How did you approach this film and doing a third instalment of a successful franchise?

Any movie I do is based on the script, and Ted Tally just wrote a genius script. I mean, his adaptation of the book is brilliant. "Red Dragon" is more in the tone of "The Silence of the Lambs", and it's somewhat timeless because I am not doing anything that's specific to today's pop culture. My focus is storytelling. All I'm doing is telling a great story. My approach to it is a lot like Jonathan Demme's [who directed "Silence of the Lambs"], which is Hitchcock-inspired - leaving stuff up to the audience's imagination and not showing too much. I think if you show too much, it can take you out of the movie. So there isn't any gore in this movie like there was in "Hannibal".

How does it compare to Michael Mann's "Manhunter", which was also based on the same Thomas Harris novel?

You know, there's no influence from "Manhunter" at all in this movie. "Red Dragon" is much, much closer to the original book. It's literally an interpretation of the book rather than just being inspired by it, which "Manhunter" was. "Manhunter" really wasn't all that close to the book. My film begins with the capture of Hannibal Lecter and it has scenes in it like where Dolarhyde goes to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and eats the drawing of the red dragon. And it ends more like the book.

You put together a high-profile cast... what was it like to work with them?

I've been lucky to surround myself with the greatest actors alive, so it makes me look like a great director. It helped me, really, because I had guys like Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins, who definitely had a specific vision or interpretation of their character and I was just there to guide them and remind them. They're not there for every scene, of course, so I am there to say to them: "OK guys, this is where we're coming from and this is where we're going." Or "Tony, remember when you did this in "Silence"? I loved that".

What was it about the story that appealed to you?

It's scary but it's also smart. It makes you think and it makes you feel, and the movie has heart. That's what's so great about this story. These are people who do horrible things but they're human. They're human beings. For me, it's a lesson in psychology, in fear, in life, in death. I learned a lot from making this film and I think it's made me a smarter person.