FINE YOUNG How did little rich boy grow up to be a cultured serial killer with a

WORDS MATT MUELLER

n the deep, dark recesses of Barrandov rationed now). Plus, he croaks, “We’ve got to fi x just another day at the offi ce. “The producer- Studios, outside Prague, Hannibal the mask!” director relationship is always like a marriage. Lecter is about to try on the fi rst mask “We’ve already talked about this,” counters You have your good days and your bad days. I’m of his young life. Deliberately echoing Webber testily. “Don’t you remember the e-mail not going to pretend that every minute has been the iconic face-muzzle Lecter wore I sent you about it?” love and kisses; we’ve had our moments, but in The Silence Of The Lambs, it’s a This, apparently, is a reshoot of the mask they make for a better fi lm.” ghoulish Samurai mask, red on the scene with the new mask – the previous one was “Dino’s a legend,” he continues. “He’s made I inside, black on the outside, which teenage a bit rubbish. While , the 21-year- some great fi lms, he’s made some lousy fi lms. Hannibal, 17 going on psycho, tenderly brushes old French actor (A Very Long Engagement) He’s worked with some great directors. He’s fi red with a cloth before applying to his face. He plucked from hundreds of hopefuls to play the great directors! He fi red Nicolas Roeg and Robert stares straight ahead in a ceremonial trance. budding serial killer, waits patiently, the two Altman, so I’m lucky to have survived this long...” “Cut!” barks director , as wizened men bicker before fi nally moving on to the next With , DeLaurentiis and his Italian producer Dino DeLaurentiis moves toward take. It’s a crucial moment in Hannibal Rising, buxom fortysomething lady-love Martha, also his director to spark a heated debate. Something and the pressure’s on to get it right… a producer on the fi lm, are cashing in again on about Webber’s framing is bothering the 86-year- Later, Webber (Girl With A Pearl Earring, the franchise that’s bankrolled their lifestyle, old legend, who looks every inch the heavyweight although it was his work on 2001 TV drama Men pension funds and then some in the 20 years producer only minus an enormous cigar (he’s Only that landed him the gig) will shrug it off as since Manhunter. After knocking a once-classy

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TFM125.feat_hann Sec2:86 2/1/07 17:22:28 CANNIBAL taste for human flesh and chianti? Total Film visits the set of Hannibal Rising…

saga off its Oscar-laden perch with 2001’s Hannibal and 2002’s Red Dragon (ironically, The ‘I picked up a few things from Anthony Silence Of The Lambs is the only Lecter movie they had nothing to do with), DeLaurentiis and Hopkins. Blinking and stillness...’ GASPARD ULLIEL partner convinced reclusive novelist to trawl his Lecter net once more. Lithuanian thugs led by ’ Grutas and agonising death at the hands and mouth of a Following in the wake of Leatherface being his henchman Kolnas (Kevin McKidd). cultured cannibal. rationalised as the product of school bullying, “Their main ambition is to be accepted into As lifestyle motivating factors go, however, we now get a feature-length explanation of why the SS because they think they have great uniforms it’s pretty crude and rudimentary, so we also Hannibal Lecter ended up relishing (human) and do really mean things,” says McKidd of the get Hannibal’s sexy, artistic Japanese aunt, Lady liver with fava beans. It’s all the result of a bad, bad men who eat Hannibal’s baby sis. Murasaki (), his uncle’s widow who takes grisly childhood trauma, apparently. Residing “They’re sewer rats, basically.” In other words, in little orphan Hannibal after the war. “He’s raised in Lithuania during World War Two, Lecter’s reprobates who deserve everything Hannibal by this weird lady in this insane relationship,” family fl ee their castle home for a forest hunting dishes out to them later, when he seeks his says Ulliel. “She’s between a mother and a lodge, where his parents are killed in crossfi re revenge. It’s always been Lecter’s way: pick off mistress.” Murasaki teaches him the ways of the and, eventually, his three-year-old sister Mischa the ones that no right-minded audience would Samurai and later, in medical school, he becomes is killed, cooked and eaten by a nasty pack of think deserved any other fate than gruesome, obsessed by the workings of the human body.

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TFM125.feat_hann Sec2:87 2/1/07 17:22:49 Choke: one of Hannibal Risings vicious death scenes. Dream Much, Will? Total Film chews the fat with original Hannibal Brian Cox...

