Hannibal is a 2001 American thriller film co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian, based on the 1999 novel by Thomas Harris. It is a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Its plot follows disgraced FBI special agent Clarice Starling as she attempts to apprehend the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter before his surviving victim, Mason Verger, captures him. Anthony Hopkins reprises his role as Lecter, while Julianne Moore replaces Jodie Foster as Starling and Gary Oldman plays Verger. Ray Liotta, Frankie R. Faison, Giancarlo Giannini, and Francesca Neri also star.
Harris published Hannibal eleven years after the publication of The Silence of the Lambs (1988). Scott became attached while directing Gladiator (2000), and signed on after reading the script pitched by Dino De Laurentiis, who had produced Manhunter (1986), the first Lecter film. Principal photography commenced in May 2000, lasting sixteen weeks.
Hannibal was released on 9 February 2001 by MGM Distribution Co. in the United States and Canada and by United International Pictures in other territories. It was highly anticipated and broke box office records in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, and grossed $351.6 million against its $87 million budget, becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2001, but received generally negative reviews; critics praised the performances and visuals, but deemed it inferior to The Silence of the Lambs and criticized its violence. It was followed by a prequel, Red Dragon (2002), with Hopkins reprising his role as Lecter.
Plot Ten years after the death of serial killer Jame Gumb and the escape of cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter, FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling is blamed for a botched drug raid that resulted in five deaths.
The event attracts the attention of Mason Verger, Lecter's only surviving victim. A wealthy child molester, Verger was paralyzed and disfigured by Lecter and has been scheming to torture and kill him ever since. Using his wealth and political influence, Verger has Starling reassigned to Lecter's case, hoping her involvement will draw out Lecter from hiding. He is aided by corrupt Justice Department official Paul Krendler, who is upset that Starling refused to sleep with him.
After learning of Starling's disgrace, Lecter sends her a letter; he is hiding in Florence under the false identity of library curator "Dr. Fell." A perfume expert identifies the fragrance on the letter: skin cream with unusual ingredients available in only a few shops. Krendler sexually propositions Starling again, implying that he can save her career, but she rebuffs him.
Florentine policeman Rinaldo Pazzi questions Lecter about the death of Dr. Fell's predecessor. When Starling asks Pazzi for a local fragrance shop's security footage, Pazzi realizes Dr. Fell is Lecter. To claim Verger's $3 million bounty for Lecter, Pazzi agrees to help Verger's men kidnap Lecter without police involvement. However, Lecter subdues Pazzi and forces him to confess. Lecter then disembowels Pazzi and hangs him from the balcony of the Palazzo Vecchio.
Verger bribes Krendler to frame Starling for hiding evidence against Lecter, leading to her suspension. Lecter summons Starling to Washington Union Station, where he encourages her to quit her job. However, Verger's men trail Starling and capture Lecter. Starling infiltrates Verger's estate, where she learns that Verger intends to feed Lecter alive to a herd of purpose-bred giant forest hogs. She frees Lecter from the boar pen but a guard shoots her. Lecter saves the wounded Starling from being attacked by the boars by picking her up and standing still, as the boars devour the bleeding guards. Verger orders Cordell, his physician, to shoot Lecter, but Lecter offers to take the blame if Cordell kills Verger instead. Cordell, who dislikes Verger, shoves him into the pen, where the boars eat him alive. Lecter carries an unconscious Starling to safety.
Starling awakens in Krendler's home, wearing an unfamiliar cocktail dress. Although Lecter has sedated her and Krendler, she has the presence of mind to call the police. She then finds Lecter preparing an elegant dinner, during which Krendler lobs misogynistic insults at her. He then insults Lecter's cooking. Lecter opens Krendler's skull, removes part of his brain, sautés it, and feeds it to Krendler. Although Lecter hopes to impress Starling by torturing her oppressor, she is horrified and attacks Lecter, but he overpowers and kisses her. She handcuffs their wrists together. Hearing the police arrive, Lecter raises a cleaver over her wrist, seemingly ready to maim her. However, the film cuts to Starling raising her hands, both intact, to meet the police. On a flight, Lecter, his arm in a sling, shares a piece of Krendler's brain with a curious boy, saying it is important to "try new things.”
