The Silence Of The Lambs Was Nearly Unable To Feature Its Scariest Character

There was a time — a very, very long time, in fact — when Anthony Hopkins's name was synonymous with Jonathan Demme's classic, "The Silence of the Lambs." The 87-year-old Welshman is too good an actor to be associated with only one movie for the entirety of his tremendous career, but as a young, cinema-loving kid growing up in the 1990s, alongside many others, it was the film that introduced me to him. He was already well-known in the business, but the role of Hannibal Lecter is what cemented his immortal status in the history of cinema. He wasn't even on screen that much in the film, but he's been the spectacle that drew most moviegoers to see it in the first place.

Without his psychotic and deranged performance, completely stealing every scene he's in, we'd probably talk about an entirely different movie. I mean, if you want proof, look at Michael Mann's "Manhunter" (also based on a Thomas Harris novel), in which Brian Cox plays Dr. Hannibal Lecktor. It's not a bad performance by any means, but it's light-years away from Hopkins. Nobody talked about it in the same way they did long after Demme's movie came out. Now, imagine "The Silence of the Lambs" without Hopkins's Lecter. You can't, can you? And yet, as history tells us, the character was nearly left out of the film adaptation due to rights issues.

The movie rights to Thomas Harris's first book in the Hannibal Lecter series, "Red Dragon," were bought by Warner Bros. and adapted to the big screen by Michael Mann with "Manhunter." Although his vision made for a solid film (with a terrific William Petersen in the lead role), it was a box office flop when it came out in 1986. It would take five years for its sequel to make it to the silver screen since no studio wanted to touch Harris' follow-up at the time. When Orion Pictures finally acquired it, many complications arose, which made its development period quite difficult.

According to an extensive interview (via Deadline) with Harris' book agent Robert Bookman, screenwriter Ted Tally, and director Jonathan Demme, after Harris published "The Silence of the Lambs," he had the right to sell "a one-picture license, but he would have to change character names and places." At first, Gene Hackman bought the rights (along with Arthur Krim at Orion), wanting to direct the adaptation and star as Lecter. Eventually, he dropped out because one of his daughters talked him out of it. Before he quit and sold half the film's rights to Krim, though, he gave Tally his approval to start writing the script, based on their discussions and notes.

Worried and stressed out, Tally was already a third way in with the screenplay (for which he hadn't gotten paid yet) for a movie that had no director or cast. Co-founder and producer of Orion, Mike Medavoy, reassured Tally, however, that everything will work out; he just needs to keep writing. Sure enough, once he finished the script, the studio got director Jonathan Demme on board. But, as Bookman recalled, there was still an issue with using the name Hannibal Lecter in the film based on Harris' initial deal. He explained,

"There was still the issue of Hannibal Lecter and Dino De Laurentiis [the producer who bought the rights for "Red Dragon"]. They tried to come up with alternate names, but nobody could think of a better one. I get a call. Would you mind asking Dino for the right to use the name? In my opinion, if it had been a studio, they would've told me to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. But Dino's a dealmaker and he says, no problem. He got some rights out of it, but I can't imagine that movie without Hannibal Lecter. If it had been another name, the franchise would not have had the same value."

Thank god for Dino De Laurentiis! At the time, it may've been just a name in a fictional story, but due to this man's easy-going attitude to cut a deal, we got one of the most terrifying villains of movie history. And you can't argue with Bookman, "The Silence of the Lambs" (and the franchise it created) wouldn't have been the same without the name Hannibal Lecter.