Hannibal Lecter (franchise)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Hannibal Lecter franchise is built around a brilliant, cannibalistic serial killer whom police keep asking for help. It is a strange arrangement. The authorities need the mind of a murderer to catch other murderers. This character has moved from printed pages to cinema screens, to television networks, and even to a stage parody. How did a single villain support so many retellings? Why did some of them win the highest honors in film while others were met with scorn? And what happens when one story is told again and again by different directors, writers and actors?

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• 2. Thomas Harris and the Page

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  In 1981, author Thomas Harris published Red Dragon, and Hannibal Lecter made his first appearance. Seven years later, in 1988, came The Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal arrived in 1999, and Hannibal Rising followed in 2006. The longest wait, eleven years, separated the second novel from the third.

  Four films now form a timeline-connected set: The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, Hannibal in 2001, Red Dragon in 2002 and Hannibal Rising in 2007. The earliest screen version of Harris's work, however, predates all four and carries a different title.

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• 3. Manhunter and Lecktor

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  Director Michael Mann released Manhunter in 1986, the first adaptation of Harris's work, based on Red Dragon. Richard A. Roth wrote the screenplay.

  Brian Cox played the killer, but the film changed the character's surname to Lecktor. William Petersen played the investigator Will Graham. Tom Noonan played Francis Dolarhyde, the murderer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, and the film spelled his surname Dollarhyde.

  When the story returned to cinemas in 1991, the surname went back to Lecter and a new actor took the role.

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• 4. Five Oscars

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  Jonathan Demme directed The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, and it was the first film to cast Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. It succeeded with critics and at the box office alike.

  The Academy Awards then did something they had done only twice before. The film won in all five top categories: Best Actor for Hopkins, Best Actress for Jodie Foster, Best Director for Demme, Best Adapted Screenplay for Ted Tally, and Best Picture. Only two earlier films had swept those same five.

  Ron Bozman, Kenneth Utt and Edward Saxon produced the picture. Tally's script would not be his last visit to Lecter's world.

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• 5. Sequels and Prequels

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  Ridley Scott directed Hannibal in 2001, a sequel in which Hopkins reprised the role. David Mamet and Steven Zaillian wrote the screenplay. Scott produced the film with Dino De Laurentiis and Martha De Laurentiis. Julianne Moore played Clarice Starling, and Gary Oldman played Mason Verger.

  Brett Ratner directed Red Dragon in 2002, a prequel with Hopkins once again as Lecter. Ted Tally returned as screenwriter, and the De Laurentiises produced.

  In 2002, Hopkins revealed that he had written a screenplay for yet another sequel. It ended with Clarice Starling killing Lecter. It was never produced.

  Hannibal Rising reached cinemas in 2007, a year after the novel of the same name. Peter Webber directed it, and Gaspard Ulliel played the young Lecter. Harris himself wrote the screenplay, and Tarak Ben Ammar joined the De Laurentiises as a producer. Hopkins was no longer in the role. Of the four timeline-connected films, he had led three.

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• 6. A Rotating Cast

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  Ted Levine played Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. The character's real name in the story is Jame Gumb. Scott Glenn played the FBI chief Jack Crawford in that film.

  Will Graham and Francis Dolarhyde have changed faces more than once. Edward Norton played Graham in Red Dragon, while Ralph Fiennes played Dolarhyde. On television, Hugh Dancy took over as Graham, and Richard Armitage played Dolarhyde. Laurence Fishburne played Crawford in the series.

  The television version also brought in Gillian Anderson as Bedelia Du Maurier and Eddie Izzard as Abel Gideon. Its writers made one pointed change to the novels' world. They turned a male character into a woman, and that decision is where the television story begins.

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• 7. The Small Screen

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  NBC premiered Hannibal in 2013. Bryan Fuller developed the series, which was not a direct adaptation. It drew on characters and elements from Harris's novels. Mads Mikkelsen took the title role.

  The tabloid reporter Freddy Lounds became a woman, renamed Fredricka "Freddie" Lounds and played by Lara Jean Chorostecki. The show ran for three seasons and 39 episodes, ending in 2015. It won the Saturn Award for Best Network Television Series in both 2014 and 2015. In 2016 it also took the first-ever Best Action-Thriller Television Series award.

  A second line of television development focused on Starling. In 2012, Lifetime planned a series about her after graduation from the FBI academy, to be produced by MGM. The project was shelved without ever being picked up.

  CBS later developed its own series called Clarice, with Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet as producers. It is a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, set in 1993, with Rebecca Breeds as Starling. It premiered in 2021 and ran 13 episodes.

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• 8. Scores and Receipts

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  Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic show how widely the franchise's reception has swung. The Silence of the Lambs holds 95% on Rotten Tomatoes from 153 reviews and 86 on Metacritic. Manhunter stands close behind at 94% from 49 reviews, with a Metacritic score of 75.

  The later films fall off sharply. Red Dragon earned 69% from 191 reviews. Hannibal managed 39% from 172 reviews. Hannibal Rising sits at 16% from 148 reviews, with a Metacritic score of 35.

  Television tells a different story. The first season of Hannibal scored 82%, and both the second and third seasons reached 98%. Clarice, by contrast, earned 42% from 48 reviews.

  Financially, the Lecter films rank among the highest-grossing horror franchises in the United States. They hold that standing against a crowded field that includes Halloween, Psycho, Jaws, The Exorcist and Saw.

  In 2005, the comedian-musicians Jon and Al Kaplan turned their attention to the character. The brothers were best known for musical re-imaginings of popular films on YouTube. Their stage parody, Silence! The Musical, targeted The Silence of the Lambs, especially its film version. It premiered Off-off-Broadway.

  Acclaimed productions followed in London in 2009 and Los Angeles in 2012. That same year it won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for Score, Lead Performance and Choreography.

  In 2016, the rock band Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends released their second record, The Art of Murder. It was a concept album "directly inspired by the Hannibal Lecter series of books by Thomas Harris".

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