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

I thought this was excellent. I really like how the characters are closer to what they were in the books. I've always thought they made Graham too tough in the other adaptions (don't get me wrong Manhunter is still one of my favorite movies).

I'm in agreement with Chrono about hoping it doesn't turn into another crime drama. It definitely could get really formulaic if they don't delve into other aspects of the storyline. It's got a lot of potential.

At least with this and The Following crime shows are thinking a little outside the square.

I'm still an episode behind on this show but I'm not sure what to think so far. This isn't a reboot or remake but it still feels like that sort of thing. Which should make it really bad as at least reboots/remakes are movies. For the first two episodes I had the feeling that I've seen this before. Especially towards the halfway mark in the first episode. I thought I know where this is going. Sure there are a few gender changes and things that probably make this closer, I assume to the books. I've only seen Manhunter and the remake Red Dragon which I didn't like that much. I thought the second episode would be newer but it's not really. Except for one of those gender changes. Maybe the third episode will pick things up. But I can't imagine this show with Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal in jail. He is the best part of the show. The guy plays a great bad guy. His Hannibal is not as good as Brian Cox but it's different. I was sold on it when they cut to him enjoying dinner. The breakfast scene is also great. Yet, I can't see this show lasting more than one season. I find the lead kind of boring. He can't compare to William Petersen at all.

The second episode was a bit of a let down I thought but the third one has set things up for the season to get interesting. I dig how the show is delving into Hannibal's involvement/interaction with other killers... the films hinted at it but never really explored it fully. I can see Mikkelsen's Hannibal still being an effective character even from a jail cell because of this. This will last more than a season IMO.

Elvis will not know learn what happens next. NBC has canceled the next episode due to subject matter offensive to the City of Boston.

http://www.whogottherole.com/tv-news...canceled-36094

Sounded like it would've been a good episode. Guess it'll see the light of day on DVD/Blu-ray.

I thought The Following would be more offensive in regard to the people of Boston due to it's subject matter.

One of the best parts of Manhunter was the second jail/phone call scene. Part of the dialog is in the second episode of the show. Lecter has his legs up and he's just comfortable like he's not even in jail. Opposed with Graham getting beat down by all the death and crap going on. I believe there are shadows of bars in the background of Graham's hotel room. It's a great scene. The TV show didn't come near that.

I'm interested to see which direction they take this show.

The blurb from Brian Fuller sounds interesting.

"He went on to call the relationship between Graham and Lecter as "really a love story", saying "As Hannibal has said [to Graham] in a couple of the movies, 'You're a lot more like me than you realize'. We'll get to the bottom of exactly what that means over the course of the first two seasons". Fuller also stated that the show will adapt Harris' books, with Red Dragon being the basis for season four, and he wants to have other famous characters from the book series (such as Jame Gumb and Clarice Starling) provided that he can get the rights to them from MGM.

bahaha - All I can picture is him peddling sausages and singing "My bologna has a first name..." LOL


Hmm. That's interesting. I mean, I can understand cancelling the show if it had to do with terrorist bombing... But to be completely honest if they're cancelling it just because it's "really violent" - That is just silly to me. I mean - Come on - It's a HORROR show. Of COURSE there's going to be violence. Should everything in the horror genre come to a halt when awful things happen in the world?? Of course not - That way the terrorists win.

Ok, I was being glib with that last comment and maybe I'm just insensitive, but pulling it just seems silly.


Anyway. I continue to like the show. I thought that the last episode was really well-crafted and I look forward to seeing the developing relationship between Will and Hannibal. I think that the weakest link is Fishburne, though - I'm not convinced that he can actually act. He yells a lot.

I've been hearing really good reviews about this show and after reading all of the reviews in this thread, I think I'm definitely going to watch it now. Will report back with opinions.

I didn't know what to think at first but every episode just gets better and better and now I'm hooked I pray for a second season can't wait for the throw down between Lecter & The black guy who's name I can't remember.

I was getting ready to watch the 4th episode when I remembered here that it wasn't shown. This is really lame. I'm going to have to get the show on DVD now where I assume it will be uncut. NBC put up some lame web series with the edited 4th episode. And I'm in no mood to search around the Internet looking for bootleg versions of the episode since it aired in other countries.

