreciation of the [human] condition. And that felt like it was such a fascinating approach to the character. And when I see the episodes again, I look at him now not as Hannibal Lecter, but as this guy [who] has that really distant look in his eyes, that infinity of thought, that goes beyond a mortal man. It’s such a smart, interesting, fresh approach to this character that Mads has taken, not that we have altered course to accommodate it, but had it climb aboard and we were all set off to the same destination.
[Hannibal’s] arrogance is not sort of outward – there’s no dismissing of fellow man, no sense of offense or, “You have offended me, good sir.” With Hannibal, he’s not so much offended as he is kind of observational, and there are moments of his micro-expressions that [unint.] a big scene. I love the look after he snaps his patient’s [Franklin, played by Dan Fogler] neck when he’s confronted by [fellow serial killer] Budge [played by Demore Barnes] and drops [Franklin] like a bag of rocks, and just looks back at [Budge] with this innocent kind of, “Well, what’s next? What shall we do now?” It’s so delightful, because it wasn’t like, “I just killed a man because he had it coming because he was annoying,” it was like, “Well, that happened, and now I’m curious what happens next.”
AX: Before Hannibal kills Franklin, he tells Franklin he should leave. Is he sincere in wanting to let him go?
FULLER: Yes.
AX: So it’s, “If you don’t go now, I have to get rid of you”?
FULLER: Right. What I love about Hannibal is that he’s a good doctor for his patients and he wants to help them, and even though Franklin is a very annoying character and is a comic foil for Hannibal in some ways, I do think that Hannibal actually cares about Franklin and sees the flaws in his humanity and finds him endearing in some way. And there are people who see that and think, “Oh, that guy was dead from the moment we saw him,” and I’m like, “Well, this version of Hannibal would consider that rude,” because Franklin hasn’t done anything terrible in terms of his humanity. He’s clearly a lost and lonely man, and I think Hannibal has empathy for that. And when [he and Budge] are at the dinner table, Budge says, “I want to kill Franklin,” and Hannibal says, “Don’t kill Franklin.” It’s like, “Why?” With Franklin, he was just eager and lonely, so I don’t think he necessarily falls onto Hannibal’s plate [laughs], in Hannibal’s thinking. So I think right up until the moment that he snaps Franklin’s neck, he was hoping that Franklin would walk away. But [makes philosophical shrugging sound], eh.
FULLER: Well, it would be about incorporating him in a way that he hasn’t been incorporated in the books, because Will Graham was only mentioned in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, he was not seen, and so I would be curious to see what happens to Will Graham after RED DRAGON. By the time of RED DRAGON, he’s married to Molly and has her son from a previous marriage, but doesn’t have any children of his own. And then that relationship is more complicated by Francis Dolarhyde and there were suggestions that there was a not-so-happy ending for Will Graham after RED DRAGON because he has his face carved up and you wonder what’s going to happen to Will now, and I’m curious to see what happens to Will after that.
AX: How did you decide to cast a Danish actor, Mads Mikkelsen, as Hannibal?
FULLER: Hannibal Lecter is actually Lithuanian, and Eastern European, which is not Denmark [laughs]. But the interesting thing for me was to work with Mads Mikkelsen, because I think he’s a phenomenal actor and not just in CASINO ROYALE and a lot of the big genre films that had made me aware of him through, “Hey, that’s the guy with the eye patch,” or he’s played heavies in these big science-fiction/fantasy films, but for me what did it was this film AFTER THE WEDDING. It’s a beautiful film and he plays this heartbroken man who is trying to get back a lost romance and he was so sweet and emotional and vulnerable, and I really wanted meet him, because I felt like [part of HANNIBAL is] about Hannibal Lecter trying to find a friend, because he’s lonely in his own way. I wanted to see that vulnerability, that bonding, that need for a companion to share his life with in a way that he thought would never be possible. Then along comes Will Graham, a man who empathizes with the worst of humanity, and perhaps there could be a chance for Hannibal to have a friend after all. It felt like it was such a fascinating place to take a villain. It would be very easy to [depict] Hannibal Lecter as a psychopath or a sociopath, and in the book RED DRAGON, Thomas Harris says, “He’s not really a psychopath or a sociopath, because he does understand empathy, so what kind of crazy is he, and the answer is, we don’t know.” Primarily because it’s a work of fiction, but he does not fit any of the kind of the categories of the multi-phasic tests for psychopaths. He doesn’t fit any of those columns, so [the series] looks at him not as a psycho, but as someone who was completely Other.
When [Mikkelsen’s] name entered the [casting] conversation, I was like, “Oh, my God, yes, yes, yes. Yes, absolutely.” Because I had seen AFTER THE WEDDING and was aware of what an experienced and full-bodied actor he was, or is, and I think a lot of people may have been, “Oh, well, he always plays villains.” Well, he plays the villain in American movies, but he’s actually the George Clooney of Denmark [laughs].
At the very beginning of the season, Mads comes up and he says, “I think Hannibal should be much more active and I’m really good at fight scenes, so if you write one, I will nail it.” And I was like, “Okay, great, we’ll write one.” And he did a fight sequence – all of the stunt choreographers were like, “Oh, my God, this guy is better than anyone that we’ve ever worked with like this.” His experience as a dancer really helps. He has such control of his instrument and his body, so he really is somebody that you want to see in an action sequence.
Mads Mikkelsen’s approach to the character was not to play him as Anthony Hopkins did, but here he is, this fallen angel who is capable of horrific things, but yet has an awe for humanity and an appreciation of the [human] condition. And that felt like it was such a fascinating approach to the character. And when I see the episodes again, I look at him now not as Hannibal Lecter, but as this guy [who] has that really distant look in his eyes, that infinity of thought, that goes beyond a mortal man. It’s such a smart, interesting, fresh approach to this character that Mads has taken, not that we have altered course to accommodate it, but had it climb aboard and we were all set off to the same destination.
