There’s been a lot of talk in Australia recently about
adaptations of old plays into “new works”. And there’s a constant refrain that
Hollywood has lost all imagination, which is why mainstream fare is so often
based on something with brand recognition – a comic book, a superhero, a
television series, a remake. And it’s easy to bemoan remakes and reboots,
prequels and sequels – especially if you have a fondness for the original
movie. Or TV series. Or comic book. Or theme park ride.
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| Mads Mikkelsen, delicious as Hannibal in Hannibal (2013) |
Bryan Fuller’s new TV series, Hannibal, is based on the
characters that first appeared in Thomas Harris’ book, "Red Dragon" – first published
in 1981. That book has already been made into a film twice: Manhunter, a lean
thriller from Michael Mann in 1986; Red Dragon, by director Brett Ratner in
2002.
The character of Hannibal Lecter first appears in "Red
Dragon", but he’s most famous for appearing in Thomas Harris’ sequel, "The
Silence of the Lambs" (1988) – and the film of the same name (1991). The
popularity of the character in the film, where he is played by Anthony Hopkins
(who won an Oscar in the role), led to both a sequel – "Hannibal" (novel 1991,
film 2001) and a prequel – "Hannibal Rising" (novel 2006, film 2007).
Dr Hannibal Lecter is imprisoned by the time of "Red Dragon" and its sequels, but his back story is alluded to in the original novel – he’s
a psychiatrist who is also a serial killer and cannibal.
Will Graham, an FBI profiler, is the lead character in "Red
Dragon" and functions much like Clarice Starling does in "Lambs" – he is trying to
track down a serial killer and must use Lecter to help him catch the killer.
Unlike Clarice Starling, who is fresh out of the Academy, Will Graham has a
history of tracking down serial killers – including the Minnesota Shrike, as
well as the Chesapeake Ripper, who turns out to be Hannibal Lecter.
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| Anthony Hopkins, chewing the scenery in Silence of the Lambs (1991) |
The tension between fresh-faced Clarice and Lecter is based
mostly on her naivete; can a brand new agent really deal with the psychological
warfare that Lecter will wage against her? With Will, it’s about the two
characters’ history together; Will put Lecter in jail. Lecter almost killed
Will in the process.
Hannibal, the television series, is a prequel to those
events. And creator Bryan Fuller has fleshed out the lightly disseminated back
story from Red Dragon into a first season of tense, intriguing and mesmerising
television. Harris sketched the background of these characters in only a few
pages in his original novel; Fuller uses the knowledge we have from the books
and previously-made films to play with our expectations and flesh out a part of
the story we’ve never seen.
Prequels often come with a lot of baggage. We already know
what’s coming. Our instinct is usually to know what happens next, not what came
before. But in this case, the series also feels like a remake and a reboot all
at once. Fuller isn’t telling the backstory of Anthony Hopkins’ version of the
character or Brian Cox’s version of the character. He’s recreating Harris’
characters for the modern day, which planning on retelling the entire Hannibal
saga over seven seasons.
In many ways, because this is a reinvention of the story of
Will and Hannibal and Jack Crawford, the show can both play toward and against
expectations. We know where the story is headed, but we don’t know how we’re
going to get there. We know Hannibal is the Chesapeake Ripper and we know the
delicious meals he serves are helpings of people, but the other characters don’t
know that and don’t suspect him.
And we know Will Graham is the genius who finally and
eventually puts Hannibal behind bars, but he doesn’t have enough information
yet – though throughout the first season, he starts to put the pieces together.
The stag that he sees in visions during season one clearly represents Lecter,
without the character himself actually being able to put the pieces together.
Silence of the Lambs is one of my favourite films and Harris’
first two Lecter novels are great page-turner thrillers. The franchise gets
problematic after that, both on the page and on film, but the characters of
Lecter, Will and Clarice are some of my favourite fictional characters. The
notion of this series sort of puzzled me, but Fuller and his crew have pulled
it off brilliantly.
In "Red Dragon", we know that Will investigated the case of
the Minnesota Shrike and after that he was institutionalised. The first season
deals very much with that part of Will’s backstory. We may wander down paths
that Harris never intended, but we still keep merging with the story that we
already know; Will must eventually put Lecter behind bars.
The show also alludes to how Will might eventually put the
pieces together, foreshadows Lecter gutting Will with a knife, re-uses the
famous line of dialogue - “having an old friend for dinner” - and gives a wink
to the character of Clarice Starling but putting a proto-Clarice character into
Jack’s past in the guise of Miriam Lass. If Fuller gets to make all seven
seasons of his show, these pieces will more neatly fall into place.
In this age of spoilers, propagated so quickly by social
media and message boards and blogs, Hannibal is almost spoiler proof. The
twists and turns from several seasons hence are already known to most of the
audience. You can spoil yourself now by reading "Red Dragon" or watching Silence
of the Lambs. But until we get to those points in the series, Bryan Fuller has a
lot of breathing room – and lot of distance where he might flex his creative
muscles.
He also has the impetus to smooth out problems he has with
the narrative as it has already been re-written. Fuller has already said he’s
not a big fan of the novel/film "Hannibal Rising" – and does not like the conclusion
to the novel, "Hannibal". (For me, the film improves on the ending of the book,
but overall the story is convoluted and the characters of Hannibal and Clarice
are far less interesting in both. I can’t wait to see what the show does.)
The opening scene of the television series quickly puts us
inside Will Graham’s head and we are treated to a visual representation of the “pendulum”
he must quieten in his mind, an image straight from Harris’ novel. The final
scene of the first season inverts a very famous image from the film Silence of
the Lambs (scored by music from Ridley Scott’s Hannibal); a remix of ideas from
several incarnations of the characters of Hannibal and Will. And the television
series is richer for it.
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| Brian Cox, enjoying the meaty role in Manhunter (1986) |
Adaptations, prequels, sequels and reboots are a risky
business because people have strong emotional investments in stories from their
past. Those films being remade have brand recognition for a reason; people
already love them. Hannibal uses the affection we have, if the word affection
can really be ascribed to a serial killer who is a cannibal, for a character
and a collection of stories that we’ve already seen play out once. The show
takes us back to the beginning and we get to see a fresh cut of the meat of
these characters and this world.
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Fuller’s plan for the show is to remake Red Dragon as Season
Four, Silence of the Lambs as Season Five, Hannibal as Season Six and have a
seventh season to wrap everything up. He will be putting some characters from "Hannibal" into Season Two. And he is negotiating with MGM for the rights to
Clarice Starling and Jame Gumb, so let’s hope that will happen.
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