On Hannibal Rising... “It’s Tom Harris’ obsession and good luck to him. Meat market: For me, though, Lecter always worked best when Gaspard Ulliel gets a taste he was a mysterious character and you didn’t for fl esh as know who he was. The guy’s an enigma; I don’t Hannibal; razor-sharp think he’s a character that needs contextualising scalpels and in that way. In the Hannibal book, everything was squelching guts; young over-explained and it lost its sense of danger.” Hannibal goes head-to-head with one of On Anthony Hopkins... the sadist “People always say, How do you feel about Tony cannibals who ate his sister. Hopkins?’ The only thing I think about is, Wouldn’t it be nice to earn all that money?’ I was doing X2 in Vancouver when somebody rang me up to When it came to casting their juvenile Hannibal, confi dent. I tried to pick a few details and mix congratulate me on my reviews for Hannibal. Webber insists that it was a simple decision for it to my own recipe. The major things were I said, But I’m not in Hannibal.’ And they said, him after trawling through hours of screentests. the blinking and his stillness.” (Hopkins was Oh, we know that. But every time Anthony Hopkins “I thought, this is the only person who I’m approached to shoot bookends in Hannibal plays the part, they re-review Manhunter and compelled to watch for two hours. He’s got Rising, but the DeLaurentiis duo claim they you always come off better!’” something really special about him. I felt decided it didn’t fi t; they won’t say whether the same way on Pearl Earring with Scarlett he simply declined the offer.) On Manhunter... Johansson. And Gaspard’s a bit crazy. There’s While Ulliel’s preparations were dark and “I still maintain it’s the most interesting of the something a little bit damaged about him, which lonely, including digesting reams of studies on Lecter fi lms. After The Silence Of The Lambs came is fantastic! You want that in an actor.” and interviews with mass murderers, he says he out, they put it on again as Red Dragon: The Pursuit Ulliel studied Hopkins’ performances in Lambs, found the shooting light relief by comparison. Of Hannibal Lecter and it was the biggest TV movie Hannibal and Red Dragon. “I was free to do my “You stay a little in his mind during the whole ever. It remains a cult classic; its position is very own Hannibal Lecter, but I knew that the audience shoot, but I needed to have some fun at night,” clearly established. You wait – they’ll be doing would look for some resemblances. So I had to he says. “And it was nice to have all those killing revivals of Hannibal Lecter over and over. It’s feed the expectations.” He read the books and scenes. They were fun. It was like a game.” a franchise.” watched the fi lms over and over again, Lambs But the fi nal murder Hannibal commits in the in particular. “Sometimes it was frightening fi lm, where he bites a chunk of cheek off his only Brian Cox spoke to Total Film at the 2006 Dinard because Anthony Hopkins is so amazing in surviving adversary, was disturbing even for him. Film Festival. his performance and I was not feeling really When Ulliel arrived on set, the prosthetic was

