FILM 2214: HANNIBAL RISING (2007)

TRIVIA: Actors screen tested for the role of Hannibal include: Hayden Christensen, Macaulay Culkin, Hugh Dancy, Rupert Friend, Dominic Cooper, Tom Sturridge, and Tom Payne.

"Lady Murasaki" (Shikibu Murasaki) is actually the name of an 11th-century Japanese novelist. Her "The Tale of the Genji" is regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese literature.

Thomas Harris's source novel was released two months prior to the film's release. He had worked on it as well as the screenplay concurrently, for fear that a Hannibal Lecter prequel/origin story would inevitably be written without his involvement. Film producer Dino De Laurentiis said "I say to Thomas, 'If you don't do [the prequel], I will do it with someone else... I don't want to lose this franchise. And the audience wants it...' He said, 'No. I'm sorry.' And I said, 'I will do it with somebody else.' And then he said, 'Let me think about it. I will come up with an idea.'"

Hugh Dancy was screen tested for the role of Hannibal and would later go on to star as Will Graham in the T.V. show Hannibal (2013) which acted as a prequel to Manhunter(1986) and Red Dragon (2002).

This is featured on the podcast With Gourley And Rust: HANNIBAL RISING

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