First Look

Lechter Circuit

by Gillian Flynn

Hannibal the Cannibal comes back for thirds in this exclusive preview of Red Dragon
HELLO, CLARI...Wait a minute. Anthony Hopkins chews up the role of Hannibal Lecter a third time - but as Red Dragon unfolds, Clarice Starling is still years away from whispery quid pro quos. Based on the first novel in Thomas Harris's Hannibal series (which was previously adapted by Michael Mann into his 1986 thriller, Manhunter), Red Dragon introduces the recently captured criminal. His nemesis: Will Graham (Edward Norton), the FBI agent who outpsyched the psychiatrist - and now needs his help finding a serial killer (Ralph Fiennes). "He's not the charming [Hannibal from Silence of the Lambs] and he's not the over-the-top Hannibal he was in Hannibal," says director Brett Ratner, whose film opens Oct. 4. "He's very angry - Will Graham put him away for life." One assumes just desserts await.

Photo Captions

1. Norton goes gunning with Mary-Louise Parker, who plays Graham's wife Molly.

2. Emily Watson as Reba McClane is blind -- literally -- to the madness of her murderous beau Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes). Joan Allen played McClane in Manhunter, but don't call Red Dragon a remake. "[That] film really had nothing to do with the book," director Brett Ratner. "My movie is a true interpretation of the original intention of Thomas Harris."

3. Ratner says big names like Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn were interested in playing the tattooed Dolarhyde: "I wasn't going to hire a known. I [thought] it'd be scarier if you've never seen this guy's face." The role required Fiennes to sit through six hours of makeup.

4. Graham and Lecter face off in the asylum gymnasium. "It's a relationship that contains both mutual loathing and mutual admiration," Norton says.

5. The screenplay by Ted Tally (Oscar winner for Silence) helped lure Anthony Hopkins back into his notorious jumpsuit and into an identical Silence cell. The actor says he has Hannibal down cold: "He has no pity, no reference to the world. He's a lonely, isolated figure."

6. As a troublesome tabloid reporter, Philip Seymour Hoffman (who originally circled around Fiennes' role) mixes it up with Edward Norton and Harvey Keitel (agent Jack Crawford, played by Dennis Farina in Manhunter).

7. Hopkins once again sinks his teeth into the juicy role of Hannibal Lecter

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