[Hannibal’s] arrogance is not sort of outward – there’s no dismissing of fellow man, no sense of offense or, “You have offended me, good sir.” With Hannibal, he’s not so much offended as he is kind of observational, and there are moments of his micro-expressions that [unint.] a big scene. I love the look after he snaps his patient’s [Franklin, played by Dan Fogler] neck when he’s confronted by [fellow serial killer] Budge [played by Demore Barnes] and drops [Franklin] like a bag of rocks, and just looks back at [Budge] with this innocent kind of, “Well, what’s next? What shall we do now?” It’s so delightful, because it wasn’t like, “I just killed a man because he had it coming because he was annoying,” it was like, “Well, that happened, and now I’m curious what happens next.”
AX: Before Hannibal kills Franklin, he tells Franklin he should leave. Is he sincere in wanting to let him go?
FULLER: Yes.
AX: So it’s, “If you don’t go now, I have to get rid of you”?
FULLER: Right. What I love about Hannibal is that he’s a good doctor for his patients and he wants to help them, and even though Franklin is a very annoying character and is a comic foil for Hannibal in some ways, I do think that Hannibal actually cares about Franklin and sees the flaws in his humanity and finds him endearing in some way. And there are people who see that and think, “Oh, that guy was dead from the moment we saw him,” and I’m like, “Well, this version of Hannibal would consider that rude,” because Franklin hasn’t done anything terrible in terms of his humanity. He’s clearly a lost and lonely man, and I think Hannibal has empathy for that. And when [he and Budge] are at the dinner table, Budge says, “I want to kill Franklin,” and Hannibal says, “Don’t kill Franklin.” It’s like, “Why?” With Franklin, he was just eager and lonely, so I don’t think he necessarily falls onto Hannibal’s plate [laughs], in Hannibal’s thinking. So I think right up until the moment that he snaps Franklin’s neck, he was hoping that Franklin would walk away. But [makes philosophical shrugging sound], eh.
Savoureux – Promo Trailer (Season Finale)
This week I'm not going to embed the promo in a post,
the trailer has MASSIVE SPOILERS, and I don't want
to give anything away, so use this link if you really want to:
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Will Graham as a Lecturer
Is Will a good lecturer? I would say definitely that he is,
he has many characteristics of an excellent teacher, let’s look at all of the
episodes so far (up to “Entree” on Sky Living) and see what he does right.
Episode 1: Apéritif
The episode opens with Will lecturing, but that isn’t
obvious straight-away that he is lecturing since he is painting such as vivid picture of how a
profiler does their job we are seeing how he explores a crime scene. This is a strength
of Will’s teaching; he is a good story teller. Also because he is a practitioner
of what he is teaching, he is able to engage in Authentic Instruction, which means that there is a clear connection
between the real world and the material being taught in Will’s classroom, and
that he requires his students engage in Higher-Order Thinking, so he gets them to solve problems
or discover new meanings.
Will also uses visual materials to augment his lesson, and
in this case these images are often very shocking and graphic. This makes them
highly memorable, and helps create anchors around which the students can
remember and reflect on the lesson. It also exposes the students to the reality
of the profession that they will be undertaking.
Will finishes his lesson by saying “Tell me your design. Tell
me who you are.”, this helps personalise the lesson for the students, Will is
saying “I do this thing, you can do it too, your ideas and opinions are as valuable
as mine and your insights will make a difference in the world”.
Episode 2: Amuse-Bouche
This class starts with the students applauding Will for
locating and stopping the “Minnesota Shrike”, Will instructs them to stop
clapping, this is very good, he is saying several different things: “We are getting on with the class,
business as usual”, “I had to kill someone and that doesn’t deserve applause,
because all life is valuable, and we don’t demonise these killers”, and “This
is the job, don’t do it for praise, do it because you want to help”.
As all teachers do, Will is acting as a role-model for his students,
the students look at him and get their impression of what a person in their job
should act like and how they should react to certain situations, he is a good
role model.
Will discusses an ongoing case with the students, another excellent example of Authentic Instruction; the students get to “see under the hood” of how such an investigation works, with all the confusion and uncertainty. This would be in direct contrast to a case study where the answers are already worked out and the students just have to figure out how the result was achieved.
Will discusses an ongoing case with the students, another excellent example of Authentic Instruction; the students get to “see under the hood” of how such an investigation works, with all the confusion and uncertainty. This would be in direct contrast to a case study where the answers are already worked out and the students just have to figure out how the result was achieved.
Episode 3: Potage
Will discusses an investigation that he has talked about in
class previously again, but expands on certain elements of the case, and
highlights different issues, and asks different questions, to show the multiple
perspectives that you can come at a case from.
Will also explains his approach to profiling by example again this week, and is free and open enough to ask questions he doesn’t know the answers to, in that way he is asking the students to construct their own understanding (Constructivism) and to engage in a real-world task to help make the world a better place (Service Learning).
Will also explains his approach to profiling by example again this week, and is free and open enough to ask questions he doesn’t know the answers to, in that way he is asking the students to construct their own understanding (Constructivism) and to engage in a real-world task to help make the world a better place (Service Learning).
Episodes 4 and 6: Ceuf and Entrée
Will isn’t teaching but is using his classroom to do some profiling;
this is excellent, the boundaries between the real-world and the teaching
dissolve when the teacher practices their profession in the same space that
they use to teach, and it makes it easier for the teacher to recall details and
examples for particular topics if they have been reviewing those materials in
the same space that they are teaching the same ideas.
Bottom line, Will is a very good teacher, in the words of Aristotle
"Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach."
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