Cool News
News about HANNIBAL... Hopkins is on... filming in March 2000!
Alright... no more of this Tim Roth bs! YEAH! Ol Scott Lecter below extracted the latest morsel of info about the upcoming film version of Thomas Harris' HANNIBAL from Hopkins' own lips on ACCESS HOLLYWOOD. So be happy... Looks like the film is beginning to take shape. Talks with Moriarty have produced NO NEW INFORMATION, as the common belief is he is slacking on this subject that he was once excited about. Though... of course the promotion of another... enemy evil genius may be counter-productive to his own chances to rule the world. So... we'll have to wait and be at one with our universe awaiting the next bite of information...
Here's some news you might want to know on Dr. Lecter and Anthony Hopkins.
It can be found at my site SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - THE SEQUEL SITE and also in the
'Hopkins Mailing List'.
...he was on Access Hollywood [9/24/99] because he narrated the Sigfried and
Roy IMAX movie that opened Friday in NY (or LA, I'm not sure), and they asked
him about HANNIBAL and he said that he's definitely gonna play Lecter and
that he's heard the script is amazing, but he doesn't have a final copy. He
said that he should have a finished script in 2 or 3 weeks and at that time
he and Jodie and Ridley would get together and discuss. Jodie will prolly
decide at that time what she's gonna do. And I read somewhere that the
expected principal photography start date is March 2000.
They said he seemed enthusiastic about it. A brief description of what he's
looking like lately: longer than usual hair, length to a little over his
shirt collar (when he did SoL, his hair was this long in the screen tests).
And they said he's looking GOOD and looks like he's lost some weight.
Thanks so much. I hope you can use it.
Scott Lecter
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I hope they keep the ending of the book. It all makes sense if u read all three books in a way.
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Okay, this is cool, and I really hope Jodie says yes, although if the ending is at all like the book I can definately see her saying No. And this is the big question. What is the new ending? Any ideas anyone? I was somewhat disappointed (but unsurprised) to find out that they were getting a new ending - I really wanted to see them try to do that ending. But if Harris has written it, I'll be satisfied, as long as it's not too happy. **** www.homestead.com/vertigofilms/
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makes no damned sense at all...one of the sites I log into calls it the most thorough betrayal of a writers characters ever seen. I could not agree more.
If the ending stays the same, I refuse to see the movie. Hell, if the STORY remains the same, I am most likely not interested. -
Hey, let's make a sequel! Thomas Harris should know better. The great thing about SOTL was that you WERE LEFT WANTING MORE. Leave on a high note! All HANNIBAL will do is tie up loose ends that didn't need tying, add in unnecessary character traits, and generally spoil the good icky feeling we had about the original.
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. . . in all seriousness. I have not read Hannibl, but those close to me who have say it's either not very good, or just flat out horrible. I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm just wondering if a) people liked it, and b) should it be made into a movie. I have to admit, I was abit disappointed when I heard the book was coming out, because it seemed like it was unnecessary, and an obvious play for more attention by Harris. I don't think he's all he's cracked up to be, especially since I recently read that sodden piece of shite - Black Sunday.
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This is what it's all about. Hopkins as Lecter is one of the best roles ever and even pretty Jodie (shame she's a carpet muncher) Foster will be in it to. I'm in serial killer heaven.
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Hey pal, calm down! I have never seen an interview with Hopkins where he says he hates to act, I have never heard him say it personally, in fact he is one of the classiest and loveliest human beings I have ever worked with (He did overdubs for Siegfried and Roy in Vancouver at Sharp Sound, they shot "The Edge" and "Legends of the Fall" near my hometown and I was priveleged enough to work with him on all of those, and guess what, he remebered me from the first time). Think before you speak, if you hate him, hate him, but don't make up reasons to hate him! He loves acting!
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TO: David Mamet
FROM: Me
RE: "Hannibal"
The best way to adapt "Hannibal" for the screen is to ignore everthing between the copyright page and the final endpapers. Thomas Harris has written a new ending? Beter he should have written an honest piece of work. As somebody else here points out, "Hannibal" treats Lecter as a superhero with somewhat regrettable dietary habits. Sure, he kills people, but they're all nasty and disgusting types, and he gets to dispatch them with little witticisms just like the robot sadists in any number of lousy Hollywood films. In "Silence," Lecter was a contradictory study in the fascination of evil; there was spooky magic as he burrowed into Clarice Starling's soul, and foreboding as you wondered what he would do when he found what he was looking for. "Hannibal" is simply junk, written to cash in "Silence," and anything a screenwriter does to alter and upgrade it is fine. -
Fair enough!
