RETURNS

cover story
Brian Cox was the
original Hannibal
The Other
Hannibal Lecter
Think Hannibal is the second movie about
Hannibal Lecter, following in the freaky
footsteps of 1991’s The Silence of the
Lambs? Wrong. It’s actually the third.
In 1986, a little-known, but critically
acclaimed thriller called Manhunter was
released with the tagline “Enter the mind
of a serial killer…you may never come
back.” Sound familiar? It should. The plot
of this first movie was very similar to
Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins’
Lambs. In Manhunter, William Petersen,
who you might remember from last
year’s The Contender, plays an FBI agent
trying to track down a serial killer
dubbed “The Tooth Fairy.” Instead of
killing women and making their skin into
a dapper flesh suit like our chilling villain
in Lambs, this killer’s M.O. is to murder an
entire family at every full moon. Just as
Clarice Starling (Foster) seeks help from
psychologist/psycho Hannibal Lecter
(Hopkins) to get inside the mind of the
man she’s hunting in Lambs, so to does
Petersen go to Lecter for advice in
Manhunter. Only his Hannibal Lecter is
played by British actor Brian Cox, who
most recently played Hermann Göring in
the CTV miniseries Nuremberg.
All three movies are based on books
by Thomas Harris, although Manhunter’s
title was changed from that of the
book: Red Dragon. And each of the
movies was helmed by a different
director. When Ridley Scott (Gladiator)
signed on for Hannibal he was taking
over for Lambs’ Jonathan Demme
(Philadelphia), while Michael Mann
(Heat, The Insider) was the big boss
for Manhunter. —MW
book was a process of Hannibal
wooing Clarice Starling. The second book
was much more in the direction of a real
relationship between the two. It’s kind of a
love story, really. But in much darker tones. I
find the story far more interesting this time.”
He says Hannibal isn’t a horror film.“I’ve
never regarded Alien as a horror film,
either. I took on the task ’cause I loved the
dynamics and the characters and the
engine of the story — and what came out
of it was a very scary movie. Same thing
here. Because I think to attach the word
‘horror’ to a film of this calibre and to
Silence of the Lambs is not correct. I mean
there’s nothing wrong with horror films or
the genre, but I think that Lambs was
above that context. And so is Hannibal.”
Appropriately, the last word goes to
Hannibal Lecter himself. At that Italian press
conference, Hopkins likened this sequel to
a dark opera. “Lecter has a strange, bizarre
love for Clarice,” he explained. “It’s a yearning
he’s had for her for many years. It’s a dark
romance...about obsession.” Though he
wouldn’t elaborate further on the film’s
twists and turns, Hopkins did reveal that
we’ll see a new side of Hannibal the
Cannibal. “He’s a man who is bored by his
retirement from public life,” said Hopkins.
“He’s a little world-weary. Then, suddenly,
he hears that they’re after him again, and
he thinks, ‘Good — back into action!’”
And Hopkins thinks he knows why
Hannibal has become one of the most
enduring and genuinely terrifying screen
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famous 32 february 2001
Hopkins gets subdued in
Hannibal
villains in motion picture history. “Jungian
psychoanalysts would say it’s the shadow
that we have in all of us,” he says. “Or maybe
it’s his certainty, his calmness that we probably
envy. Some of the most colourful figures
in classical literature — Iago, Richard III,
Faust — have those qualities. They’re so
brilliant. They have no doubts. They have no
uncertainty. That’s what makes them charismatic
— they’re always in control.
“And so a film like this,” he muses, “gives
us a moment of coming close to the dark
side of ourselves. Just for two hours. I
believe a character like Hannibal Lecter is
part of all our darker, deeper shadows.
Deep inside.” F
David Giammarco is an entertainment
journalist based out of Toronto and L.A.
Moore takes a shot at playing
Clarice Starling