In In over 20 years as a film-maker, Ridley Scott has never previously made a sequel. Already a prize-winner for his commercials and trailing critical acclaim following his debut movie, The Duellists (1977), Scott hit the box-office big-time with Alien in 1979. But other people made Alien 2, 3 and 4 and other directors copied Blade Runner and ripped off Thelma and Louise. Not Scott, though, who has shown a remarkable ability to reinvent himself - most recently with last year’s megahit hit, Gladiator.

Giancarlo Giannini as Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi, who is not as much help to Agent Starling (Julianne Moore, above) as he might be.

The reluctance to do follow-ups has not really been a matter of principle, however. It’s just that the right material has not come along. “I’ve never been afraid of doing a sequel,” says the 63-year-old director. “I’m a hunter of great material that provides me with the opportunity to work with great people in every category. It’s then my job to put my own interpretation to it and make it something unique.”

A couple of years back, a piece of just such material presented itself. And last summer, with Gladiator only just out in the cinemas, Scott was hard at work on the first ‘sequel’ of his career. It was, of course, an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ bestselling novel, Hannibal, a follow-up to The Silence of the Lambs.

But Hannibal is not really a sequel to Lambs: it is more of a re-examination of the previous film’s now-legendary central character, Dr Hannibal Lecter, a figure who has entered modern demonology alongside Dracula and Nosferatu (many of whose tastes he shares). In fact, one could almost describe Lecter as ‘much-loved’.

“We like Hannibal because, like a contemporary Nosferatu, he is essentially charming and seductive at the same time that he is terrifying us,” says Scott. “As with all the great monsters of literature, there is a perverse curiosity that makes us want to know what makes him tick. But Hannibal’s appeal is less mystical than some of these others. He exists and functions in our lives – which makes him all the more frightening. With Hannibal, there is a strong possibility he is walking on the street right next to you.”

Director Ridley Scott on set with veteran producer Dino de Laurentiis

Given the success of the original novel, which was turned into an Oscar-winning film by Jonathan Demme in 1991, there was obviously a lot of pressure for a sequel. But Harris hesitated for years before going back to Lecter, travelling from the US to Europe in search of inspiration before ending up in Florence, one of his favourite cities, where the early part of the novel is set.

By the time Harris sat down to write, the husband-and-wife production team of Dino and Martha De Laurentiis had already acquired the movie rights to the book. But they had no idea what was going to be in it, let alone when it would be ready. “Every six months or so, Dino or I would pick up the phone and call Tom,” recalls Martha. “We’d ask, ‘How’s it going? Do you have any idea when the book is going to be delivered?’ We obviously knew all along he was writing this sequel. But Tom keeps very much to himself during this process. He’s very much a ‘closed set.’