Hannibal Lecter headed to the TV screens
 

There was a time when Hannibal Lecter was a properly chilling less-is-more villain with minimal screentime and maximum impact. Gradually though, he's become everyone's favourite mischievous uncle, and we'll get to spend even more time with him when Gaumont's Hannibal series arrives on TV.

Hannibal is an inaugural project for the new LA-based outpost of the French film studio, and will be executive produced by Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, and Martha De Laurentiis, who was behind the most recent three Lecter films, Hannibal, Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising.

It's unclear whether original author Thomas Harris is involved.

The premise revolves around the back story discussed in Red Dragon (film and book) and Manhunter: the early relationship between psychiatrist Lecter and FBI profiler Will Graham, who can see inside the heads of serial killers.

Quite how this will play out week-by-week remains to be seen.

Are we looking at one story per season? Or individual stories about Lecter killing sprees and Graham on his trail? Or individual stories about Graham on cases, visiting Lecter for advice occasionally? Or a mismatched buddies double act, where Howlin' Mad Hannibal must be regularly sprung from the Baltimore State Hospital for another crazy adventure?

Whatever, there are no showrunners or writers attached so far, and no cast yet chosen to fill the shoes previously inhabited by Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox, William Peterson and Edward Norton.

well you are correct that hannibal lecter is arguably the best criminal mind role in the movies,I mean I get shivers and laughs out of hannibal helping detectives and fooling others he is quite the character he's just simply subtle evil at it's best,because I'm pretty sure the whole idea of the character of hannibal lecter is to make you like, hate,and be confused by him so as that you know that he is a criminal but, you never know his true intentions it is quite fun in a twisted way to try to unhinge this character's mind so yes,I would absolutely like to see hannibal lecter in a tv series because that would be more puzzling than every law & order,CSI,or cold case episode ever made in my opinion,I'm surprised noone replied to you besides me on such a greatly interesting subject, "that baffles me"!

Thomas Harris’ classic character is about to make the jump from feature film to small screen.

Hannibal, a Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) project, has been ordered direct-to-series by NBC. The 13 episode thriller will go back to the beginning, as suggested by the logline:

News of the network’s orders comes via EW.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Hannibal order is not that it went straight to series, but that Fuller has decided to focus on FBI agent Will Graham rather than the more popular agent, Clarice Starling. Of course, this makes sense if the story is going to take on more of an origin slant.

The pickup of Hannibal comes about a week after news that Fuller’s other project, The Munsters, has been shelved temporarily in order to fine tune it. The pilot will likely shoot this summer in preparation for a mid-season release in 2013.

Hannibal Lector coming to the small screen
 

"Hannibal" premieres tomorrow night at 10 EST on NBC. We'll see how it goes...

http://www.nbc.com/hannibal/?__sourc...WT.srch=Google

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.co...2-300x375.jpeg

Just heard a very good review of this on the Firewall & Iceberg podcast. Really looking forward to watching it.

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wat...king-dead-more

I don't know... I'm Danish, and I'm kind of sick of seeing Mads Mikkelsen in everything. He's not a bad actor, but sooo overused that I can barely seperate his characters anymore. But I guess you'd have to live in Denmark to have that problem.

Need Chrono's feedback before viewing.

I just had to look him up - I don't think I've seen a single one of his films. Reminds me of a creepier, older version of Cillian Murphy.


DVR'd it (can't stand commercials) - I'll watch it tonight and report back.

So I'd say the pilot was good... I haven't read any of the books so I don't have those as reference... Definitely formulates itself as a crime drama so if that's not your thing, then stay away.

The Pros:
-- Hugh Dancy is a FANTASTIC Will Graham - Fascinating and yet definitely off-putting. He really stole the show.

The Cons:
-- A little over-directed, but it could need to find its footing
-- Pacing seemed a little hyper but could be because they were trying to fit a lot into a single hour
-- Small qualm - Mikkelsen is a little *too* creepy, which my sound like an odd critique considering that he IS Hannibal, but this is before he's incarcerated and while he's still practicing psychiatry - Had me wondering, "How the HELL does this creep have clients?" He's great as Hannibal but I was expecting to see more Human less Psycho, especially when he's doing "normal" things like talking to a patient...

REGARDLESS, the end of the show really brought it together and I'm interested to see where it goes. My biggest concern is that this turns into *another* crime drama, but hopefully the source material will keep it more dynamic. I was actually disappointed it was only an hour - I wanted more.

Would love to hear others' thoughts.

He's in a million Danish movies (in Danish speaking roles)... and commercials, and tv shows, and whatever they can get him to show up for :D