GERMANY: ANTHONY HOPKINS ATTENDS SCREENING OF FILM "HANNIBAL" AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 390913

  • Title: GERMANY: ANTHONY HOPKINS ATTENDS SCREENING OF FILM "HANNIBAL" AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 11th February 2001
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 11, 2001 (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) scu (SOUNDBITE (Italian)GIANCARLO GIANNINI "It was a great honour for me to work with Anthony Hopkins. To work with a great actor is always very emotional. I think choosing Florence as scene setter worked very well."
  • Embargoed: 26th February 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA4Z02EVJ7WHUESJK51IISGUPRE
  • Story Text: Dr. Hannibal Lector alias Sir Anthony Hopkins has paid a visit to the Berlin Film Festival. "Hannibal" left no corpses behind, but a large crowd of screaming fans.
    Anthony Hopkins was accompanied by costar Giancarlo Giannini as he attended the Berlin Film Festival to present his latest movie "Hannibal".
    Once again, Hopkins plays the brilliant yet unspeakably evil Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a diabolical serial killer whose trademark is his habit of eating his victims. At the end of "Silence of the Lambs," he escapes from imprisonment and the new film picks up ten years later.
    Sitting this one out is Jodie Foster, who won an Oscar for playing FBI agent Clarice Starling. After a painstaking and very public casting process, the filmmakers settled on twice Oscar-nominated actor Julianne Moore to pick up the role.
    The film starts out with Starling's career in jeopardy because of a botched drug bust. Her turmoil draws the attention of Lecter, who is currently living in semi-retirement in Florence, Italy.
    Also figuring into the plot is the horribly disfigured millionaire Mason Verger, Lecter's sixth victim who survived his encounter with the cannibal only to lead a life of misery sustained by state-of-the-art medical equipment. Although barely recognizable and not credited, Gary Oldman spends the film under loads of prosthetics as the bitter man of wealth.
    It is Verger who propels the plot to capture, humiliate and destroy Lecter, first by offering a reward to an opportunistic Italian police detective played by Italian screen veteran Giancarlo Giannini, and later by convincing Starling's boss at the FBI, played by Ray Liotta, to use her as bait to lure Lecter out of hiding.
    Also new to the series is director Ridley Scott, currently basking in praise and multiple award nominations for his work on last summer's hit "Gladiator." Scott filled the director's chair after "Silence of the Lambs" director Jonathan Demme turned down the chance to reprise his role.
    As with the first film, "Hannibal" is based on the best-selling novel by author Thomas Harris, who waited almost ten years to pen a follow-up tale featuring Lecter and Starling. While the film contains many of the book's controversial and graphic scenes of gore, it does deviate from the novel at several points, most notably in the ending.
    ENDS
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