Hannibal in RED DRAGON
© 2002 MGM

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Dragon Slayers

When writer-director-producer Michael Mann's MANHUNTER came out in 1986, it was regarded as a cool little thriller notable as much as anything for its '80s pop soundtrack and future C.S.I. star William Petersen's intense performance as a burned-out former FBI agent on the trail of a cunning serial killer. Mann's effective, if not particularly faithful, adaptation of Thomas Harris' 1981 novel RED DRAGON was also the second solid film based on Harris' work, following John Frankenheimer's well-received 1977 screen version of the author's terrorist suspenser BLACK SUNDAY.

Oh yeah, MANHUNTER also had an intriguing minor character played memorably by British actor Brian Cox: an imprisoned second psychopath by the name of Hannibal Lecter. (Actually, he was spelling it "Lecktor" back then.)

Sixteen years later, expectations for a new film version of RED DRAGON bearing Harris' original title are vastly different than they were for Mann's take on the same material. As anybody with the slightest interest in the genre knows, director Jonathan Demme's gripping 1991 adaptation of Harris' sequel, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, went on to become one of those rare films that achieves both blockbuster commercial success and top industry accolades, sweeping the Academy Awards with Oscars for best picture, Demme's direction and Ted Tally's screenplay adaptation, as well as best actor and actress honors respectively for Anthony Hopkins' searing take on Lecter and Jodie Foster's unforgettable work as FBI newbie heroine Clarice Starling.