How and Why did Jodie Foster think she was too good to do a Hannibal sequel in 2000?

Hannibal sucked anyways. She dodged a bullet.

She objected to the gore and excessive violence compared to Silence of the Lambs. Thus we ended up with Julianne Moore. Seriously.

Both Foster and Jonathan Demme did not like the direction Clarice Starling had taken in this storyline and thought it was a betrayal of her character.

If I had to guess, she doesn't seem like the sort of actor who feels she must say yes to everything, to keep her name in circulation, to not be forgotten when the next good role comes along. Her drive for.money and fame sees measured rather than endless. I reckon she didn't want to be inescapably associated with a franchise role. And I would say she is someone who is able to say when she's had enough of a thing.

Cuz she doesn't need the money? And she was trying to get pregnant in 2000 and gave birth in 2001?

Anthony Hopkins made no bones about doing as many films as possible for money during this period. Strike while it's hot - he knew at his age that fame can come and go and they were offering him really huge paychecks.

I understand OP’s sentiment. It’s not like the film didn’t have a good crew behind it. The book was decent and an international best seller, it was being adapted for the screen by friggin David Mamet and Steve Zaillian—you can’t come up with a better writing team than that. Ridley Scott was directing fresh off Gladiator. And Anthony Hopkins would reprise his role as Lecter. It was one of the most highly anticipated projects in recent memory and went on to become one of the biggest films of the year. For Jodie to turn it down is the height of absurdity.

[quote] For Jodie to turn it down is the height of absurdity.

The [italic]height![/italic}

Mary!

I don’t blame her. Thomas Harris sent her a copy of his recently finished, but not yet published book Hannibal and she didn’t like that Starling and Lecter wind up having sex and running away to South America.

Nobody else did either. They didn’t use this ending.

We ended up with Moore R2 because Hopkins had recently worked with her on that Pablo Picasso movie that flopped.

He suggested her. Also, Cate Blanchett passed on it.

Lots of things get left behind when it comes to adapting books for film, R8. That should’ve had nothing to do with it. The only thing that matters is the script and a sex scene with Clarice and Dr. Lecter was never even considered.

I thought I read somewhere that Foster refused to do it because she read the novel and hated what happens to Clarice. (see para. 6 forward).

Sorry, here's the link.

I'm sure had she read the screenplay she wouldn't have wanted to do the scene where Dr. Lecter opens up her drugged boss's skull and slices off parts of his brain he feeds to him.

It was an awful story and an awful screenplay. The film deserved to have sunk into obscurity. Foster made a wise choice.

[quote] For Jodie to turn it down is the height of absurdity.

How can you seriously say that when the movie was a piece of shit? The movie isn't scary or suspenseful, it's depressing and sick. The movie was rightly trashed all around.

For those unaware, Hannibal was an ever bigger hit than Silence, spawning two additional sequels and a network television series.

I walked out of this movie when Ray Liotta's brain was being served at dinner.

Gary Oldman was creepily repellent as Mason Verger

I read the book when it came out and saw the movie. I've watched Silence Of The Lambs countless times over the last 30 years but never felt the need to watch Hannibal again.

I have no recollection of this plotline which was seemingly erased from the movie.

[quote]e befriends Verger's sister and bodyguard Margot, a lesbian bodybuilder whom Verger molested and raped as a child. Her father disinherited her after learning of her homosexuality. Margot, who is infertile, tells him that she works for her brother because she needs Mason's sperm to have a child with her partner, Judy Ingram, and inherit the Verger family fortune.

[quote]Margot obtains Mason's sperm by sodomizing him with a cattle prod and murders him by shoving his pet moray eel into his mouth.

Literal lesbian erasure! Jane Lynch would have been amazing for that role.

R16, I was in middle school and was watching the movie with my friend and my dad. My dad wanted to walk out of the movie at that point.

R15, the movie may have made more money than Silence but Silence has stood the test of time. Hannibal has not. Who even watches Hannibal anymore? Silence is still talked about after all these years.

'Hannibal' was Thomas Harris' middle finger in some ways, having Clarice be initially brainwashed but ultimately discover herself as Hannibal's prodigy, lover, and ultimately partner. It's left ambiguous as to whether she balances him out to some kind of normalcy or they just become a serial-killing couple.

It's always the case that novels have more time to flesh out characters than any movie could, and it was certainly true here. The actors do a decent job with the flavor of the characters, and I think reading the book and seeing the movie complement each other in this case - basically just pick which ending you prefer.

R16 Tell us you’re a Mary, without telling us you’re a Mary.

I'm a Hannibal apologist. I think it's a beautiful movie and Moore, Hopkins and Oldman all did a great job. I can understand why Foster turned it down because the plot is ridiculous and Clarice Starling is not the main focus.

She also won an Oscar for SotL so why taint that success with an inferior movie?

[quote]I've watched Silence Of The Lambs countless times over the last 30 years but never felt the need to watch Hannibal again.

This.

[quote]She also won an Oscar for SotL so why taint that success with an inferior movie?

Go fuck yourself, r22

Because she insisted Kristy McNichol get a part and the producers refused.

Terrible book and screenplay. Glad she declined

[quote]Lecter brings Starling to his home in Maryland and attends to her wounds. Over the course of a few days, using a regimen of psychotropic drugs, hypnosis and cognitive therapy, he attempts to help Starling heal from her childhood trauma and her pent-up anger at the injustices of the world. His therapy culminates in a session where he presents her with her father's exhumed skeleton, allowing her to confront the displaced anger and abandonment issues stemming from his murder.

Jesus fucking Christ

[quote]Soon after, Lecter captures Krendler with Margot Verger's help and proceeds to lobotomize him during a dinner in which he and Starling eat Krendler's prefrontal cortex before Lecter kills him.

Jesus fucking CHRiST

Why ruin a good thing? With the exception of some comic book movies (where the bar is often lower to begin with), sequels are rarely as good as the originals.

Jesus Christ!

Jesus H. Christ!

Slightly off topic but kind of related — I watched the Silence of the Lambs prequel Manhunter this weekend—1986 film directed by Michael Mann. I actually really liked it, it’s like a Miami Vice/Silence of the Lambs mashup.

Hannibal was dumb trash and Foster made the right decision. But I also dont fault the actors who were in it — get the check!!

I hate how they completely changed the Clarice character. It felt like it totally went against everything that she stood for in Silence.

[QUOTE] Hannibal was dumb trash and Foster made the right decision. But I also dont fault the actors who were in it — get the check!!

Jodie Foster would’ve gotten the biggest paycheck of her life. She had those execs bent over the conference table pants down and no vaseline. She’d still be spending that money. And she’ll never see a payday like that again. So no, it wasn’t the right decision.

I was molested by Foster Brooks.