Cast
Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter / Dr. Fell Julianne Moore as FBI Agent Clarice Starling Gary Oldman as Mason Verger Ray Liotta as Paul Krendler Frankie R. Faison as Barney Matthews Giancarlo Giannini as Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi Francesca Neri as Allegra Pazzi Željko Ivanek as Dr. Cordell Doemling David Andrews as FBI Agent Clint Pearsall Francis Guinan as FBI Assistant Director Noonan Robert Rietti as Sogliato Enrico Lo Verso as Gnocco Ivano Marescotti as Carlo Deogracias Fabrizio Gifuni as Fabrizio Marco Greco as Tommaso Hazelle Goodman as Evelda Drumgo Terry Serpico as Officer Bolton Boyd Kestner as FBI Agent Burke Peter Shaw as FBI Agent John Brigham James Opher as DEA Agent Eldridge Don McManus as Benny Holcombe Danielle de Niese as Beatrice in Vide Cor Meum Mark Margolis and Ajay Naidu as Perfume Experts Bruce MacVittie as FBI Tech with Lecter's Letter
Development The Silence of the Lambs, based on the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, was released in 1991 to critical and commercial success, winning five Academy Awards. Harris spent several years writing a sequel novel; Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme expressed interest in developing a film adaptation when the novel was complete.Hannibal DVD "Making of feature"
The film rights to the Lecter character were owned by producer couple Dino De Laurentiis and Martha De Laurentiis. After producing the first Lecter film, Manhunter, in 1986, they allowed Orion Pictures to produce The Silence of the Lambs free without their involvement. When The Silence of the Lambs became a success, the couple became eager for a new Lecter novel they could adapt. After a lengthy wait, De Laurentiis received a call from Harris telling him he had finished the novel and De Laurentiis purchased the rights for a record $10 million.
In April 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported that the budget for an adaptation of Hannibal could cost as much as $100 million. It speculated that both Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins would receive $15 million each to reprise their roles and that Demme would receive $5 million to $19 million. Mort Janklow, Harris's agent at the time, told the Los Angeles Times that Foster, Hopkins, and Demme would soon receive manuscripts of the novel, claiming it would make an unbelievable film. The novel sold out of its initial 1.6 million print run in 1999, and went on to sell millions of copies.
Demme declined the invitation to direct, as he reportedly found the material lurid and too gory. In the 2010 Biography Channel documentary Inside Story: The Silence of the Lambs, Demme said: "Tom Harris, as unpredictable as ever, took Clarice and Dr. Lecter's relationship in a direction that just didn't compute for me. And Clarice is drugged up, and she's eating brains with him, and I just thought, 'I can't do this.'" De Laurentiis said of Demme's decision to decline: "When the pope dies, we create a new pope. Good luck to Jonathan Demme. Good-bye." He later said that Demme felt he could not make a sequel as good as The Silence of the Lambs.
Ridley Scott De Laurentiis visited Ridley Scott on the set of Gladiator and suggested he direct Hannibal. Scott, who was conducting principal photography on Gladiator, thought De Laurentiis was speaking about the Carthaginian general and replied: "Dino, I'm doing a Roman epic right now. I don't wanna do elephants coming over the Alps next, old boy."
Scott read the manuscript in four sittings within a week, seeing it as a "symphony", and expressed his desire to direct. He said: "I haven't read anything so fast since The Godfather. It was so rich in all kinds of ways." Scott had reservations with the ending of the novel, in which Lecter and Starling become lovers: "I couldn't take that quantum leap emotionally on behalf of Starling. Certainly, on behalf of Hannibal—I'm sure that's been in the back of his mind for a number of years. But for Starling, no. I think one of the attractions about Starling to Hannibal is what a straight arrow she is." He also did not find the book believable after the opera scene, "which became like a vampire movie". Harris gave Scott permission to change the ending.
Writing Ted Tally, screenwriter for The Silence of the Lambs, was another key member of the Silence of the Lambs team to decline involvement. Tally, like Demme, had problems with the novel's "excesses". David Mamet was the first screenwriter to produce a draft, which, according to Scott and the producers, needed major revisions. Stacey Snider, co-chairman of Universal Pictures, said: "There's no way David was going to read 15 pages of our notes and then be available to work on the script day-to-day." A script review at ScreenwritersUtopia.com describes the Mamet draft as "stunningly bad" but found Zaillian's rewrite "gripping entertainment". Scott praised Mamet as fast and efficient, but said he passed on his draft because it needed work and he feared Mamet, who was soon directing his own film, would be too busy to redraft it.
Steven Zaillian, writer of Schindler's List, initially declined to write Hannibal, saying he was busy and that "you can almost never win when you do a sequel". He changed his mind, as "it's hard to say no to Dino once and it's almost impossible to say no to him twice". Scott said there were "very few rewrites once I brought in Steve Zaillian ... If you were to ask who were the best three screenwriters in the business, Steve Zaillian would be one of them. We discussed Hannibal endlessly." One of Zaillian's key objectives was to revise Mamet's script until it pleased all parties, meaning that the "love story" would be told by suggestion instead of by "assault". Scott worked through the script with Zaillian for 28 days, making him "sweat through it with him and discuss every inch of the way with him". After 25 days, Scott realized that Zaillian was "exorcising the 600 pages of the book. He was distilling through discussion what he was gonna finally do ... Frankly I could have just made it."
Casting It was unclear if Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling) and Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter) would reprise their respective roles for which they won Academy Awards in The Silence of the Lambs (Best Actress/Best Actor). Both Hopkins and Foster had expressed interest. It became apparent that the producers and the studio could do without one of the original "stars" and would go on to find a replacement. The withdrawal of both Foster and Hopkins could possibly have been terminal for the project, however. De Laurentiis confirmed this after the film's release: "First and foremost, I knew we had no movie without Anthony Hopkins."
Involvement of Jodie Foster