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The ending of the book was pure hack work, written as though Thomas Harris were falling asleep and incoherent at his typewriter. The ending betrays everything that he had previously written to establish his characters. It didn't belong. It's as if SAVING PRIVATE RYAN ended with a musical number. It made no sense for these people to do what they did. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER................Okay, you've been warned. Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling run off together, eat her old nemesis, and live happily ever after in the lap of luxury in a nice quaint fairy tale ending.....What the fuck?! Totally out of character. It doesn't belong. If it's meant to be played as camp, that doesn't belong either. Additionaly the story is not what he does bet. What he does best is following the FBI track serial killers(SILence of the LAmbs & Red Dragon) This is a character study that in the end is completely out of character. I know he had to write a sequel. There was a lot of money to be made. But, it's clear he didn't have one in him.
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I agree with Geophyrd. I read Hannibal and the ending was atrocioius, horrendous and a betrayal of the characters that I had never seen before.
Contrived doesn't begin to describe the ending. And though Harris is marvelous at detail, especially in conveying sensations like olfactory and taste, there are some flaws and cracks throughout the book that before were unnoticeable and now are glaring because the of his ending.
I enjoyed Anthony Hopkins in the first film and would prolly enjoy him again, but PLEASE CHANGE THE ENDING for movie! -
Anthony Hopkins doesn't actually hate acting. He said he hated acting in movies and all the fuss about them. So his thoughts was that he would quit movies and only do a play at theatres once in a while. And really, isn't that his own bloody decision ? Who needs you people to call him all sorts of things just because he's tired of the fucking movie making factory. The fact is that an actor is not only a guy who's in a movie or didn't you know that ???
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Revering as I do Anthony Hopkins' acting abilities, I hesitate to say this, but someone else should play the part of the Dr. in the sequel. Lecter's had plastic surgery in this one, how else could he go anywhere? Get someone else to play the part, and let Sir Tony do the voice. I suppose it could work if he slimmed way down, but hey, he's getting old and it's harder to buy when he plays characters that are supposed to command tremendous physical strength. (see--the young Don de la Vega in Zorro, too old!)
Regarding the ending (ready your fire, persecutionists), it was bloody awesome. A deeply cool and twisted way to end the thing. I don't think that Harris began to doze off while writing the end, and pulled the finish out of his ass, as some seem to feel. I think it's the creepiest way he could have ended it, and while it could appear on the surface to be "fairy-taleish" or "happily-ever-afterish," underneath it drips with a very disconcerting eeriness. The ultimate example of Lecter the cat manipulating Starling the mouse. -
The book had a great ending...for me to poop on.
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I read that in the paper a few months ago and in EW, but I can't figure out what part she'll play.
The book sucked, it was such a let down and the ending-- is some kind of wack. I agree with the poster above...its a great great novel FMTPO!
I do hope they change the ending, and how are they going to get around the plastic surgery bit?
overall for those who haven't read the book, its graphically disturbing (a la American Psycho) and except for right before the end--there's hardly any suspense.
SPOILER////SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!
The whole nose eating thing, still grosses me out. As well as the chilled brain (which I don't understand how the guy was alive at all) END SPOILER!!
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This rumor got started when at a press conference she was asked what female roles she wished she could have done and she responded that she would have loved to play Clarice Starling, saying it was such a great role. Some one misheard or by the time it was passed along, heard it differently as she was going to play Clarice Starling. So it was printed and later retracted. She cleared this rumor up a while ago
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Sep 28, 1999 3:08:09 PM CDT
Does this mean Disney is not making the animated version?
by darth siskel
Damn.
