Showing posts with label Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter. Show all posts
Friday, August 2, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
"Exit" starring Mads Mikkelsen released on DVD in UK
FEATURING THE STARS OF TRUE BLOOD AND HANNIBAL...
DVD RELEASE - MONDAY 8TH JULY
Arrow Films is pleased to announce the UK DVD debut of EXIT, an action-packed Scandinavian thriller starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, The Hunt, Hannibal) and Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood).
Directed by Peter Lindmark, EXIT is a tense and exhilarating Swedish thriller surrounding Thomas Skepphult (Mads Mikkelsen), a wealthy investor at the peak of his career. On the cusp of securing one of his biggest and most lucrative deals, which will see he and his fellow partner sell their stake in a rival firm, Thomas seems to have it all – a beautiful wife, Anna (Kirsty Torhaug), a lovely daughter, Ebba (Johanna Dickson), an expensive villa by the water and a financially secured future. Just before the deal is to complete, Thomas’ partner and mentor William is found brutally murdered, and Thomas is named as the prime suspect. Due to the financial incentive, and a harrowing link to the murder weapon, Thomas must embark on a desperate campaign to protest his innocence and protect his family, eliciting the help of two closely trusted allies. Thomas learns that when things go sour in the upper echelons of the corporate world, and a way out is not for sale, the wealthy and powerful must summon the same raw survival instincts as the common man.
Mads Mikkelsen once again combines high drama and action convincingly, proving his worth as arguably the best Nordic actor of a generation. Stylish Swedish production and excellent performances make EXIT a must-see for UK Scandi-philes looking for their next fix!
Monday, July 1, 2013
Hannibal eats up the 2012-2013 Golden Europe TV Awards
http://kino-mania.com/the-2012-2013-golden-europe-tv-awards-winners-game-of-thrones-hannibal-and-arrested-development-sweep/
Hannibal won 6 awards in the the 2012-2013 Golden Europe TV Awards:
- OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR – DRAMA SERIES: Hugh Dancy
- OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR – DRAMA SERIES (tie): Mads Mikkelsen and Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire)
- OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR DRAMA SERIES: Stephen Philipson, Ben Wilkinson, and Michael Doherty
- OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A SERIES – CONTEMPORARY: Matthew Davies
- OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR A SERIES: Janice Ierulli
- OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A SERIES: Paul Shubat, Steve Foster, Paul Williamson, and Andre Perreault
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
SciFiNow Issue 80: Hannibal Interviews
SciFiNow Issue 80
Pages 46-49. Featuing interviews with Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Saturday, April 6, 2013
EntertainmentHollywood: NBC's Hannibal: Not just another serial killer show By Adam Bryant,
In a year that's already given us Fox's The Following and A&E's Bates Motel, some might argue that we don't need another serial killer TV show. And they'd probably be right.
But NBC's Hannibal isn't just another serial killer show.
Spring Preview: Gets scoop on all the must-see new shows
Taking characters from the Thomas Harris novels that inspired a film series that includes Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, executive producer Bryan Fuller (Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies) has created a sophisticated drama that doesn't glorify the violence of mass murder but rather examines the toll that hunting serial killers takes on the minds and souls of those who hunt. In fact, even though the show is named after Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who was immortalized as one of the greatest pop culture villains of all time thanks to Anthony Hopkins' Oscar-winning portrayal, the series — at least initially — isn't entirely focused on the cannibal in the three-piece suit.
Instead, the spotlight is on our hero Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), a profiler who assists the FBI in tracking down serial killers because of his unique ability to think and feel like the murderers he's chasing. Although the character is known in Harris' Red Dragon as the damaged man who caught Lecter, the NBC series begins several years before the events of the book. Will and his boss Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) first meet Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen), a Baltimore psychiatrist, when they bring him in to offer his insights on a killer who's mounting his young, female victims on animal antlers.
"The Will Graham character in the books hasn't really been accurately represented in the films because there's not enough real estate to accurately represent how complex he is," Fuller tells TVGuide.com. "There are little hints at his greater neuroses and personality disorders. So, I thought, 'There's an angle into this story that hasn't been taken yet.' There's something so unique in how crazy Hannibal is and something so unique in how crazy Will Graham is, that both of these men who are uniquely insane need each other to understand themselves."
