‘Hannibal’ creator Bryan Fuller says film ‘Dust Bunny’ is ode to ‘tricky’ childhoods

TORONTO — Anyone familiar with Bryan Fuller’s layered TV noir “Hannibal” would be forgiven to look for hidden meaning in his feature film debut, “Dust Bunny.”

Especially since they are likely to find it.

Fuller says those attuned to the unspoken messages in his fantastical-but-macabre monster film will discover “something that also had another language to it, if you spoke that language.”

The whimsical action feature centres on a 10-year-old girl who enlists a hit man to kill the monster she believes has eaten her foster parents and now hides under her bed.

As they forge a tentative partnership, each recognizes a hidden darkness in the other and young Aurora can’t help but feel threats persist.

“People who may have had trickier childhoods than others, hopefully this is a little bit of a dog whistle for them to kind of perk up and see themselves in the story in a way that perhaps they don’t usually get to,” Fuller said during the recent Toronto International Film Festival.

Fuller describes himself as someone with a “tricky childhood” but declines to say much more, adding he’s found healing in art.

“Dust Bunny” employs the otherworldly flourishes that helped make his TV fairy tale “Pushing Daisies” a critic’s bright spot in the late-aughts, and it echoes the black humour and stylized visuals of his Toronto-shot NBC drama “Hannibal,” which belied a tortured gay romance that still haunts fans – and Fuller – a decade after ending.

“There is a very specific Easter egg that fans of the Murder Dads will appreciate,” winks Fuller, invoking the nickname for his “Hannibal” duo, played by Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy.

Fuller says his cinematic influences included John Cassavetes’ pulpy mafia drama “Gloria” with Gena Rowlands, Bruce Lee’s epic martial arts scene in “Game of Death,” and more generally, the oft-surreal work of “Amelie” and “Delicatessen” director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Mikkelsen co-stars as an enigmatic loner in the apartment down the hall from Sophie Sloan’s precocious Aurora, who quickly deduces that her neighbour may possess the deadly skills she needs to secure peace.

Fuller says he wanted to make a crowd-pleaser in the vein of ’80s popcorn favourites — films like “Gremlins,” “Poltergeist” and “The Goonies” — in which children stumble into perilous predicaments that test their mettle.

Fuller says he strove to make “Dust Bunny” enjoyable for families, noting there’s no foul language or nudity, although it features plenty of scares and general dread to garner its rating of PG for violence and frightening scenes.

Still, the violence is “comic” and “cartoon violence,” he says, thematically dressed for a day of interviews in a baby blue track suit and a sequined Bugs Bunny T-shirt.

It’s also meant to offer more than just thrills and chills, adds Fuller, circling back to detail how the story raises questions about trauma, trauma responses and how children are regarded, “especially children from tricky childhoods.”

“Is this little girl a reliable narrator for us? Do we believe her?” he asks.

Although it was a film festival premiere that returned Fuller to Toronto for a whirlwind September visit, the spectre of “Hannibal” loomed large — he reunited with the show’s producing director as soon as he landed and hung out with so-called “Fannibals” at a screening of Mikkelsen’s other TIFF film, “The Last Viking.”

Fuller is also easily steered towards reminiscing over his Toronto years, pointing out a frequent shooting location down the street and his old 38th-floor apartment a few blocks further. And he delights in the fact AMC’s “Interview With The Vampire” was at the time shooting its third season in Toronto, now dubbed “The Vampire Lestat,” noting: “‘Hannibal’ was very influenced by Louis and Lestat so it’s nice to see that continue.”

As for whether another “Hannibal” instalment is possible, Fuller says securing the rights became more complicated since the death of the show’s producer Martha De Laurentiis in 2021.

“But Mads, Hugh, Laurence (Fishburne), Katie (Isabelle) and Caroline (Dhavernas), we’re all very eager to come back and do it again. But I think the rights have to be ironed out right now. They’re a bigger knot now than they ever were.”

“Dust Bunny” opens in theatres Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2025.