A quick little report from the Santa Barbara Festival Anthony Hopkins Award Ceremony...

Hello Harry I've been a visitor to your site for two years and I'm glad I have something to contribute finally.

I attended the Santa Barbara Film Festival event honoring Anthony Hopkins. He was present and gave an in depth interview with Leonard Maltin. Among the many topics that came up was the forthcoming Hannibal. What was interesting about this was that Jodie Foster, who lives in the area, was in the audience, not five feet from Mr. Hopkins. He said that he was very excited to reprise his role as he felt Lector is one of the great villains in film history, and a personification of the dark side within us all. He then pointed to Ms. Foster and said of his disappointment that she was not going to be along for the sequel but that he understood her decision. I found this interesting as I have been following on your site and others, Foster's decision to not do the sequel and the danger that put the production in. Yet there wasn't even a hint of animosity between the two. In fact they seemed to share a genuine friendship. He didn't say anything about Julianne Moore replacing her but it sounds as if she is definitely in because he said that they begin shooting in May in Florence and the East Coast. So it sounds as if Hannibal is moving forward very quickly.

Also attending the event was Edward Norton who presented the Lifetime Achievement award to Mr. Hopkins. He talked about the enormous influence Mr. Hopkins had on him as an actor and how he felt he could learn all he needed to know about acting by watching his performances. Then Sir Anthony got his turn to speak and called Norton the greatest actor of his generation, and compared him to Brando and James Dean. At which point Norton stepped behind the curtain out of embarrassment. These weren't fake Hollywood sayings, but a true respect between two great artists. All in all it was a great evening and an honor to be in the presence of one of the screens greatest performers.

Michael Mann, Jr.