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Hopkins on reprising his role in "Hannibal" + "Red Dragon": A "mistake"

posted 8 years ago by NEUTRlNO
4 replies | jump to latest

Q:

Now we often have sequels and reboots like this one [HBO's "Westworld."] Is there any character from your past that you would like to revisit?

A:

I made the mistake of doing two more [Hannibal Lecter movies] and I should have only done one. But I thought Godfather Part II was great.

Well, that escalated quickly.

From a recent, post-"Westworld" finale interview on EW (December 5th, 2016.)

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/12/05/westworld-anthony-hopkins-finale

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Now I feel vindicated for defending Jodie Foster's refusal to appear in TSOTL follow-up projects, when certain circles were viewing her as a picky, difficult "See You Next Tuesday"...

... And for rolling my eyes at those "Julianne Moore was better" threads. Yeah, she was better - at being in a poorly written, ill-conceived, mess of a movie.

Foster had the wise sense and integrity to say, "No thanks," to at least one "sure thing," $10-20M paycheque... and now Hopkins, in his twilight years, finally tells it like it is.

When both of your perpetual A-List stars are holding their noses and distancing themselves, you know you're sitting two piles of Hot Chinatown Garbage.

[Red Dragon, admittedly, wasn't that bad structurally... but - remove the spectacle of the Lecter phenomenon - it's just a run-of-the-mill trifle given the market saturation of this type of movie by RD's release.]

[–] zumannaruto 8 years ago

Took him long enough to say it.

[–] NEUTRlNO 8 years ago

... that tends to happen when you make two mistakes that net you $40M.

He had to make sure that Dino De Laurentiis was no longer around to blacklist him from the industry, at an age in which it wouldn't even matter either way.

Hope the lobster dinners and estate renovations were worth it ;)

[–] Woodgirl-661 8 years ago

No wonder Hopkins said yes to RD and Hannibal. They made him a ton of money. After all it is a job.
Not his fault that the people behind the filmation of Hannibal screwed up. Ridley Scott is a great director but not for Hannibal. Scott focused on the gore instead of the thriller aspect. And it is rather unforgiving that they messed up the ending as they did.
DeLaurentis is money-hungry and squeezed everything they could in the name of Lecter. In the end it is about making money. It is an industry after all. I thought RD was pretty good. Fiennes did great.

DeLaurentis and Fullers series was absolutely ridiculous. Thank god it is finished and I hope it will never see the light of day ever again.

[–] Edward_de_Vere 8 years ago

I made the mistake of doing two more [Hannibal Lecter movies] and I should have only done one.

I agree with Hopkins, but at least he was entertaining if a bit hammy in Hannibal.

In contrast, Red Dragon was a travesty of a film that wasted the talent of just about every cast member. Not only should Hopkins not have appeared in the movie, but it should never have been made to begin with, at least not until they could find a competent director.