«There will be no third season of Mindhunter,» said the British screenwriter in a masterclass organised by the Nebrija University.
«There will be no third season of Mindhunter. The good thing, if it’s short, twice as good». This is how Joe Penhall, creator of ‘Mindhunter’, has put an end to the hopes of the fans of the popular TV series in a masterclass organised by the Nebrija University as part of the IV edition of the Serielizados Fest in Madrid.
The British playwright and screenwriter, a specialist in decoding the human mind, has confessed how a tragic experience during his childhood led him to always be interested in stories like the ones he now tells in ‘Mindhunter’: «As a child, a friend of mine was killed by a serial killer and I always wanted to know why».
The plot of Mindhunter features two FBI agents (Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany) who analyse and revolutionise investigative techniques to find the answers to help catch serial killers. Despite investigating macabre stories, he never shows their crimes. Execrable murderers fly across the screen, but most of them are already in prison. The morbidity of ‘Mindhunter’ lies in the words and, according to its creator, with the exception of a couple of scenes, the story does not ooze the action to which we are accustomed in Hollywood.
The expressions chosen by the killers to reproduce their acts, their descriptions and the pleasure they take in recalling them, all give rise to an anguish that is contagious to the show’s audience and, of course, to the viewer. «For me it’s the story of an FBI agent who doesn’t really fit in, until he realises how good he is at interviewing serial killers and how much that new facet brings him. His career and his personal life improve as his interviews with the killers progress».
Penhall explained the process of creating the script based on John Douglas’ book of the same name: «When we were working the team was obsessed with the book. I used it as a basis, but I did a lot of research, talked to FBI agents, talked to criminals, and that’s how the story really came about».
Penhall maintains that he had a moment of blockage, he didn’t know where to go and, curiously, when he saw ‘La isla mínima’ by Alberto Rodríguez’ he found «the motivation he was looking for for the series». He found it crucial the «relationship of those two detectives, their silences, their investigation and, why not say it, even that Chrysler 180».
His creative process has a lot to do with his professional background. A crime reporter before becoming a scriptwriter, he says he needs a real story that seduces him. «That’s how I start researching, but it’s always around a specific character. When I have a huge amount of material, I use that documentation, outline the main character and then create the whole universe around him.
Neither his scripts nor his stories are intended to indoctrinate the viewer. «I don’t write scripts to start debates. Our job as scriptwriters is to portray the characters from an emotional point of view, I need to know what they think. I was a journalist and I believe that journalists are the ones who should tell things and initiate debates.
His past as a playwright has done him little good when it comes to tackling film and television. «They are two very different ways of working. Now, the sequence with Happy in the first season was 11 pages of script. Fincher asked me to read that scene as a play. He allowed me to think about that scene with an introduction, a plot and a denouement. It was great because that criminal thought of his murders as if they were plays».
Continuity of the series
Regarding the continuity of the series, he admits that he shouldn’t say «never ever», but he has assured that he has other projects in the pipeline. «Both David Fincher (director) and I are very busy with other projects. Also, I’m afraid Netflix wouldn’t give us the same budget again so it’s better to leave things when they’re at their peak. Mindhunter is like a good play, it has a finite time», he added.
About his new works, he admitted that so far none of them are a reality. «We have to learn to live with uncertainty». Of all of them, the one with the best chances of going ahead is the one based on the book ‘The power couple’, which takes place in Barcelona and tells the story of a married couple (she works for the FBI and he is a security agent) who are kidnapped by their daughter. «It’s really about what Americans are like when they arrive in another country, and they are so overwhelmed by their customs. In fact, for me it’s the story of a relationship that disintegrates in 24 hours as they search for their daughter,» she concludes.