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...he's right about 'manhunter', which IMHO is better than 'silence'. don't get me wrong, 'silence' is pretty cool (and ted levine's fucking creepy buffalo bill kicks the crap out of hopkins's lecter when it comes to getting under your skin) but michael mann burrows under the surface of the story's characters - brian cox's lecter is a suave but menacing sicko, tom noonan's dollarhyde is a pitiful monster, william petersen's will graham is just as fucked-up as the people he's tracking. i'm glad hopkins is back, and i hope foster makes a return appearance as well (because they're both good actors who work well together), but ridley scott better surround them with a top-notch support cast (bring on james woods as mason verger!). five-tone off to eat the flesh of his psychiatrist now...oops, did i say that or just think it. by the way, THANK GOD sarah michelle gellar's not involved with 'hannibal' - she's good as buffy but anything more than that is beyond her.
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For all of those people out there that said that Hopkins was sadistic, the characters were horrible and that the ending to the new book was disapointing, and especially for those people out there that said that SotL and Hannibal glorifyed murder and serial killers, let me ask you this: Have you actually seen the movie or read the books? Of course Hannibal is a bad guy. They say this countless times. He is not a hero, but he is interesting. Very interesting. Why is it that everyone thinks that because he is intelligent and calm and resourcefull he is worse than any other screen incarnation? No, he is not Freddy. No, he is not Jason. No, he is not a gangster or a rapist or some other movie thug. He is HANNIBAL LECTER. I mean are you gonna argue that SotL was a bad movie? Of course not. You know that no matter how much you hate Hannibal, no matter how much you despise him, the more you like him and the movie. That is how he is supposed to be. I mean, I don't hear anybody whining about Al Pacino being the devil because in Godfather II he killed Fredo, do you? No, because the movie was great, the acting was great and the characters were great. It didn't matter how many people Michael Corleone killed, you still loved him. Hannibal is the same.
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Im so glad everyone thought the ending sucked. It left a really bad taste in my mouth. I should've realised when the whole pig eats hannibal story-line was introduced that Harris was heading for a fall. I thought it was a just OK book and would make a terrible movie. I found it was too much about the Italian cop and only at the end about Hannibal and Starling. Please, dont make this movie.
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C'mon guys. You have to admit the best part of the book (other than the idea of Super Pork killing machines) was at the end when (SPOILERS) Hannibal removed that guys skull cap, exposing his brain, eating away at it while the man fades into a child like stupor (HAL reference?. That was creepy IMHO. A little over the top but a nice ending none the less. I really wanted Hannibal to get killed though. I mean come on...Remember how he talked that dyke sister into killing her brother (the man w/o a face) and letting him go? Puh-leeze. Hope in the next sequel they catch Hannibal and bitch slap Clarice back into the real world. Maybe Mamet will work his magic and work the script into something plausible. ElGuapo Out. P.S. Buy the new NIN album. It kicks serious ass.
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Have you all forgotten Manhunter ?
Mann is da man, great film.
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The film Manhunter was crap. Most obviously because they destroyed the end of probably the best fictional book written about psycopaths. (the book is called "the red dragon").
It's not the filmmakers (whoever that was) fault. It was due to the public wanting a good and happy ending, instead of an ending that would keep them horrified for weeks to come. Secondly, the film was patchy and Lector didn't come out quite as nasty as he did in the book. "The red dragon" shows Lector for what he really is. Not some anti-hero sort of good guy in a round-a-bout sort of way. But as a serious sicky with a personality disorder. -
Thank God.. as to the naysayers on this message board, well Lecter's an elitist, isn't he? Judging from the spelling and dumb comments, some of you are either in 5th grade (and your Mommies shouldn't be letting you read such naughty books) or your IQs are too low for you to have understood anything about 'Hannibal'. The vocabulary words alone would have ensured you were incapable of reading it. Stick with what you know, little fellas: Scream I, II, III, IV...
Oh, and Manhunter only exists as a footnote to Silence of the Lambs. Dumb people trying to inhabit "Pseuds' Corner" (this means you, Sarin Yadda-Yadda - oh, and it's POUF by the way, not PUFF). Jerk. -
I have to agree, the ending sucked, but the rest was very well filmed even if it did not capture the feelings of the book.
The photography was wonderful!
A good score, very 80s.
The public can be so dumb, hence Titanic's box office. -
Well put. A bit hostile, but still very well put. And as for the issue at hand - I don't get it. I loved SOTL. Really, truely loved it. I thought Manhunter was good, but I thought SOTL was better. Perhaps MAnhunter deserves a second look, but I dunno. It seems to me that some of the posters will crap on any movie that is very popular, even a masterpiece like SOTL. It's probably some sort of ego thing, but it gets a tad redundant after a while.