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TFM125.feat_hann Sec2:88 2/1/07 17:23:04 Nigtht moves: Gong Li as Hannibals Tall Back-Stories aunt Lady Murasaki; Prequel pitches from Development Hell... Words: Andy Lowe and Mark Powell Hannibal corners Rhys Ifans sicko Psycho Jr Star Wars: Crack Of SS wannabe Starring... The Scowling Child Episode Zero Dawn Blvd. in the tub. Off Of The Omen remake Starring... A load of really tall Starring... A tedious tale of suburban idyll is nerdy actors with stupid names Dakota shattered when Mummy catches Viscount Kwff-Bnngaaaaaal builds Fanning wee Norman trying on her pants, a lakeside fortress on as Norma causing her to administer a Naboo to protect Norma Desmond's career is frenzied spanking and a the fruits of his on the up-and-up and life is fi nger-wagging about how sub-aqua cake an endless whirl of brat- ladies' bits are poisonous. mines from a pack soirees with young Our guilt-ridden little predicted cold director Cecile B DeMille and Oedipus fl ings himself onto snap. When it rising journo Hedda Hopper. his bed, blubbing into a never happens, his Across town, young Joe Gillis snowdrift of workers begin to suspect he's dreams of a movie career – but cuddly owls hoarding all the cakes to impose his strict pop would rather he bought by higher tariffs, planning to replace concentrate on the family business, members them with droid labour when they a pre-school milk round. Then, of his dad's complain. Seeds of mistrust are one misty morning, a seemingly already on the actor’s face, but it looked so real birdwatchng sown. Unions form. Unions without innocent yoghurt delivery forever he couldn’t tell. He was instructed where to bite group in any vowels in their names. Looks changes young Gillis's destiny... and told to be extremely precise, otherwise he the wake of like things could get nasty down might get a real fl esh morsel in his mouth. “I did Mr Bates' recent Memento: it and it felt so real, the texture of the prosthetic Jules And Vincent: Third Party was like a real cheek. It was creepy,” he shudders. Jaws: Tiddler Pup Friction Starring... Jason Donavan 10 “He was yelling because I was tearing his cheek Starring... The local Garden Centre Starring... Chris Rock as Jules, Years Ago as Guy Pierce apart and there was blood spurting everywhere Billy-Joe Bunting, a chubby Amity Justin Timberlake as Vincent Thrusting graduate insurance and then I spat out the piece of cheek. But that pre-teen, hooks ducks like a pro One summer vacation, freshman investigator Leonard Shelby is on was cut; it was too much.” at a dodgy local carnival and Vincent Vega is shocked by the top of his game: rising through the “I can’t make the judgment about whether this skips home with a cute little revelation that his dorky friend company ranks, bedding in with fi lm is more or less violent than the other ones,” silver fi shy in a bag. But within Julian has dyslexia. his foxy fi ancee and winning says Webber. “It is violent. We’ve got fi ve or six a week, the ravenous minnow Determined to loads of pub quizzes. But, particularly grisly and inventive murders! I’m has exhibited an alarming growth help, he spends a bit over-refreshed at his not a great one for torrents of blood and all the spurt after eating him out of fi sh hours reciting third consecutive rest of it, but we’ve had to get a few buckets out.” food and, very nearly, boy fi ngers. arbitrary Bible Employee Of The So after seeing Hannibal rise, is this the end Billy gets the mad fear and passages with his Month piss-up, of his on-screen antics or simply a new lease fl ushes him down the bog, then pal, eventually helping he slips while chasing of life? The fi nal verdict will be left up to marches off to get his money Jules pass his exams. But secretly, his missus into the bog moviegoers. As far as its makers are concerned, back, only to fi nd the junk-food addiction is threatening for a quickie and they both carnival has Vince’s own dream of winning the smash their heads on the mysteriously end-of-year Dance-Off and his seat. Slipping in and out ‘We’ve got five or moved on. tragic struggles with body-image of a coma, Lenny refuses to Fast forward see him turn to Uncle Skag. Then believe a word of it, convinced six particularly 10 years... they start killing people and it he'd only had half a shandy. gets good. grisly and Paleoproterozoic Taxi Learner-Driver inventive murders’ Park Prince Kong Starring... Ed Norton as Travis, Starring... John Hedder as Starring... Mr Chuckles Naomi Watts as the instructor, PETER WEBBER, DIRECTOR Ian Malcolm, Ray Winstone Holidaying on Lovely Island, Lindsay Lohan as a as John Hammond a couple befriend a baby loveable whore there’s plenty of scope for more. “With this idea Having created a fl oating cloud monkey. Having never Haunted by we create a new franchise,” Dino wheezes to Total of minuscule anaerobic life-forms seen any fl ashbacks of his Film. “There’s a new actor, nothing to do with in his lab, young boffi n John documentaries, recent service in the older Hannibal Lecter and Anthony Hopkins. Hammond opens a new they feed it chips ’Nam, twitchy Here we fi nish when he escapes to Canada. But amusement park where and stuff. It gets a young Travis from Canada, he goes to America, he becomes visitors pay huge sums nasty tummyache, Bickle struggles a doctor. If this is successful, no question we to bob gently with the so they decide to fi nd a vet horribly with his driving theory do more…” funny little creatures in and promptly leave by boat. But test, staying up all night revising “I personally think that there’s been a dwindling a fume-fi lled chamber. soon a storm capsizes them just but never quite able to remember in the quality of this franchise,” admits Webber. Things become hairy when off the coast of Skull Island and all those bloody road signs. During “I would never have had the nerve to do this one man gets several snagged the soggy monkey – his DNA the practical, he nearly reverses otherwise. And I feel a personal responsibility to in his pubes, but young chaos- already utterly fucked by into a passing road-sweeper, be not the person who buries it, but the person theory smartarse Ian Malcolm preservatives – is forced to swim leading him to obsess unhealthily who revives it.” realises, in the nick of time, that about who'd be cleaning up the he need only fart and the entire crisp bags now had his instructor Hannibal Rising is released on 9 February and will be gas-based ecosystem will collapse. not made enforced use of the reviewed next issue. Back to the drawing-board... dual-control. Really unhealthily...

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