Just check your local theatre listings and there you'll see Red Dragon. In fact, the story behind the film starts earlier. Producer Dino De Laurentiis held the rights to Red Dragon and tried to interest Mann in the remake a couple of years ago. Nothing happened so De Laurentiis brought in Silence writer Ted Tally to rework the novel, expanding the brief scene with Lecter so that he would get more screen time. Tally's script was finished by May 2001 but Mann passed again and so did directors Michael Bay and Ridley Scott.
Eventually Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, The Family Man) came aboard and an initially reluctant Anthony Hopkins was talked into playing Lecter one more time. A reported $20 million payment certainly didn't hurt. De Laurentiis bypassed mere star power for real acting ability, filling the cast with Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ralph Finnes. Filming started in January and a mostly completed film was ready by mid-summer, showing to enthusiastic audiences in test screenings.
Who ever thought a serial killer like Hannibal Lecter would be a series film star? Perhaps it's reminiscent of the days when super-villains like Fantomas, Dr. Mabuse or Fu Manchu could fill movie screens and inspire best-selling paperbacks. De Laurentiis owns the rights to the character so there's certainly a possibility that there could be another movie in Lecter's future even if Thomas doesn't write another novel. Rumors this time are that it may be called Hannibal Returns and we know that sometimes the rumors are right.
By Lang Thompson