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MadBoy, my man, this is some sort of nerd's revenge trying to pretend Manhunter was better than Silence.
In the readers' poll in last week's Entertainment Weekly Anthony Hopkins didn't just win Best Villain of All Time for Lecter, he won Best Contemporary Actor too, beating out Ford and Hanks. Yeah, right, he's overrated. Baloney, he's the best actor there is and nobody who's ever seen Silence could imagine anybody else playing the role - plastic surgery or not.
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First of all , the book is written with the same flare as the other 2 . It's just that where the other 2 could happen , this one couldn't . To the point that by the time I was done reading it , I thought I was reading a James Bond novel . It's so full of unbelievable characters , all plotting for Hannibals' downfall , that it does look at him as a underdog/hero type . Not that I mind that , but the ridiculous plot is another thing .
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Most of you (not all) who deride "Hannibal", particularly the ending, simply did not get it. Clarisse did not have a change of heart and decide to join Dr. Lecter in his flesh eating-globe trotting-wine drinking lifestyle. It was Lecters mind control (along with alot of drugs) that turned her into basically a puppet for his pleasure. From the time she sits down to a lovely brain dinner, the story becomes somewhat surreal, much like the drug induced haze that Clarisse is going through. This is going to make a great film, if handled correctly. I can't wait to see what Mason Verger is going to look like on screen. Not to mention the culinary lobotomy!
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Just a few points:
1) H. Lecter & C. Starling are Thomas Harris's characters. He has not betrayed them, because they are HIS. Maybe he betrayed YOUR idea of the characters, but who cares about your ideas?
2) Anthony Hopkins has received his universal acclaim for a reason: People think he is a damn good actor. If you disagree, then don't go see his movies and then complain about them afterward.
3) If you didn't like how the book ended...who cares?? We all know the film will have a different ending. Maybe it would be more interesting to speculate on what that ending would be....?
my two cents. -
Perhaps betrayal is not quite apt a word, but authors can fail their characters.
A well crafted character isn't a robot or a marionette devoid of will, but a being with desires, impulses, personality, etc.
It's an author's task to exemplify these traits to the reader convincingly through dialogue and action. Trust develops between the author and reader because there's integrity.
But when the character makes a sudden left turn to fit the author's map (plot) that trust is broken. Intergrity is diminished because the author had forsaken his characters for the purposes of finishing up a story.
Yes they are the author's to do what he may, but at the cost of that author/reader trust. -
Those who cannot create, enjoy.
Those who cannot enjoy, review.
Those who cannot review, critique.
Those who cannot critique, criticize.
Those who cannot criticize, theorize.
Those who cannot theorize, boycott.
Those who cannot boycott, write "letters to the Editor."
Those who cannot write "letters to the Editor," vandalize.
Those who cannot vandalize, kick their dog.
Those who cannot kick their dog, post Talk Back rants about how everything they don't like sucks. -
Hello there.
1: I am Welsh
2: I am not a puff
3: I am a struggling actor
4: If you knew what acting in movies was like, especially after 30 or so years, you'd have blown your top once in a while.
The Combination of Scott and Foster and Hopkins is electrifying. If Mamets script is half as good as the book, it'll be a blockbuster. If Harris re-writes certain parts to make them less surreal, give Lecter the edge as well.. oh boy, David Fincher will have someting to worry about!!!!!
BRING IT ON!!!!!! -
Children, your ignorance of psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychopharmacology and.. human nature (of the female variety) is truly horrifying..
"What does he do this.. Lecter.. you seekkk?"
"He eats people".
"No, that is incidental. What need does he serve by eating people?"
"He subsumes their identities. It is psychoanalysis pushed to the hilt! He consummates (pun intended) transference!"
"Yes. He psychoanalyses. It is his nature".