It was that element of the script that hooked both Mikkelsen and Dancy. "I was quite reluctant from the beginning based on the fact that somebody has done [this character] before to perfection," he says. "Why should we go back and do something that somebody else has already done that good? ... But in the script there is kind of a bromance between Will and Hannibal that is quite new. I believe that Hannibal is quite happy to finally be able to make a friend."
Adds Dancy: "Hannibal is really the only other person on the planet who is as smart about the things that Will does. So it's like the two greatest chess players of their generation sitting down together, and I think there's a genuine thrill in that for Will. They speak the same language. And even though Will would resist this idea, they do have a certain amount in common. The things that make [Will] tick are potentially quite dark."
Indeed, the gorgeously shot pilot — directed by David Slade, who helmed the equally striking Awake pilot last season — features a visual flourish that takes viewers inside Will's mind. As he reconstructs crimes, he pictures himself, not the killers, committing the gruesome acts. Naturally, carrying those images around in your head becomes taxing. "What you see to some degree is deterioration in Will," Dancy says. "I think that Will sees and rationally understands the importance and the value of stopping these people and catching them, but he doesn't get the sense of relief that maybe most other people would. I found it interesting that he's somebody who's really striving to do good, driven partially by the fear that he might be able to do bad."
So, as Hannibal consults on Will's cases — and does some secret killing of his own on the side — he begins to encourage Will to open up to him. "It is a seduction and Will is seduced," Fuller says. "I think [Hannibal's] educating himself on how not to get caught. But also he genuinely likes Will Graham and Jack Crawford. He doesn't consider them rude men or betrayers of art and beauty like his victims. His victims are free-range rude, and if you're a pig of a human being, you're going to be his bacon. For him, looking at Will Graham, who has the ability to understand without judgment how horrible people do the horrible things they do, he feels that for perhaps the first time in his life there is the opportunity to make a friend who can clearly understand what he does and who he is."
But don't worry, the show won't always be so lovey-dovey. Although Mikkelsen's Lecter is blissfully understated, the Danish actor — best known stateside as the Bond villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale — promises we'll see shades of the Lecter we know. "We can't detach totally from the films or the books because the character is what he is," he says. "Hannibal does not see himself as a psychopath, of course, and I don't either. He's much more than that. The closest I can come to a definition is that he's the fallen angel; he's Satan."
But Mikkelsen and Fuller agree that Hannibal also humanizes Lecter in a way viewers might not expect. "I was fascinated by the social Hannibal," Fuller says. "What are the types of relationships Hannibal Lecter would have as a free man in society? ... [I wanted] to see Hannibal as not necessarily always the antagonist and for him to have a genuine appreciation of the relationships in his life. ... There are some deeply, deeply moving scenes toward the end of the season where Hannibal allows himself to feel. He goes to such genuine emotional places and raw vulnerability. We're clearly not doing Anthony Hopkins or Brian Cox. I love those performances, but I didn't want to go near them."
Although the show doesn't necessarily go for quick-jolt scares, its murder tableaux can be gruesome. And while, unlike The Following, the show and its characters actively meditate on the cost of constantly witnessing such horror and violence, there's bound to be viewers who don't want this particular brand of drama on network TV. And Fuller says that's OK.
"As somebody who's been reading Fangoria magazine since I was 10 years old, I am a fan of horror," Fuller says. "I love The Walking Dead and the drama and the high stakes of that world and the romance that happens. But I also love it when a zombie's head explodes. ... Hannibal is a horror story, so I felt like we have a responsibility to honor the genre.
"You can't buy a Victorian house and knock out all the walls and put in floor-to-ceiling windows and disrespect what it is by making it something else," Fuller continues. "We're also going to deliver a sophisticated human drama, but make no mistake, Hannibal Lecter is a horror character. We're going to push the envelope until the envelope pushes back. ... It's not about anything political. It's about what kind of house you are living in — and we happen to be living in a horror house."