I'm a couple of episodes behind - Not sure why but I'm having a hard time getting back into it... It's hard to explain - it's like it's intense, but not necessarily in a good way. Not a bad show by any means... Just having a hard time getting back into it.

Yeah, it's totally annoying that the webisode cuts the entire murder/detective story out and only leaves the parts about the Abigail/Hannibal relationship. The full episode was pretty good.

If you're brave, be careful what you click on.

http://www.watchseries-online.eu/201...-korsubkk.html

Note: this is a case where I don't feel bad about a little bootlegging. NBC stole the episode from us.

Grabbed the missing episode off TPB and will watch it tonight caught the web episodes but it was largely a waste of time and weak.

Last few episodes were great. Best thing on TV at the moment IMO.

Hannibal Renewed For Season 2

I'll wait for the Blu. Get it on discount most likely around Christmas. I like the way the show looks.

The show really does have a great look to it. The crime scenes are some of the best I've ever seen, rivaling Se7en for twistedness, but also strangely beautiful. Would look great in 1080i.

Just seen this so going to give it a go, just about to watch the first episode now.

It's a GREAT SHOW,but it being on NBC really holds Hannibal back,they can't really show how graphic some of the stuff he really does

i dont think you have to see all out gore, the character should be able to inspire chills, he is dr lecter after all. think hugh dancy as will graham is fantastic, he has the same sort of unhinged edge as william peterson had in manhunter.

I couldn't agree with you more, I am sooo addicted to this show!!

Oh yeah, I knew about it, and I'm impatiently waiting for it!! Love the show!!

Thank you, Vig! I was just wondering yesterday when the new season of Hannibal would be. I'm very anxious to watch it. Was majorly obsessed with the first season. Even bought a t-shirt. Lol

I dunno though. 2 was good too, but they sure are killing off a lot of characters... and I don't even mean the blood bath Han went crazy with in the finale. Katz and Chilton were frequently used characters in Red Dragon, so I can't help but imagine how the hell they're going to pull off that season without them...

Season 3 starts up tomorrow (Thursday, June, 4th)! I wasn't sure if I was going to look forward to it or not, but after watching the trailer, I'm fucking ecstatic. They're bringing in Dolarhyde already. They changed so much of the books as is though, why bother being canon now. At least the changes they're made have been entertaining thus far.

Season 3 Episode 1 "Antipasto"
 

SPOILERS

Bonsoir! The art direction in this episode was superb as per usual and the new setting brings some really beautiful visuals as well. Great to see Eddie Izzard return even if it's only in flashbacks or Hannibal's imagination. (Not quite sure which.) Their dinner table scene was fantastic especially the "It's only cannibalism if we're equals" line. Weird not having much of Will Graham or Laurence Fishburne in this episode. Gillian Anderson and Hannibal carry the episode well enough and it was interesting exploring their weird relationship. This episode wasn't big on gore but it was there in subtle doses. What it lacks in splatter in makes up for in eerie mood and atmosphere, suspense and some pretty disturbing imagery. The preview for the rest of the season looks insane I can't wait!

"Primavera"

SPOILERS

Great opening scene. Not only is there a good bit of splatter and gore but Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy were great together. Glad to get back to Will's story. The wave of blood, Will losing consciousness and the tea cup shattering in reverse were all really cool visuals. Will's dream sequence was also very trippy and the knife stabbing through his stomach from the inside made me cringe. I thought the scenes with the Italian detective were interesting. Will's hallucination at the il Mostro murder scene was really disturbing and I liked the reveal that Hannibal was watching him. The catacomb scenes were pretty creepy and I love what this show is able to do with mood and atmosphere. Preview for next week looks awesome.

"Secondo"

SPOILERS

Some excellent dialogue throughout this episode. The scene where the Italian guy takes the icepick to the head was fantastic. The fountain scene with the snails and lightning bugs looked incredible. Glad Laurence Fishburne is back. The Will and Chiyoh scenes were pretty good. The human firefly scene was just insane. Preview for next week looks interesting.

Brace yourself, Monkey Astronaut. Some terrible and devastating news to deliver presently.