"Mind control" drugs? Hocus-pocus? Bullshit. Lecter's a first-rate psychoanalyst with an appalling lack of self-awareness. Nothing in "Hannibal" is implausible - not even the transformation of Clarice from sexually repressed, emotionally isolated girl-woman with a penchant for shooting from the hip, to uninhibited, lucid woman with the insight to break through a brilliant man's psychosis using a Freudian injoke "a maternal breast substitute" to cure him. -
That book is FAR too gross to ever make it on-screen and I seriously doubt Foster will do a movie version as the book does not have a hero. American audiences are not going to watch a movie with FBI agents eating people and sleeping with other cannibals. So even IF Foster agrees to be in this horrid piece of dung, it'll flop hard core. Personally I hope it NEVER gets made.
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THE BAD: My neighbor is busy devouring the novel and typically insists on reciting all his favorite plot points to me each day. I wanted to think good things about the book...but as he gets further along in it, the more I begin to suspect that Harris has cranked out yet another entry in the tired superhuman-psychotic subgenre. (Discussion question: have *any* serial killers ever proven to be simultaneously: ubergeniuses, unstoppable killing machines able to slaughter highly trained men half their age, connoseurs of art and literature, etc.?) And after hearing the ending just now, it seems my worst fears have been confirmed. THE GOOD: David Mamet. Surely he can bring some sanity and genuine relevance to this production. 'Course, I bet anything his script will be rewritten all to hell. THE UGLY: "Fight Club." After this comes out, I think people will see just how shallow "Hannibal"s fetish with ubermenschen psychos really is, and how little social relevance it carries.
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Hannibal Superhero? I'm sorry, but have any of you bunch of illiterates even read the book? I think not (the movie novelization has not come out yet, has it).
Tell me one thing Hannibal Lecter does that a 60 year old genius (in good physical condition) can't do... huh?
Stop fiddling with your light sabers and learn to read. -
But I mean it in the best possible way. Harris has a writing style that is dispassionate and breezy, which poses an interesting juxtaposition to his subject matter. It was refreshing to be provided with an ending that did not satisfy or triumph. The images that are left etched in my brain by this book are deliciously horrifying. I'm amazed that Harris feels the urge to write down the truly sick thoughts in his head. Wild pigs trained to feed amid an ambience of recorded human screams? I can hear the grunting and rooting sounds coming from the pigpen right now. And Verger eating his own face while tripping his nuts off? . I vote for Jane's Addiction 'Pigs 'n' Zen' on the soundtrack.
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You're right, KittyKitty; we're all fucking morons for not bowing before the living god that is Thomas Harris. I can't speak for the others here, but my illiterate ol' self has been too busy reading pop-culture trash like FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM and THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF SENECA to pay proper homage to the transcendent genius Harris and his oh-so-original nutcase.
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Manhunter is a very good film ... Cox's version of Lecter is a bit more chillin' than Hopkins version. The discussion between " the hero and Lecter"... where they discuss how did our man capture Lecter ... "you had certain disadvantages. What disadvantages? You're 'insane'."
That was vey chillin' .. the over all effect of the film, the subtle ... even Lecter's cell ... the acting. "What did the doctor say was wrong with Lecter?" They say he's a psycopath... they don't know what else to call him." Michael Mann ... he's really good, a pro .. look at the man's resume "The Thief", "Manhunter", "The Last of The M ... damn i can't remember how to spell the word. I hate that .." and "Heat" the only problem this guy has is he does not make enough movies. Period! Silence of the Lambs is cool ... but it is a bit over the top ... when Jodi Foster's character goes to meet Lecter for the first time ... I was expecting to see the "Joker" in the next cell .. or atleast "Killer Croc" It was like a really cool Batman film ... and I don't mean that as a put down I really enjoyed it and have watched it repeatedly... it doesn't hold up it certain places ... it's more glamorize in its approach and that's not a bad thing. that's just what it is ... I don't feel as ... disturbed by it as I was with Manhunter. Has anyone seen "Henry the Portray of a Serial Killer?" Those were my two cents and some may believe that I am short of a dime after hearing them ... but what the heck... -
Who the .... oh fuck ... there's that damn cat .... pissin' on my oh so holy T.Harris novel ... "Animal" ... oh no that's wrong ... back to the Jedi school for me , but first I'm going to take my light saber and stick it right up that cat's #@$%^&*
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Thomas "Screw YOU - I'M making MILLIONS" Harris must be having the time of his life. First, he's ripped off his publisher AND everyone who purchased that sloppily written middle-brow baloney-fest "Hannibal", and now he has Hopkins agreeing to whore himself and actually play THAT role?
