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EW goes behind the scenes of ''Hannibal'' | hannibal_l
BEAUTIFUL PREY Moore steps in as Hopkins' object of obsession
Hannibal: Lorenzo Aguis
By Daniel Fierman
Daniel Fierman
Daniel Fierman is a staff writer for EW

This is an excerpt from Entertainment Weekly's Feb. 9 cover story. See the magazine for the complete exclusive of our ''Hannibal'' set visit.

In a church in the London neighborhood of Hampstead, director Ridley Scott huffs on another Montecristo. Outside, the morning sky is smeared gray and spitting rain. Inside, a full orchestra awaits its cue, candy colored light filtering through stained glass windows. Footage from ''Hannibal'' plays on a monitor in the control room of this house of worship turned recording studio, the same flashback scene again and again. A not yet disfigured Mason Verger (Gary Oldman) leads Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter into his apartment.

He straps on a tan leather S&M mask with vertical iron ribbing. Lecter snaps what appears to be an amyl nitrate popper beneath Verger's nose and his patient writhes in ecstasy. Verger's foot kicks loose and shatters a mirror. Lecter leans down to pick up a shard. Verger, now unmasked, accepts the glass and takes it to his face, gouging deep and hard; red black blood seeps out, and gristle drops to the floor. Lecter smiles, picks up a slimy chunk, and gingerly feeds it to Verger's dog.

But the truly profane part is left to composer Hans Zimmer. On his cue, the orchestra strikes up the jaunty strains of ''The Blue Danube.'' The sound folks think this is hilarious, but Zimmer and Scott are dead serious -- it's going in the movie. ''We should have set it to the Hannibal rap,'' chortles Scott, lowering his voice into something that resembles John Major channeling Biggie Smalls. ''You know. 'Hannibal! Face eater! Cop killah! Muthaf---ah!'''

This sort of gallows grimness abounds in ''Hannibal,'' which, it turns out, is surprisingly faithful to Thomas Harris' book. While the film drops several elements of the novel, including most of Clarice Starling's home life and a secondary character -- Verger's ambisexual, nut cracking sister -- who could have been a lightning rod for those who found objectionable gay stereotypes in ''Silence,'' the high points are still there. (However, Oldman cracks, ''If she had been in the script, that's the part I would have gone after. I mean, 'Haven't you got anyone to play that dyke?' Wait. Can I say dyke?'' His manager tells him no. ''Why?'' Oldman asks. ''It's considered offensive'' is the reply.)

SPOILER ALERT! If you don't want to know what -- or who -- is on Lecter's menu, skip the following paragraph.

So, yes, someone gets gutted like a mackerel. And yeah, Lecter does play some icky head games with Ray Liotta's Justice Department agent Paul Krendler -- a trick that required CGI F/X and a $70,000 Liotta puppet. ''It's done in very good taste,'' deadpans Scott. Adds Liotta: ''It was gross. It made me gag. But then I realized it's Anthony Hopkins, Hannibal Lecter, eating me! That is so f---in' cool!''

Maybe, but in a climate in which Senate committees target movie misdeeds, it could also be perilous. ''The violence is a concern,'' admits producer Martha De Laurentiis. ''My daughter is 12 and all her school chums are saying 'I can't wait to see ''Hannibal!''' But as a parent, I can't be taking a 12 year old to a movie like this.''

''We didn't have problems with the MPAA [which gave 'Hannibal' an R rating] or the test audiences,'' says Chris McGurk, MGM's vice chairman and COO. ''We got big uccchhhs, but that's why people go to these movies. Our research shows people remember the first movie and want more.'' MGM will release the film on Feb. 9, almost 10 years to the day since ''Silence'' hit theaters, and hopes to give ''Hannibal'' two weekends without serious competition. ''And it isn't just for males over 30 or females under 20,'' he says. ''All demographic groups are interested.''

Still, it's hard not to think of ''Hannibal'' as the kid following a sibling who not only was class president and starting quarterback but got all the girls, too. ''['Silence' is] unbelievably popular. People remember where they were when they saw it,'' says star Julianne Moore, from the L.A. set of the Ivan Reitman comedy ''Evolution.'' ''Grips, other parents, people who don't ask me about work, inquire about it. Anticipation is greater than I realized.'' But the shadow cast by ''Silence'' won't be a problem, insists Martha De Laurentiis. ''This movie has a very different tone. Of course anticipation is huge, it's 'Hannibal.' He is Obi Wan Kenobi. He's in the vernacular of film history.''

Indeed, the success of the sequel all comes down to the appeal of that elegant, predatory psychiatrist. ''Hannibal is interesting because he's a sociopath, but an educated, articulate, affluent sociopath,'' says Moore. ''He is the monster everyone wishes they could be.''

Scott has his own theory. ''I don't want to glorify him, but take Jeffrey Dahmer,'' says the director, now prepping ''Black Hawk Down,'' about an ill fated 1993 battle during the U.S. intervention in Somalia. ''I saw the police photographs to prepare for 'Hannibal.' And looking at those you're forced to think of a hand foraging under a rib cage for organs -- in a kitchen, which has a refrigerator, stove, and f---ing Coca Cola. It takes you into the darkest zones of humanity. And that's what fascinates people about Hannibal. They want to know: What makes these people tick?''

That may be a common line, but the allure is lost on the man behind the mask. ''The reaction to Lecter has always puzzled me. I don't feel uneasy about it, but it is odd. The man is completely crazy,'' says Hopkins. ''It was no big deal to step back into him. There was no thunder and lightning. But I think audiences may feel differently about him when they see [what he does in] this movie.''


Posted Feb 05, 2001 | Order Article Reprints