Lecter in Florence: Hannibal 2001

Hannibal (2001) is Ridley Scott‘s sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991), adapted by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian from Thomas Harris‘s 1999 novel. Ten years after his escape, Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) is living in Florence under a false name. Meanwhile, a disgraced Clarice Starling, now played by Julianne Moore in place of Jodie Foster, is pulled back into the hunt for him. Racing them both is Lecter’s disfigured surviving victim, Mason Verger, played by an unrecognizable, unbilled Gary Oldman. Gorier and more operatic than its predecessor, it broke box office records and grossed $351.6 million worldwide. Reviews were generally negative.

At a glance

Release date	February 9, 2001 (US)
Director	Ridley Scott
Writers	David Mamet and Steven Zaillian (screenplay)
Based on	Hannibal (1999) by Thomas Harris
Starring	Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta, Frankie Faison, Giancarlo Giannini, Francesca Neri
Runtime	132 minutes
Rating	R (US)
Budget	$87 million
Box office	$351.6 million
Franchise	Hannibal Lecter series: sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991); followed by Red Dragon (2002)

Plot summary

Ten years after Lecter’s escape, FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling is blamed for a drug raid that left five people dead. Her disgrace interests Mason Verger, a wealthy child molester whom Lecter once paralyzed and disfigured, and who has spent years plotting revenge. With the help of a corrupt Justice Department official, Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta), who resents Starling for turning down his advances, Verger gets her assigned to Lecter’s case, hoping she will lure him out of hiding.

Lecter, living in Florence as the library curator “Dr. Fell,” writes to Starling. Florentine detective Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) works out who Dr. Fell really is. Rather than arrest him, he decides to sell Lecter to Verger for a $3 million bounty, a decision that leads to one of the film’s most gruesome scenes, on the balcony of the Palazzo Vecchio.

Spoiler section: the ending

Back in the US, Verger’s men capture Lecter. Verger plans to feed him alive to specially bred wild boars. Starling frees him and is shot. Lecter carries her out of the pen as the boars devour the guards, then talks Verger’s physician into pushing Verger to the hogs instead. Starling wakes, sedated, in Krendler’s home, where Lecter serves a dinner of Krendler’s own sautéed brain to the still-living Krendler. Starling handcuffs herself to Lecter. As the police arrive, he raises a cleaver, but Starling then raises both intact hands to the police. On a flight, Lecter, his arm in a sling, offers a curious boy a taste of his packed meal: part of Krendler’s brain.

Production and behind the scenes

Dino and Martha De Laurentiis, who owned the film rights to Lecter, paid a record $10 million for Harris’s novel. Jonathan Demme, Ted Tally and finally Jodie Foster all declined to return. Tally objected to the novel’s “excesses,” and Foster confirmed her decision in December 1999. Scott was approached on the set of Gladiator. When De Laurentiis mentioned “Hannibal,” Scott thought he meant the Carthaginian general and joked that he didn’t want to do “elephants coming over the Alps next.” He read the manuscript in a week, calling it a “symphony.” But he couldn’t accept the book’s ending, in which Starling and Lecter become lovers, and Harris let him change it. Mamet wrote the first draft. Zaillian, who twice turned the film down, then did a major rewrite.

Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Gillian Anderson, Hilary Swank and Helen Hunt were among the actresses considered for Starling. Hopkins recommended Moore, his co-star in Surviving Picasso, and Scott said she “was always top of my list.” Christopher Reeve was offered Verger but turned it down. Oldman took the role, and Greg Cannom’s makeup left him without lips, cheeks or eyelids. Filming began in Florence on May 8, 2000, and lasted 16 weeks. Locations included the Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio, Washington’s Union Station, a market in Richmond, Virginia, James Madison’s Montpelier estate, where 15 trained Russian boars were housed, and the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Hans Zimmer worked closely with Scott on the score.

Release and reception

Released on February 9, 2001, Hannibal took $58 million in its opening weekend. At the time it was the third-biggest debut ever, the biggest February opening and the largest for an R-rated film. It led the US box office for three weeks and the UK for four, grossing $165.1 million domestically and $351.6 million worldwide, the tenth-highest total of 2001. Critics were less kind. It holds 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus calls it “superbly acted and stylishly filmed” but missing the two leads’ interplay, and 57 on Metacritic, with a “C+” CinemaScore. Empire found it “laughable to just plain boring,” while Time called it a “superior sequel” with “romance in its dark heart.” Many reviewers objected to its violence.

Legacy and influence

Hannibal was the first Lecter film in which he spends most of the story at liberty, and the first to move the series to Europe. Critics singled out its violence, and the brain dinner and the boars are among the series’ most graphic scenes. Variety found the script “quite faithful to the Harris blueprint,” apart from the ending and the loss of characters such as Mason’s sister Margot and Jack Crawford. Scott described the film’s underlying emotion as “affection,” and “rather romantic” in its dark way, an approach that divided fans of Silence. Its box office success led straight to Red Dragon (2002), with Hopkins playing Lecter for a third time. Ted Tally returned to write it, and his new script drew Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes, both of whom had disliked Hannibal. Harris’s characters later continued in Hannibal Rising (2007) and the TV series Clarice (2021). Ridley Scott also directed Alien (1979).

Trivia

Frankie Faison returns as the orderly Barney, making him the only actor to appear in every Lecter film up to that point, including Manhunter.
Oldman asked to go unbilled after a dispute over prominent billing.
The first trailer used footage from The Silence of the Lambs because filming had barely begun.
A UK poster showing Lecter wearing a “skin mask” over half his face was withdrawn as “too shocking.”
Moore underwent FBI training at the Bureau’s headquarters before filming.
A carousel was installed in Union Station at Scott’s request.