For those who haven't actually READ the book - don't waste your time, and CERTAINLY do NOT contribute to Harris's fortune. It's a mess - plain and simple. Any editor would blush at the errors. Any (normal) writer would be embarressed to see this in print. (Oh, and PLEASE don't tell me how Stephen "No Original Idea in Years" King praised it - it only makes things MORE depressing. They're all prostitutes together, I guess.)
I can't tell you how many "reviewers" think this Emperor has great clothes - if YOU don't think so, you must be un-hip or ignorant. Crap. I challenge anyone who thinks "Hannibal" is the greatest work in horror literature of this century (which is where that literary slut King placed it) to a little test of knowledge of what stuff is out there that HASN'T been made into big-budget, big-name movies.
Ah - damn. I hate it when Hollywood works like that.
Boycott the whole stinking, steaming heap of THIS movie.
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I don't want to piss on the parade here, but count me as a naysayer. I learned everything I wanted to know about those characters in "Lambs." Why couldn't they leave it a nice unresolved story, rather than writing out what's better left to the imagination. I guessing at best it will have the magic of GHOSTBUSTERS II. At worst, GHOSTBUSTERS the cartoon. You want to see a great psycho killer. see I STAND ALONE.
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I'm a pacifist. But it's still interesting to watch someone tortured and eaten on film. What isn't cool is people who pretend to be serial killers when they are not. When I come here and I see posts like "Hannibal Lecter is my hero" I get a little scared for people. You know. it's like the world is a little more dangerous than it really is. For everyone whose concerned. Don't be. it's just an illusion . You have to see past all that and see what those people are really saying which is: "I would like to take you on an emotional journey. come with me". I haven't read the book because i heard it ruined for me on the radio. I'm pretty glad it was too. Spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler. Don't read beyond this if you don't want the movie ruined. Spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler!.
When they get married at the end it is stupid.. I thought it was waaay too far fetched. spoiler ended.
If they make this film they had better change the ending. It's cool if they don't too, I'll still see the movie. Everythings cool. Because I condone strict Adaptation from book to Film and even if it isn't so good once, it would be good another time. It's a greater battle (Or maybe that's too harsh a word. Conflict is better) to get addaptations done well than to see one movie turn out perfectly. All in all I think you all make some really good points. -
Thank you for reviewing a book you haven't read and heard reviewed on the radio. That was worthwhile. Don't forget to let us know what you think of the radio review of the movie novelization when it comes out. Your insights into the workings of Hannibal Lecter's mind are invaluable.
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Only Marv seems to have caught on to the most obvious feature of "Hannibal" (and "Silence of the Lambs" too).
When the SOTL movie came out, it came in for a cross-burning from gay rights groups, Jodie Foster was dragged out of the closet, all because the secondary villain Buffalo Bill was portrayed as openly gay (if anyone that crazy can be said to have a sexual preference). Political correctness was in its infancy then and perhaps it wasn't politically correct to mention the fact that both the protagonists - Lecter and Starling - were obviously gay. Yet, Hopkins' performance as Lecter could only lead the viewer to assume he was gay (it would have been impossible for him to deliver THOSE lines in a macho way)and Foster's studied asexuality should have told the viewer that Starling wasn't just a tomboy.
The movie and the book of "Silence" should have prepared readers for "Hannibal". Does no one read between the lines anymore, does everything have to be set out in unequivocal terms?
The sexual charge Hopkins & Foster generated, the interview-seduction scenes were all the more subversive because it should have become obvious there was a sexual attraction between a gay man and a lesbian. Political correcters wouldn't touch that one with a ten-foot pole. General audiences allowed themselves to be seduced, too, but didn't want to look too closely at the mechanics of the relationship Lecter & Starling developed.
And gay audiences were obviously upset that the new, parallel-but-inviolable, alternative tradition that they had been trying to set up could be thrown for a loop by a cannibal and a Fed. As if that weren't enough, Harris throws in the Margot and Barney counterpoint relationship, just to blur the lines of sexual identity further.
Harris is the most subversive writer out there. -
You are one sicko MUTHERFUCKER...really...HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ...