Friday, April 5, 2013
EW: 'Hannibal's Mads Mikkelsen: Lecter is the devil... 'but I kind of like him' by Jeff Labrecque
MADS MIKKELSEN: Obviously in the films, we like him because there’s another monster we hate more — and also because Anthony Hopkins is super charming and funny. But I believe that Hannibal Lecter is as close as you can come to the devil, to Satan. He’s the fallen angel. His motives are not banal reasons, like childhood abuse or junkie parents. It’s in his genes. He finds life is most beautiful on the threshold to death, and that is something that is much closer to the fallen angel than it is to a psychopath. He’s much more than a psychopath, and there is a fascination for us. We can’t understand it, but we want to understand it.
Where do we meet your Hannibal? How old is he and where is he in the world?
Well, he’s my age.
That’s convenient.
He’s been Hannibal always. Since he was 1 years old. And he’s been doing his things for years. He’s been a practicing psychiatrist, and all of a sudden, I have this phone call from Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), who asks if I can help out this young profiler. So Hannibal finds himself as a little kid in a candy store.
Hannibal’s relationship with Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) reminded me of something like Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty…
[Nods with sly grin] Who’s who?
That’s what makes it so interesting. There’s a connection there, isn’t there?
I think that Hannibal is spot-on from the very beginning about certain things he sees in Will. I believe Lecter can talk on everybody’s level, and he sees what Will is struggling with. I think that’s the first time for Will that somebody’s actually understood him and what he’s struggling with. Will is full of empathy but he has no idea what to do with it. The empathy is killing him. He can’t control it. It’s controlling him. And Hannibal has the exact opposite power. That empathy is something that he uses as a tool. There’s a potential in Will that Will is not aware of yet: he might be one of the few members of my selective club. So, yes, Hannibal loves him, and he will go far to help him. But if it’s the help Will needs, I’m not sure.
We already know a bit about Lecter from the books and films – or at least we think we do. Did you go back and start there for your character, or did you throw that all away?
It was a combination. The basis of what we were doing was the script. We’re dealing with him in a different situation; he’s not captured, he’s out there in real life with real people, meaning that he has to behave like a person. We have to humanize him. Will and Jack haven’t seen the films. So for them, I’m just an interesting character who apparently knows a lot about psychiatry. But once we began, I started reading the books as well, just for fun and to see if there was any inspiration we could add. I didn’t find something specific, but it was nice to see what it was.
Did you have any reservations about playing a character so iconic, especially because of Hopkins’ version?
Lot of reservations. I read the script and I liked it, but I really had to hear the pitch, which took Bryan [Fuller] a couple of hours — he was pitching through season 28 or something! Bryan is a fantastic, energetic man, and brilliant brilliant brain, and I realized, “Yeah, we might be able to do something different because Hannibal can’t play all his cards as he can in the prison.” He can do whatever he wants [there] because they know who he is. But that’s not the case here. This is a man who has to make friends. He has to make people feel comfortable around him, and so that was a different angle to attack the character. So my reluctance kind of slowly went away, and I said to myself, “Hey, Hamlet has been played so many times — to perfection — but that shouldn’t stop anyone else from doing something else with Hamlet.”
Did you incorporate traces of Hopkins’ Lecter or did you intentionally stay away?
I would say neither. We cannot do what Hopkins was doing. I can’t stand and do the tongue thing. I can’t do that. I have to be as honest as possible when I’m with Jack and with Will. In the private moments, on the other hand, that’s a different thing. Then I can be who I am. And we will see that… but there will be no winking at the audience. They know who I am, but the other characters don’t.
In your career, you’ve played a lot of… not-good guys –
I’ve played a lot of good guys as well. Just watch The Hunt. That’s as good as it gets.
But you’ve played a Bond villain and…
Yeah, I have. Over here [in America], I have done that. I’ve actually had quite a few invitations to play something else, but the stories have not been that interesting. They’ve just been boring films. So, I’ve done that a lot back home, playing the Good Guy or the normal man, and then I’ve been — [because of] the accent, I guess — I get to play the baddie.
Some actors actually prefer to play the Bad Guy because those characters are often much more complicated than the hero.
They are often, but I think every good script should be aware that there are Good Guys who have their flaws. And the Bad Guy should have his human side as well. So in a good script, the Bad Guy and the Good Guy are equally good parts.
