Word: lecter
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...particularly gruesome serial killer dubbed the Red Dragon. During long nocturnal walks through a cotton field, Harris came up with an ingeniously creepy notion: Graham would seek expert advice from a murderer he had captured years earlier--the baddest serial killer of them all, one Dr. Hannibal Lecter...
...this, Universal can thank Anthony Hopkins, the erstwhile London stage actor now synonymous with the savage and intellectual Lecter. "He's Darth Vader," says Red Dragon director Brett Ratner. "He's Superman." Hopkins, who was paid more than $10 million for the leading role in Hannibal, was reluctant to revisit the part a third time. "My agent said, 'Do you want to do it?'" recalls Hopkins, 64. "I said, 'I've done two,' and he said, 'Well, it wouldn't be a bad idea.'" Not bad at all. For his supporting role in Red Dragon (as in Silence...
...Lecter, who once drugged a man and persuaded him to peel off his own face with a knife, has also incited some unseemly behavior at Hollywood studios. MGM--which owns the movie rights to Harris' Silence of the Lambs--threatened to sue before Universal rolled the cameras on Hannibal. MGM laid legal claim to the character of fbi agent Clarice Starling, who had been introduced in Lambs. Ultimately, Universal made MGM a partner on Hannibal...
...Hollywood is willing to do almost anything to keep the doctor in business, even if that means making the same movie twice. Michael Mann's 1986 thriller Manhunter was also based on the novel Red Dragon. Studios adore the Lecter movies because they share an attribute extremely rare among violent thrillers: fascinating female characters beloved by both actresses and female moviegoers. Jodie Foster won a Best Actress Oscar as Clarice Starling in Lambs; Julianne Moore stepped into Clarice's sensible shoes in Hannibal. Red Dragon's female lead is British actress Emily Watson (see following story), who plays a tough...
Despite the appetite for more Lecter movies, the $80 million Red Dragon almost didn't get made. "Hannibal was a big hit," says an agent, "but most people in Hollywood thought it was an awful movie that almost killed the franchise." With its baroque gore and pitch-black humor (Ray Liotta ate his own brains), the movie was jarring compared with the more subtle Lambs, which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. And even though Manhunter made peanuts at the box office, it is highly regarded by some filmmakers...