Agent Starling, as Julianne Moore

“Anyway, we’d keep guessing where he was in the process – and where Hannibal was going – from where Tom was in the world. He’d rent an apartment in Paris and we’d wonder, ‘Hmm, is that where Hannibal is – or did Tom just go there to get a change of scenery to continue his writing?’ We were like FBI agents trying to find clues.”

All was finally revealed when the book was published in July 1999. By then, however, the producers had already seen it and sent it to Scott, who was in the middle of Gladiator. “I didn’t think I’d have time to read a 600-page manuscript,” recalls the director, “but I read it in three sittings. I just loved the density of the story and the characters. I liked the fact that it not only takes place 10 years later, but that it was written 10 years later and therefore it feels like something that’s totally distinct from its predecessor.”

“As with all the great monsters of literature, there is a perverse curiosity that makes us want to know what makes Hannibal tick” Ridley Scott

What the new novel plays with above all else is the strangely intimate relationship that builds up between Lecter and the cop most closely involved with his initial capture: FBI Agent Clarice Starling (played in the first film by Jodie Foster, and in the new movie by Julianne Moore). Both characters have moved on from their final confrontation in The Silence of the Lambs. Lecter has escaped from custody and is now at large in Europe, while Starling has returned to normal agency work, still haunted (like the rest of us) by the memory of Lecter and his voice. But the bond still lingers, and it is revived when Lecter’s only (barely) surviving victim, Mason Verger (played by Gary Oldman), uses her as bait to draw Lecter out of hiding.

“Lecter has a sort of admiration for her because she is so steadfast in her pursuit of him,” suggests Moore. “And she has a real respect for him, knowing what a truly dangerous person he is. So the courage of her pursuit is even more admirable. But her strict sense of right and wrong compels her to become, at one point, his protector. And this intense morality may even be what makes her most appealing to him.”

Sealed and delivered - for now. Agent Starling (played in Hannibal by Julianne Moore, taking over the mission from Jodie Foster) is determined to bring back Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) from his hiding place in Florence.

“In Silence,” adds Scott, “one of the strong underpinnings that emerged during the story was the growing respect and civilised exchange between two human beings who couldn’t have been farther apart in terms of their positions in life – that is to say, serial killer and FBI agent. But, in a strange way, there’s a parallel between these two beings: they are both superb practitioners of their businesses and both are lone wolves, without significant relationships in their lives. Because of these similarities, I get a feeling of kindred spirits. And that dynamic is what fascinates me.”

Hannibal’s screenplay was done by two of the best writers in the business: playwright/director/ screenwriter David Mamet (Glengarry, Glen Ross, State and Main); and Steven Zaillian, whose recent credits include movies as diverse as Schindler’s List (for which he won an Oscar) and the 1996 blockbuster Twister.