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Well, suffice to say that I have read many comments on this latest installment in the Dr. Lecter saga and what I can say is that "Hannibal" was chilling, gruesome and genius.
Obviously, I had problems with the ending, similar problems that most of you have pointed out. What goes unsaid is the other 85% of the book and the horror that it portrays.
Mason Verger will go down in literary history as probably one of the most scary and frightening of all villains, and he was a villain to the core of his being. The section in which he mentally tortures a little biy disturbed me. Need I say more?
In criticizing any work, if one is an artist one has to be respectful with the language one uses to criticize another persons work. Respect is always a deep issue in any forum when another's work is involved.
Is the ending of Hannibal what we liked? Was it plausible? In my opinion, no. But that may be where the real genius lies. Clearly Thomas Harris knew what his audience would want. It is my belief that he thought that if Clarice ended up killing Hannibal, because it was something she "had to do", or capturing him, it's to easy, it's what we all expect. Being a writer myself it's about giving the audience what they do not expect and sometimes do not want. In this case Hannibal's romantic turn with Clarice did not fit. The Clarice that I knew from "The Silence of the Lambs" would clearly have nothing to do with a "sunset future" with Dr. Lecter at her side, it's just not her character. It's as if Mr. Harris decided she would become a different woman all together, because he could not think as to where he could take her. Again, he wanted to bring the story to a close, and in my humble and guarded opinion, he re-thought it to much and he had an incredible book with a lack luster ending. I personally think, besisdes the obvious, "How else could he have written it, without the giving his readers what they are already were expecting?" And that's a hard answer. Can you imagine writing a follow up novel to one of the most hailed books, and movie of all time? I, myself could not.
JamesPrater -
I am very relieved to see what most of you thought about the book. It had to be the most disappointing ending I've ever read.
Clarice runs off with Hannibal? It's almost like Harris was TRYING to write the worst ending ever.
Let's see:
Top 5 Dumb endings of all time
5. Rocky III (Mr. T Wins)
4. Dances with Wolves (He is devoured by wolves)
3. Blair Witch Project (It's revealed that it's BIG BIRD that is chasing them)
2. Schindler's List (Schindler last line is "This pin could have saved another life...but I'd rather have the pin.")
1. Hannibal
I was completely relieved to hear that Hollywood was "revising" the story and hacking the ending.
With that said, up until the last few chapters, I found the rest of the story to be very interesting. Verger will be exciting to watch on film (thou I was hoping Christopher Walken would get the part instead). But I'll be see this film to watch Hopkins, NOT to support Harris's book. It's a sad day when fan's of the characters have to HOPE that Hollywood fixes the story (as opposed to ruining it)
Another reason to see the film will be Mason Verger. Verger makes Hannibal look like a Catholic Schoolboy in comparsion. This guy is a frickin NUT!
But lets get one thing straight...I will NEVER buy or read another book by Harris...what a loser. Everyone associated with Hannibal should be fired and replaced. How could anyone have read that ending and okayed it for publication?
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Hannibal may be done, but the screenplay will have to be quite a different (perhaps downright dishonest) portrayal of the novel in order to get Jodie Foster on board.
I just cannot see Foster doing some of the things the novel's Clarice Starling does, such as:
1. Starling's shooting of the 5 drug dealing, cop-killing scum-bags was done in a very un-PC way. It would never go over with some of the sheeple on the left that make up Foster's fan base. That'll have to be dropped from the screenplay.
2. The eating of the Starling's evil nemisis at the end was also very un-PC.
It's one thing to portray an amoral, young teenage prostitute. But I don't think Foster's got the guts to portray a wronged FBI agent who responds in such a wonderfully Machiavellian (and perhaps justified) way.
We shall see. Hannibal is great novel, BTW. It's long, but worth it. . .
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The book was excellent. People have obviously not understood the ending. I can only assume people wanted 'The Diaries of Hannibal Lecter' like Thomas Harris was some comic book author. His work is tight, eloquent and a clear evolution of Red Dragon/SOTL.
The film CANNOT be made without Hopkins and Foster, and should not even be discussed without them.
Dont rush making it - we are happier to wait than to be disappointed. Censorship of the story is inevitable but those that attempt changing the story had better take a hard look at way SOTL was global and Manhunter was not.
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