Had you worked with Hugh before?
Yes, the very first thing I did abroad was a film called King Arthur. We were sitting on horses and killing blue people.
With Clive Owen and Keira Knightley!
Right. Me and Hugh were two of the knights. So we were sitting for half a year on horseback and we became friends way back then. It’s just been a gift. We’re doing a show like this where you’re working so close together. It’s nice to be comfortable with each other, and that was just a gift that it turned out to be me and Hugh.
I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Will and Hannibal’s relationship and that of Carrie and Brody on Homeland. The idea of having a relationship with someone who might be the devil in disguise.
Yup. It’s funny that that’s Hugh’s wife.
Yes, they both play… unsettled characters.
You bet! That is always interesting, right, when two different poles meet and have something in common without really being able to put their finger on what it is — but there’s something that rings a bell. It’s always interesting. That’s drama.
Nothing is guaranteed in TV, but are you prepared for this type of character to be part of your life for a long time?
Yeah. Absolutely. I knew that that was part of the package. I find Hannibal interesting. I don’t have to like what he does. I don’t have to agree with it. But I have to a certain degree understand his way of thinking. There has to be logic in there. I have to understand it. I would like to explore it more, and if we get the chance, it would be great. But like him? I don’t have to… But I kind of like him.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Mikkelsen Chews Scenery and More As 'Hannibal'
Hannibal = Satan:
From The Silence of the Lambs: "The suite seemed enormous to Dr. Lecter after his long confinement. He enjoyed
going to and fro in his suite and walking up and down in it."From Job 2:2: "And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”"
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
DreadCentral.com: Exclusive Interview: Mads Mikkelson on Hannibal by Drew Tinnin
Some highlights here, but check out the whole interview:
:
DreadCentral: It seems like he likes to really get at him and torture him a bit. What is it about Will that he’s so obsessed with?Mads Mikkelsen: Hannibal is very difficult to describe because he’s not the classic psychopath. He’s not doing it for the reasons that other serial killers do: it’s not the childhood, it’s not the mother who was a junkie. That’s way too banal for him. It’s something else. He thinks the threshold between life and death is extremely beautiful. That’s where something happens. I think the closest thing we can compare him with is Satan, the fallen angel who sees beauty when the rest of us see evil. It’s the same when he’s poking at Will and playing with Will; he can’t help it. But it’s because he can do it. He sees an opportunity and he can’t help himself. He’s a genius who wants to see if he can get away with it.
:
:
DreadCentral: With Thomas Harris elaborating on some of his backstory involving Lithuania and the Nazis, will that be a part of the show?Mads Mikkelsen: We do deal with the fact that he’s from Lithuania, hence the exotic accent. So we get away with that. He studied in Paris and then probably went to England, but that doesn’t make him a Brit. But yes, so far, he is from Lithuania, but we are not dealing with the backstory from the Second World War. Also, maybe it was a little too banal. As I said before, he’s Satan. There is no reasoning. We didn’t want that to play a part.
Monday, April 1, 2013
TorontoSun.com: Mikkelsen gets his creep on in 'Hannibal' by Bill Harris
Mads Mikkelsen: "He loves fine art. He is a three-piece-suit man. He loves classical
music. He hates everything that's banal. And he loves the beauty of
everything that's refined.
"We're starting out in a different situation. He's not captured,
nobody knows what he's up to. So he has a different mission, which means
I have a different mission. He's trying to make friends with people, so
I can't just play that one card of being evil. It has to be hidden."
"Hannibal doesn't have a master plan. He doesn't know what's going to
happen tomorrow or next year. But for Hannibal, Will is a fantastic
opportunity, a very skilful young man, with some potential in there."
"Hannibal cannot play his cards open. He has to be lying. And in order
to be a good liar, you have to believe what you're saying yourself. So
we're trying to play it as honestly as possible in every scene, even
though it's one big manipulation. Hannibal almost is not even aware
himself."
"We all know who Hannibal Lecter is. If we had him jumping out, covered in blood, in Episode 1, what's the point in that?"
Saturday, March 23, 2013
AXN: Meet the Cast - Crawford, Will, and Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Jack Crawford
Will Graham
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Will Graham
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
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